FOI and Parliamentary Briefing Assistant
Job summary
We are looking for a candidate with excellent administration and IT skills to perform this key role in the External Affairs team of the Communications Team (part of the Strategy Directorate). Working as part of a small team, the Parliamentary Business and FOI Response team, the postholder will have an important role in delivering a vital part of NHS England Parliamentary and public accountability function. The postholder will:
Be expected to log and record all the casework for Parliamentary Business;
Be expected to be highly competent in IT skills, as they will be required to provide reports and interrogate databases;
Be flexible and able to work closely with colleagues;
Have good written communication skills as they will be asked to acknowledge cases;
Be a good organiser and able to achieve results through collaboration with colleagues.
Support/provide cover for FOI Case Support Officer when required.
The postholder will report to the Parliamentary Business Manager. The post is Leeds/London or any NHSE location, supporting a team that is based across the country.
Main duties of the job
As the Parliamentary Briefing Assistant, the post holder will work as part of a busy team in delivering an effective service supporting the management of Parliamentary Business, and also providing support to the FOI team when required.
In particular, the post holder will provide and coordinate administrative and record keeping services; including for example, maintaining and recording all parliamentary activity, producing reports on workload and compliance as well as being responsible for record keeping and acknowledgments to MPs.
About us
NHS England's purpose is to create the conditions for an ambitious and high quality NHS. We empower our people and partners to solve problems, provide outstanding care for every patient and improve the nation's health.
Our 7 regional teams work directly with systems and NHS providers across the country. Each region acts as the interface between national strategy and local delivery, overseeing performance, supporting improvement and enabling transformation at scale.
In March 2025, the Government announced that NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care will increasingly merge functions, ultimately leading to NHS England being fully integrated into the department.
Colleagues with a contractual office base are expected to spend, on average, at least 40% of their time working in our offices.
Job description
Job responsibilities
You can find further details about the role,including key responsibilities and accountabilities, alongside theorganisational structureand person specificationin the attached Job Descriptionand other supporting documents.
SecondmentsApplicants from within the NHS willbe offered on a secondment basis only, agreementshouldbeobtainedfromtheiremployerpriortosubmittingtheapplication.
Person Specification
Qualifications
- Educated to NVQ 4 level in a relevant subject or equivalent level of qualification or significant equivalent previous proven experience.
Knowledge and experience
- Excellent organisational skills and ability to work collaboratively in a team with a large number of overlapping tasks
- Willingness to work in a very busy function delivering precisely on tasks covering complex and detailed information
- Ability to share of intelligence gathered from casework in the Parliamentary area of business.
- Intermediate knowledge of IT systems and software programmes such as Outlook, Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
Skills Capabilities & Attributes
- Clear communicator with excellent writing, data entry and presentation skills: capable of constructing and delivering clear information/ instructions to staff and service users
- Ability to work at pace in a busy working environment and able to multi-task
- Ability to work without supervision.
- Effective team working
Employer details
Employer name
NHS England
Address
London/Leeds
133-155 Waterloo Rd
London/Leeds
SE1 8UG
United Kingdom
Employer's website
https://www.england.nhs.uk/about/working-for/