About the job

Summary

This role is being advertised on behalf of The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office. The Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) and the Department for International Development (DfID) merged on 1st September 2020 to form the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO). The FCDO pursues our national interests and projects the UK as a force for good in the world. We promote the interests of British citizens, safeguard the UK's security, defend our values, reduce poverty and tackle global challenges with our international partners.

The team was established to professionalise, streamline and improve essential services to Parliament and Ministers, including briefing, correspondence and Freedom of Information (FOI) requests and to maximise FCDO and Ministerial impact.

Work in Parliamentary, Ministerial and Central Services is interesting and challenging. Correspondence and Parliamentary Questions Unit (CPQU) deals with written Parliamentary Questions and Correspondence casework. Caseworkers within CPQU work closely with departments across FCDO, Private Offices, Ministers and parliamentary officials.

The successful candidates will be flexible, working to all teams within CPQU as business priorities require.

Job description

The successful candidates will be responsible for:

- Logging Ministerial and Treat Official correspondence and allocating to appropriate Hubs.

- Logging Parliamentary Questions (PQ) for answer daily and allocating to PQ drafters.

- Management of inward and outward transfers within FCDO.

- Managing FCDO correspondence or PQ mailbox, triaging and distributing correspondence or PQs and updating mailbox auto responses to common enquiries.

- Drafting of accurate and timely responses ensuring high levels of accuracy regarding language, grammar and content.

- Engaging with FCDO colleagues, to ensure that standard and approved lines are updated to reflect latest developments.

- Carrying out weekly PQ archive audits, ensuring that all new PQs are uploaded.

- Producing daily Management Information reports for Team Leader and Management Team.

- Providing resilience to all teams within CPQU, enabling effective management of workload and business priorities as required.

Responsibilities

Person Specification

It is essential in your application that you provide evidence and proven examples in each of the following Minimum Criteria, as far as you are able to do so. These responses will be further developed and discussed with those candidates invited for interview.

Minimum Criteria

- Strong literacy, numeracy and IT skills.

- Competent using IT packages including Microsoft Office - Outlook, Excel and knowledge of Microsoft Windows 10 and MS Teams.

- Good interpersonal, team-working and communication skills (oral and written).

- Good organisational, analytical and planning skills with the ability to work to tight deadlines.

- Able to make effective decisions, identify problems and propose solutions to maintain a quality service.

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Managing a Quality Service
• Working Together
• Delivering at Pace

We only ask for evidence of these behaviours on your application form:

• Managing a Quality Service
• Working Together

Technical skills

We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• Motivation question.

Benefits

· A Civil Service Pension.

· 25 days Annual Leave per annum.

· 9 days Public and Privilege holidays per annum.

· Learning and Development tailored to your role.

· See the attached candidate pack.