Personal Assistant / Senior Administrator

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Joining #TeamNELFT means you'll become part of a welcoming and supportive working environment. We're CQC rated Good, and we want you to join us on the journey towards an Outstanding rating. NELFT has sites across North East London, Essex, Kent and Medway. We provide community and mental healthcare services to adults and children within these areas.

The Trust has award winning equality and diversity initiatives and staff health and wellbeing activities. We invest heavily in your development, because when you are valued and supported, we provide the best care to our patients. We are a Level 3 Disability Confident Leader, have been featured in the Working Families Top 10 Employers benchmark for three consecutive years, and we have achieved a Carers UK Level 1 Accreditation. Along with our staff networks and training opportunities, we work hard to embed a just and compassionate culture here at NELFT.

Find out more about NELFT careers and what makes our Trust a great place to work, in this video

Job overview

The Senior Administrator and Personal Assistant will play a pivotal role in providing high-level, proactive administrative support to the Head of Service for mental health support teams in Essex. This role is essential in ensuring that senior staff members can operate effectively and focus on strategic priorities by managing their administrative workload. The role involves a mix of traditional personal assistant responsibilities alongside high-level project and office management tasks. It requires a dynamic individual who is comfortable with multitasking, problem-solving, and adapting to the evolving needs of a fast-paced community mental healthcare environment.

We are specifically looking for someone who has:

- Experience in an administrative or PA role, ideally within the healthcare or public sector.

- Strong organisational and time management skills, with the ability to handle multiple priorities.

- Proficient in Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook)

- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with attention to detail.

- Discretion and ability to handle sensitive information confidentially.

- Proactive, flexible, and able to work independently as well as part of a team.

Main duties of the job

Alongside the attached job descritpton please ensure your personal statmenent reflects your experience in the following areas:

• Manage and coordinate complex diaries for senior leaders, scheduling meetings, appointments, and events.
• Prepare agendas, take minutes, and follow up on action points for meetings.
• Draft, review, and distribute correspondence, reports, and other documents on behalf of senior staff.
• Serve as the first point of contact for internal and external stakeholders, handling inquiries professionally and efficiently.
• Support project management by coordinating tasks, tracking progress, and ensuring deadlines are met.
• Maintain and organise electronic and paper records, ensuring information is accessible and up-to-date.
• Handle confidential information with the utmost discretion and in compliance with NHS policies.
• Assist with budget tracking, expense processing, and procurement tasks as required.
• Identify and implement process improvements to enhance administrative efficiency within the team.
• Liaise with other departments and teams to ensure smooth communication and collaboration.

Working for our organisation

Starting with NELFT

NELFT place a great deal of importance on new starters being properly welcomed and inducted into the Trust. All new starters will join the Trust on the first Monday of each month and will undertake a comprehensive induction of up to two weeks which will include mandatory training, systems training and the allocation of equipment. As part of the process new starters will have the opportunity to also meet the executive team, senior managers and attend a number of drop in sessions focusing in engagement, health and wellbeing and key processes. The induction will be held at our head office in Rainham, Essex.

Probationary Period

This post will be subject to a probationary period. Internal applicants are exempt from the probationary period (unless you are an internal applicant currently part way through a probationary period or currently a bank member of staff).

Please see the NELFT recruitment video which explains more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nX8CImoDX8

Higher Cost Allowance

This post has a base of Phoenix House in Basildon and also attracts payment for High Cost Area Supplement of 5% of the basic salary (minimum payment of £1,258 and a maximum payment of £2,122 per annum pro rata).

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Diary and Time Management

• - Efficiently manage complex diaries, including scheduling, rescheduling, and prioritising appointments to maximise productivity.
• - Coordinate and prepare schedules for internal and external meetings, ensuring adequate time for travel and preparation.
• - Handle last-minute schedule changes effectively and communicate updates to relevant parties.

Meeting Coordination and Minute Taking

• - Organise and coordinate meetings, both virtual and in-person, with stakeholders, ensuring logistical needs are met.
• - Prepare meeting agendas, circulate relevant documents in advance, and ensure all attendees are well-briefed.
• - Attend meetings, take comprehensive minutes, and manage follow-up actions, ensuring that outcomes are documented and tracked.

Document Preparation and Correspondence

• - Draft, proofread, and format high-quality reports, presentations, emails, and other documents on behalf of senior leaders.
• - Manage incoming and outgoing correspondence, prioritising communications and drafting responses as necessary.

Project and Task Management

• - Support senior staff with project coordination, managing timelines, tracking deliverables, and ensuring key milestones are met.
• - Develop and maintain project documentation, providing regular updates on project status and highlighting any issues or delays.

Office and Information Management

• - Oversee the organisation and maintenance of electronic and paper files, ensuring that records are up-to-date and compliant with NHS guidelines, such as incoming referrals.
• - Identify and implement improvements to streamline office operations and increase efficiency.

Additional Administrative Support

• - Provide ad hoc support to other members of the administrative team during peak periods or staff absences.
• - Undertake any other reasonable administrative tasks required to support the objectives of the team and senior leadership.
• Provide supervision to junior members of staff where appropriate.

Certificates of Sponsorship

Although we are a registered sponsor organisation, we are unable to offer sponsorship for all job roles. Please check your eligibility under the UKVI points based system.

Use of AI

Applications for this role should be written by the applicant. If artificial intelligence (AI) programmes are used then the application may be rejected due to this document being an important part of the assessment process. This does not prevent applicants seeking appropriate support with applications should they need to for the purposes of any declared disability.

Person specification

Experience

Essential criteria

• Administrative experience of working in a busy environment
• Experience of Supervising Administrative Staff
• Minute Taking Skills

Desirable criteria

• Excellent typing, email and Microsoft office skills
• Has worked within NHS and has experience of systems such as Healthroster, Systmone, eProcurement etc.

Communication

Essential criteria

• Good interpersonal and telephone skills

Knowledge

Essential criteria

• Understands eProcurement System
• Healthroster Use

Qualifications

Essential criteria

• Administrative / Business qualification

Benefits

We believe in bringing your authentic and best self to work, in order to deliver the best care to our patients. We are committed to supporting our employees holistically. Here is a snapshot of what is on offer at NELFT:

• A long-standing and award-winning approach to equality and diversity with supportive networks for ethnic minority staff, staff with disabilities or long term/chronic conditions and LGBT staff.
• A commitment to supporting colleagues to achieve a work life balance, through flexible working opportunities and our effortsto support our working parents and carers. This has resulted in us being recognised as a 'Top 10 Family Friendly Employer' from the Working Families Charity.
• Proactive health and wellbeing support, including access to our employee assistance programme, staff psychological support, individual wellbeing conversations and a network of health and wellbeing ambassadors.
• Detailed information about our wellbeing and benefits offer can be found in this link.

As a flexible working friendly organisation, we want to be sure that you can work in a way that is best for us and for our patients, and for you. Speak to us about how we might be able to accommodate a flexible working arrangement whether that's a job share, part time hours or another flexible pattern.

Supporting our Armed Forces

We recognise the valuable contribution that the Armed Forces community make to our organisation. We have signed the Armed Forces Covenant and achieved Gold Award under the Armed Forces Employer Recognition Scheme. We have supportive policies, guaranteed interview schemes for veterans. reservists and military spouses and give additional leave to our Reservists so that they can attend their annual camp.

Equal opportunities employer

We are committed to equal opportunities and diversity and positively encourage applications from all sections of the community regardless of any protected characteristic.

We are a Disability Confident employer and have made the pledge to commit to employing more people with disabilities. If you require this application in another format i.e. Braille or audio tape please contact the recruitment team on 0300 300 1530 or email recruitment@nelft.nhs.uk.

Correspondence with us

You are advised to regularly check your emails (including any junk mail/spam folders) for correspondence related to this post.

In the event of a high number of responses to any advert, NELFT reserves the right to close the vacancy early. If you do not hear from us within three weeks of the closing date then please assume you have not been successful on this occasion.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Applicant requirements

The postholder will have access to vulnerable people in the course of their normal duties and as such this post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Application numbers

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, we encourage you to submit your application as soon as possible to ensure consideration.

If you require any additional support during the application process please contact recruitment@nelft.nhs.uk. We are happy to make reasonable adjustments to support you throughout the recruitment journey.
Documents to download

• MHST Senior Administrator & Personal Assistant JD (PDF, 488.2KB)
• NELFT Application - Hints and Tips (PDF, 38.4KB)