Senior Personal Assistant - Private Office at Crown Prosecution Service in London

Job summary

CPS HQ Private Office is pleased to advertise the role of Senior Personal Assistant within Private Office.

This is a rewarding and high-impact Executive Assistant role at the heart of a fast-paced Private Office, providing proactive support to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and two Director Generals (DG). You support our principals to maximise their impact, ensuring their time is used effectively, and their priorities are delivered at pace through excellent diary and inbox management, coordination of key activity, and professional executive support.

We are seeking a trusted and experienced partner who can act as a central point of contact between Private Office, CPS teams locally and nationally, and key external stakeholders, including other government departments. This role goes well beyond traditional administration. You will be comfortable managing complex diaries and correspondence, anticipating competing priorities, and exercising sound judgement to ensure Private Office runs smoothly and that our senior leaders' time is used to best effect.

Working closely with another Senior Personal Assistant, the Private Secretaries and colleagues across the organisation, you support the DPP and DGs by establishing a reliable rhythm of engagement and providing high-quality secretariat support.

You also support and facilitate internal and external meetings and events, ensuring that our principals and other senior leaders are fully prepared, effectively briefed and able to focus on the issues that matter most.

Building and maintaining effective working relationships is central to the role. You engage regularly with CPS teams and stakeholders across the organisation to stay informed of local and national issues and wider organisational priorities, enabling you to provide timely, accurate and sensitive support.

This role would suit someone who enjoys operating at the centre of a fast-paced environment, bringing order to complexity and enabling senior leaders to perform at their best. No two days are the same in Private Office, and you will gain unique insight into senior decision-making, exposure to some of the organisation's most high-profile and sensitive work, and the opportunity to develop your skills within a supportive and experienced Private Office team.

The Crown Prosecution Service is based in England and Wales. If you’re applying for this role and live in Scotland or Northern Ireland, you must let us know when accepting this offer as you need permission to work from your home address if hybrid working is part of your role . There’s no guarantee that we will grant this approval.

You must be aged 16 or over at the point of starting in this role. The expected start date is approximately 8–12 weeks after the application closing date. You are expected to commence employment as soon as possible following the expiry of your notice period. Requests for significantly later start dates may not be accommodated.

You must complete and pass your Civil Service tests by 23:55 on 30th October 2026 to be able to complete an application for this role.

Job description

Your roles and responsibilities

• provide high‑quality executive and administrative support to the most senior leaders in the CPS, including the Director of Public Prosecutions, and two Director Generals , ensuring they are able to discharge their duties effectively.
• manage busy and complex diaries and inboxes, acting as the initial point of contact for requests, prioritising activity in line with organisational and operational priorities, and ensuring the sustainable and effective use of the principals’ time.
• work closely with private secretaries and colleagues across private office to coordinate activity, support the smooth flow of information, and act as a key channel of communication with internal and external stakeholders, including other government departments.
• provide comprehensive administrative and secretariat support, including arranging travel and accommodation, supporting correspondence and expenses, coordinating papers, returns and approvals, and providing secretariat support where required.
• anticipate competing priorities and respond flexibly to changing demands, exercising sound judgement to support effective decision‑making and the efficient, professional and secure running of private office.
• regular travel to other (UK based) CPS offices.

A copy of the full job description is attached.

Person specification

To be eligible to apply, you need to have:

• demonstrable experience of providing high‑quality executive or senior administrative support in a fast‑paced environment, including managing complex diaries and competing priorities.
• proven ability to organise, prioritise and manage a high volume of work accurately and calmly, often to tight deadlines.
• experience of handling sensitive information with discretion and exercising sound judgement when dealing with senior stakeholders.
• strong interpersonal and communication skills, with the ability to build effective working relationships across teams and with a range of internal and external stakeholders.
• good organisational and IT skills, with experience of managing inboxes, correspondence and documents.

It is desirable that you have the below experience but this is not required to apply:

• strong experience of working in a Private Office, senior leadership office or similarly high‑profile environment.
• experience of supporting senior leadership diary and secretariat activity, briefings or ad‑hoc projects alongside core administrative responsibilities.
• experience of arranging travel and accommodation in line with organisational policies and value‑for‑money principles.

Behaviours

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

• Making Effective Decisions
• Delivering at Pace
• Communicating and Influencing
• Seeing the Big Picture

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

• Making Effective Decisions
• Delivering at Pace
• Communicating and Influencing

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £33,250, Crown Prosecution Service contributes

£9,632 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme.

Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).

Join the Crown Prosecution Service and find your purpose.

Why we work for the Crown Prosecution Service

The Crown Prosecution Service is passionate about ensuring that we're a top performing organisation and a great place to work. We're a committed equal opportunities employer, creating a culture where you can bring your whole self to work, and individuality is truly appreciated.

This culture of inclusion is underpinned by our staff networks covering disability, faith and belief, LGBTQI+, race, social mobility alongside our mental health first aiders programme and wellbeing sessions.

The Crown Prosecution Service commits to offer its employees the following experience.

• You can do impactful, purposeful work that’s making a difference to your local communities.
• You are able to learn and grow, with access to the right opportunities and resources.
• We care about your wellbeing.
• We want you to feel valued, trusted and included.

We also offer the following range of benefits:

• Civil Service contributory pension of up to 28.9%
• 25 days’ leave, increasing to 30 days after 5 years
• £350 each year to spend on personal development
• lawyer training programme for all new prosecutors
• an extra privilege day to mark the King's birthday
• competitive maternity, paternity and parental leave
• flexible working including flexitime, and a family friendly approach to work
• Cycle2Work scheme, employee savings.

Diversity at the Crown Prosecution Service is about inclusion, embracing differences and ensuring our workforce truly reflects the communities we serve. We want you to feel that you belong and can thrive, whatever your background, identity or culture. As a Disability Confident employer, we're happy to support requests for reasonable adjustments and improve your recruitment experience. If you'd like any reasonable adjustments made to our recruitment process, let us know within your application or contact Rachel.Seagraves@cps.gov.uk .

The Crown Prosecution Service has fixed rates for its Executive Officer grade – a developing rate (the starting salary) and a spot rate (the maximum salary). Applicants typically join us on the developing rate and, after completing a 15-month development period, move to the spot rate if your line manager confirms you’re performing the role to a satisfactory standard.

If you’re joining the Crown Prosecution Service on a lateral transfer from another government department, you should contact us about the impact on your salary and the implications of any time you’ve already spent at that grade before applying or accepting an employment offer. Your salary may be adjusted if your location changes when you join us. This adjustment also takes into account any existing allowances that may have previously been consolidated into your basic pay – there’s no guarantee that you can retain these when you transfer.

We want to ensure our employees can thrive at work and home and offer a range of support to achieve a balance. This includes flexibility of working hours, flexibility to support caring responsibilities and a flexible approach to deployment. We offer a hybrid working policy. You must spend at least 40% of your contracted hours over a four-week period at court, in an office or another official workplace depending on business need and the kind of work you're doing.

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window) , and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.

• Recruitment process
• The recruitment process consists of an online application, assessment and interview
• Motivation

We ask you to complete a personal statement of no more than 500 words. We want to understand why you want to work in in CPS HQ Private Office as a Senior Personal Assistant. We’ll be looking for you to address the following four things at Application.

• Your interest in the senior personal assistant role.
• Why you want to work in public service.
• Awareness of the Crown Prosecution Service values and priorities – our latest strategy is available on our website: https://www.cps.gov.uk/publication/cps-2030

In addition, you need to demonstrate the following experience required for this role:

• demonstrable experience of providing high‑quality executive or senior administrative support in a fast‑paced environment, including managing complex diaries and competing priorities.
• proven ability to organise, prioritise and manage a high volume of work accurately and calmly, often to tight deadlines.
• experience of handling sensitive information with discretion and exercising sound judgement when dealing with senior stakeholders.
• strong interpersonal and communication skills, with the ability to build effective working relationships across teams and with a range of internal and external stakeholders.
• good organisational and IT skills, with experience of managing inboxes, correspondence and documents

Behaviours

You are asked to complete a statement of no mor