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 incoming Freedom of Information casework
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 Parliamentary Briefing Assistant when required.
The postholder will report to the FOI 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 has a wide range of statutory functions, responsibilities and regulatory powers. These are focused on supporting the wider NHS to deliver high quality care, as well as doing those things that are best done once for the whole NHS.
Our staff bring expertise across clinical, operational, commissioning, technology, data science, cyber security, software engineering, education, and commercial specialisms -- enabling us to design and deliver high-quality NHS services.
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.
If you currently work within the NHS and if successful at interview, we will initiate an Inter Authority Transfer (IAT) via the Electronic Staff Record (ESR).This retrieves key data from your current or previous NHS employer to support onboarding, including competency status, Continuous Service Dates (CSD), and annual leave entitlement. You may opt out at any stage of the process.
Colleagues with a contractual office base are expected to spend, on average, at least 40% of their time working in our offices.
We cannot offer visa sponsorship for any vacancies.
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.
Secondments
Applicants from within the NHS will be offered on a secondment basis only, agreement should be obtained from their employer prior to submitting the application.
Common responsibilities of all communications and engagement posts:
Use insight to inform communications activity.
Continuously evaluate and learn from actions and plans.
Embrace new ideas and innovative ways of communicating and engaging with audiences and stakeholders.
Work with colleagues to ensure all activity is planned and delivered in line with NHSEs policies, priorities and processes.
Work effectively within an environment of intense media and political scrutiny and accountability.
Support, value and respect each others work, perspectives and needs.
Ability to work flexibly and at pace across priorities.
The postholder is required to be flexible and responsive, this may require occasional out of hours working or participation in a formal on call rota.
Work will be directed by your manager based on the organisations needs and may be assigned to any business priority/directorate within the NHS England Comms Team
High quality writing and presenting skills
Uphold professional government and industry standards for communications and engagement
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
SE1 8UG
United Kingdom
Employer's website
https://www.england.nhs.uk/about/working-for/