External Affairs Officer

Job description

Job responsibilities

STAGE 1 - APPLICATION & SIFT:

You will be required to complete an application form and a statement of suitability. Your Statement of Suitability should outline your skills, experience, and achievements, providing evidence of your suitability for the role, against the essential criteria (outlined in the person specification section). Your Statement of Suitability must not exceed 1000 words.

Please note: The start date for this role will be within 4 weeks after interview, please confirm in the Statement of Suitability/application, if you would be available within a maximum of a 4 week time frame.

If you are successful at this stage, you will progress to an interview.

STAGE 2 INTERVIEW:

This competition will involve an interview via Teams

As part of the process, candidates will be invited to interview which will involve an in-depth discussion of your previous experience and professional competence in relation to the criteria set out in the Person Specification.

All applicants that progress to interview will also be assessed on behaviours / experience / strengths / technical / ability through Success Profiles.

The Behaviours tested during the interview stage will be:

• Seeing the Big Picture
• Communicating and Influencing
• Working Together
• Delivering at Pace

Expected Timeline:

Advert close: 23:55hrs 01/10/2023 unfortunately, late applications will not be considered. Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Interviews: W/C 16/10/2023

Please note these dates could be subject to change.

Eligibility Criteria:

Open to all external applicants (anyone) from outside the Civil Service (including by definition internal applicants)

Nationality requirements:

Appointments to roles within UKHSA will be made in accordance with the Civil Service nationality rules. These can be found athttps://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nationality-rulesThis job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• Nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• Nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• Nationals from the EU, EEA or Switzerland with settled or pre-settled status or who apply for either status by the deadline of theEuropean Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• Relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals working in the Civil Service
• Relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals who have built up the right to work in the Civil Service
• Certain family members of the relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's Recruitment Principles.

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment.

Security clearance level requirement:

Successful candidates must pass a disclosure and barring security check. Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is Basic Personnel Security Standard. People working with government assets must complete Basic Personnel Security Standard checks.

For posts on UKHSA Civil Service terms and conditions, new entrants to the Civil Service are expected to start on the minimum of the pay band. For existing Civil Servants and roles advertised across government, the rules of transfer apply, i.e., level transfers move on current salary or the pay range minimum, transfers on promotion move to new pay range minimum or receive a 10% increase. Either case is determined by whichever is the highest.

Please Note:

This role is to be appointed under Civil Service Terms & Conditions. Full details on the T&Cs are found https://www.ukhsa.reed.com/

Are you already a civil servant, or employed by a Civil Service Commission accredited public body? Please state home department on your application form.

Do you meet the nationality requirements for this post? https://www.ukhsa.reed.com/

The law requires that selection for appointment to the Civil Service is on merit on the basis of fair and open competition as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's Recruitment Principles. If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles, and you wish to make a complaint, in the first instance, you should contact UKHSA Public Accountability Unit via email:Complaints1@ukhsa.gov.uk. If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from the Department, you can contact the Civil Service Commission: Visit the Civil Service Commission website

Person Specification

Qualifications and Experience

Essential

• Experience in External Affairs/Government Relations
• Experience in supporting effective communications strategies, including stakeholder mapping, insight gathering and evaluation
• Experience of maintaining working level relationships with stakeholders from a wide range of sectors.
• Willingness to develop policy-specific knowledge in order to effectively understand the potential for new and existing stakeholder development
• The ability to prioritise and manage competing demands
• Proven experience assisting in the production of and co-ordinating high-quality presentations, speaking notes and briefing materials for high profile UKHSA speakers for conferences, webinars, roundtables etc
• A commitment to delivering world-class communications and championing best practice stakeholder engagement
• An interest in the public health sector, central and local government and the NHS, and experience of delivering stakeholder communications in a political environment.

Skills and capabilities

Essential

• Lead by example, communicate in a truthful, straightforward manner with integrity, impartiality and promoting a working environment that supports the Civil Service values and code
• Demonstrate excellent oral and written communication skills and set standards for communication.
• Analytical skills, including effective use of insight and evaluation data.
• Ability to recognise emerging issues and trends which might impact or benefit our work. Previous experience in working with the media would be helpful.
• An understanding of and commitment to UKHSA's values: Impactful, Insightful, Inclusive, including the need to listen to a range of stakeholder voices and to work in partnership with our people, our partners and across communities.
• NVQ/ SVQ in Business and Administration or similar diploma / certification in Secretarial and Administrative Procedures
• Ability to use digital tools to monitor work progress e.g., JIRA

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Certificate of Sponsorship

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).

Employer details

Employer name

UK Health Security Agency

Address

UKHSA Offices

London

E14 4PU

Employer's website

https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/uk-health-security-agency (Opens in a new tab)