The purpose of the Personal Assistant role is to provide personal and administrative support to the Bishop of Repton, enabling effective office systems and diary management. The role requires proven administrative competence, a knowledge of the systems and organisation of the Diocese, strong interpersonal skills, and high levels of organisation, as well as extensive experience with office equipment and the Microsoft Office Suite.

This is a 0.5 post, totalling 17.5 hours per week (four morning a week) based at Repton House Swanwick, but with some flexibility to work from home

The main responsibilities for this role are:

Enabling and maintaining systems within the Bishop of Repton’s Office, to include:

• Working with the Bishop of Repton to establish and maintain efficient and effective systems of working in areas including, but not limited to, emails, diary management, post, communications channels, filing, accounting, and ongoing projects.
• Working in collaboration with the Bishop of Derby’s Office to align processes, procedures, and systems.
• Ensuring processes and procedures are adhered to and regularly reviewed.

Managing the Bishop of Repton’s diary, to include:

• Being the first point of contact for appointments and meetings requests.
• Making travel and accommodation arrangements.
• Collating and forwarding diary requests.
• Responding to requests in a timely and appropriate manner.
• Correctly prioritising requests.
• Liaising with the Bishop of Derby and her Office as necessary.
• Summarising appointments/meetings and adding key documents.
• Sending appointments and invitations on behalf of the Bishop of Repton.
• Providing the Bishop of Repton with a weekly summary of their diary.
• Maintaining a log of the Bishop of Repton’s visits and purposes.
• Assisting the Bishop of Repton with preparation for meetings/engagements as required.
• Assisting the Bishop of Repton in researching appointments as required.

Dealing with the Bishop of Repton’s correspondence, to include:

• Undertaking proactive email management of the Bishop of Repton’s account ensuring that urgent emails are promptly picked up and actioned as appropriate.
• Acknowledging receipt of emails/letters that await response from the Bishop of Repton.
• Tracking acknowledgements and ensuring required actions are completed.
• Providing summary of outstanding emails/letters to the Bishop of Repton for their attention.
• Drafting and formatting responses to emails, letters, and documents from the Bishop of Repton, if required.
• The first point of contact for telephone contact with the Bishop of Repton’s Office.
• Answering any queries/contacts that come into the Bishop of Repton’s Office.
• Handling incoming/outgoing post for the Bishop of Repton, including ensuring all incoming post is scanned, filed on the server, and distributed accurately.
• Ensuring own email account is kept up to date.
• Filing correspondence as required.
• Summarising and raising to the Bishop of Repton anything that requires their attention in relation to the above.

Coordinating the administration of the Bishop of Repton’s and the Office’s Accounts and Expenses, to include:

• Working with the Bishop of Repton to shape efficient and effective systems for managing expenses and block grants which appropriately intersect with those of the Bishop of Derby’s Office
• Performing regular accounting tasks.
• Logging and reimbursing all expenses details.
• Dealing with budgets.
• Liaising with the Senior Executive Assistant to the Bishop of Derby to ensure all the above are correct and signed off.

Maintaining the Bishop of Repton’s Office and House, to include:

• Managing the maintenance of office and facilities equipment.
• Ordering supplies for the office.
• Coordinating the maintenance of the Repton House and liaising with the Bishop of Repton in relation to such maintenance.
• Ordering supplies relating to the public functions of the Repton House.
• Being the first point of contact for Church Commissioners property managers.
• Coordinating and overseeing any projects relating to Repton House.
• Keeping logs of any contracts the Bishop of Repton’s Office and Repton House has with suppliers.

Coordinating hospitality, to include:

• Welcoming visitors to Repton House during working hours, providing drinks, etc.
• Coordinating and being responsible for events held at the Bishop’s House and the booking and managing of catering for such events as required.
• Coordinating & being responsible for the booking and managing of venues, catering, and all other aspects of events held by the Bishop away from Repton House.

Ensuring compliance

• Ensuring the Bishop of Repton’s Office complies with all aspects of the DPA 2018 and GDPR 2016 under the guidance of the Bishop of Derby’s Executive Officer.
• Ensuring the Bishop of Repton’s Office complies with all relevant Diocesan/CofE/House of Bishops policies.
• Ensuring the Bishop of Repton’s Office complies with any other relevant legislation/regulations.
• Liaising with the Senior Executive Assistant to the Bishop of Derby to ensure that procedures and processes are in place to ensure compliance with the above.
• Assisting the Senior Executive Assistant to the Bishop of Derby with any queries/requests and/or complaints in relation to data protection.

Developing and maintaining relationships, to include:

• Developing and maintaining relationships with all levels of colleagues within the Diocese as well as third parties.
• Ensuring the tone of communication is as per the Bishop of Repton’s wishes.
• Attending regular meetings with key colleagues/teams within the Diocese and communicating matters related to the Bishop of Repton.
• Working in collaboration with the Bishop of Derby’s office on legal, statutory and data control matters and those that involve both Bishops.

The ideal candidate should have:

Skills/ Aptitudes

• Ability to work effectively on your own as well as in a team.
• Ability to engage with compassion and patience.
• Good administrative and secretarial skills.
• IT proficiency, including Microsoft Word, Outlook, and Excel.
• Ability to organise own workload, to set priorities, and to work to deadlines.
• Ability to handle confidential information and to act with discretion.
• Attention to detail.
• Ability to show initiative and creativity and to work without direct supervision.
• Ability to communicate well in writing.
• A good telephone manner.

Knowledge / Experience

• Previous administrative or secretarial experience.
• Experience of facilities management.
• Experience of prioritising tasks and the need to be flexible.
• Proven experience of process improvement.
• Basic experience in bookkeeping.

Personal Attributes

• Having adaptability, flexibility, tenacity, and initiative.
• Punctual and organised.
• Multitasking capabilities.
• Self-motivated with aptitude for collaborative working.
• Ability to adjust working style to the Bishop of Repton’s preferences and requirements.
• Sympathy with the values of the Church of England.

Education

• Educated to ‘A’ level or equivalent standard.

Good use of the English language both oral and written, including grammar, spelling, and punctuation.

Non-clergy staff will be automatically enrolled into the in the Pension Builder 2014 Pension Plan (PB2014) in line with legislation unless they choose to opt out. Clergy already in the Church of England Funded Pensions Scheme (CEFPS) will have the option of either remaining in this scheme or joining the PB2014 scheme.

Bishops Staff have an income protection insurance arrangement. To be eligible for cover under this policy an employee must be a member of the (PB2014) scheme. Please note that insurance cover is not necessarily automatic, and that underwriting may be required by the schemes in some instances (for example if you do not join the scheme at the first available opportunity or opt out of the scheme and subsequently re-join). Cover will be subject to any terms and conditions laid down by the insurance company.

As we are a member of the Armed Forces Covenant, we welcome applications from those who have served in our Armed Forces and their families

We are committed to building a culturally diverse workforce. As part of this commitment, we welcome applications from people, regardless of their background. As a Disability Confident committed employer, it is important to note that there may be occasions where it is not practical or appropriate to interview all disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria* due to high volume. We limit the amount of interviews conducted to five applicants per open post we advertise.

*Where applicable depending on post requirements.