The role

Southwark’s Directors are leading the way in delivering a customer-focused, future-ready Housing service - with residents at the heart of everything we do. As we work towards our ambitious Southwark 2030 plan, we're looking for x2 confident and highly organised Personal Assistants to provide essential support to two senior leaders.

This role sits within the Chief Executive’s department and places you right at the centre of decision-making, helping our Directors and their teams stay focused, informed, and one step ahead. From managing busy diaries and high-level meetings to coordinating briefings and handling sensitive correspondence, you’ll bring order, clarity, and calm to a fast-paced and high-profile environment.

Whether you're liaising with senior colleagues, councillors or external partners, you’ll represent the Directors with professionalism and care. Your ability to anticipate needs, solve problems, and keep things moving behind the scenes will make a real difference - supporting exceptional leadership and helping deliver lasting change across Southwark’s Housing service.

Key responsibilities:

• Provide high-level professional support to two Housing Directors, managing priorities and ensuring seamless day-to-day operations
• Manage complex diaries, coordinate meetings, and handle all arrangements from agendas to minutes with precision
• Act as a key point of contact, filtering enquiries and emails with discretion, confidentiality, and sound judgement
• Ensure Directors are fully briefed and prepared for meetings, keeping them informed of key developments
• Organise internal and external events, liaising with a wide range of stakeholders and partners
• Represent the Directors professionally, building strong working relationships across the council and beyond

How will you make an impact as a Personal Assistant?

• Good standard of education (GCSEs or equivalent), including English and Maths at grade C / 4 or above
• Strong organisational skills and experience managing busy diaries, inboxes, and competing priorities
• Track record of supporting senior managers, ideally within local government or a similarly complex setting
• Excellent communication skills — clear, confident, and discreet
• Proficient in Microsoft Office and digital tools to manage admin, meetings, and reports with ease
• Comfortable handling enquiries from councillors, stakeholders and the public with professionalism and tact
• Able to work independently, take initiative, and adapt quickly to changing demands
• A calm, proactive problem-solver who thrives in a fast-paced environment

Additional details

Salary range £37,437 - £43,542 per annum.

Full Time, 36 hours per week, Monday to Friday. The post holder may be required to work outside of normal working hours in accordance with service needs.

This role offers flexible working, with both remote work and time at our Tooley Street office. 

About Southwark:

Southwark Council is the largest local authority social landlord in London, managing 55,000 homes lived in by 40% of Southwark’s residents. We are home to over 18,300 businesses including iconic London venues such as The Shard, The Tate Modern and Borough Market along with many social enterprises and we have a young, diverse, and growing population.

At Southwark we are committed to making our borough just and fair and are taking positive action to tackle inequalities.?Our residents and communities are our greatest asset and the passion we have for Southwark is shared by millions of Londoners who enjoy our outstanding cultural offer, use our hospitals, and attend our universities.

Our refreshed borough plan and focus on Southwark Stands Together, (which is our work with Southwark’s communities and the council’s staff to tackle racism, injustice, and inequality) underpins all that we do.

Employee benefits:

You’ll join a motivated, driven, and supportive team that values each of its members and strives for excellence. You’ll also be part of a successful, high-achieving development team making a real difference to the lives of residents across the borough. In return for all your hard work, skills and experience, you will receive:

• A competitive base salary (pro rata for part time staff)
• Strong supportive senior management team
• Regular one to one supervision
• Professional development & training opportunities
• Clear career development pathways
• Agile and flexible working arrangements
• Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS)
• Season ticket and cycle loans
• Annual Leave starting at 27 days per year, increasing to 36 (with length of service) (pro rata for part time staff)
• Wellbeing programme
• HSF Health plan and eye care scheme
• EAP employee assistance programme, confidential counselling and support
• Social clubs and staff groups

Recruitment timetable

Closing Date: Thursday 15th May 2025 at 23:59*

*We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role, in which case we will move the key dates for the process. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.

Interview Date: week commencing 26th May 2025

We are an organisation who is passionate about our people and understands that richness of diversity is a requirement to provide the best possible services to our communities. This is demonstrated through our council-wide ambitious commitment to tackle racial inequality in our communities and workforce through our Southwark Stands Together programme. We particularly welcome applications from members of the Black, Asian and ethnic minority communities to increase representation at senior management level in the Council.

#LI-PC1

Attachments

• Click here to view the Job Description and Person Specification