Business Support Officer

Contents

• Location
• About the job
• Benefits
• Things you need to know
• Apply and further information

Edinburgh

About the job

Job summary

Environmental Standards Scotland (ESS) is an independent corporate body, directed by a Chair and Board. ESS is a Non-Ministerial Office, part of the Scottish Administration, and employees are civil servants. Full details are available on the ESS website Home – Environmental Standards Scotland.

ESS was established by the UK Withdrawal from the European Union (Continuity) (Scotland) Act 2021, which received royal ascent in January 2021. ESS was established and gained its statutory functions and powers on 1 October 2021.

ESS has been set up to ensure environmental laws and standards are adhered to in Scotland, replacing the European Union’s scrutiny and enforcement role after Brexit. 

The remit of ESS covers a broad range of environmental law, including all aspects of environmental protection and harm, particularly in relation to human beings and their enjoyment of the environment.

ESS’ role is to scrutinise, investigate and secure improvements in public authorities’ compliance with environmental law, the effectiveness of environmental law, and the way it is being implemented and applied in Scotland.

The body has published a Strategic Plan, setting out how it will operate and function, including how it will act objectively, impartially, proportionately and transparently. ESS is accountable to the Scottish Parliament for the effective performance of its functions.

The organisation will carry out its role by:

• monitoring information about the quality of the environment in Scotland and the effectiveness of environmental law, including representations brought forward by citizens and interested groups
• seeking information from public authorities, including the Scottish Government, and working with the public authorities to understand the background to regulatory policies and practices
• selecting a small number of cases for detailed investigation, prioritising cases where there is the greatest risk to the environment
• working with public authorities, where necessary, to seek to agree changes in practice to reflect environmental law, or develop advice on recommended changes to the law to improve its effectiveness

Job description

The post primarily engages with ESS’ corporate service providers and our internal customers. We are recruiting for an enthusiastic business support officer to help with the functions in the Comms and Corporate Services team within ESS.

Person specification

Key duties and responsibilities will include working collaboratively and flexibly as part of the wider ESS Team, to support effective and efficient organisational processes and systems:

• provide executive and secretariat support to the Chief Executive, the Board and the Audit and Risk Committee, including: co-ordinating meetings; management of relevant mailboxes; payroll support; supporting maintenance of governance documentation; and other ad-hoc requests
• provide administrative support for general ESS corporate service requirements, including; information gathering and management; document retention and reporting; general correspondence; and routine compliance and monitoring checks, such as gathering carbon footprint data
• administrate the day-to-day general ESS finance requirements, including: creating and submitting purchase order requests and invoices; supporting colleagues with electronic procurement card payments; checking invoices at risk; producing routine financial reports; and other ad-hoc requests
• assist with ESS internal and external stakeholder management, through the co-ordination of meetings
• provide administrative support to the Corporate Services and Communications team, to ensure tasks are delivered on time and of the right quality, through developing a sound knowledge of relevant operational ESS policies and procedures to ensure compliance is maintained
• provide ad-hoc administrative support to the wider Investigations, Compliance and Standards Team and the Strategy and Analysis team

Essential Criteria

1. Strong IT skills, particularly in Microsoft Word and Excel.
2. A strong customer focus, with excellent communications skills to work with a range of internal and external stakeholders.
3. Strong organisational skills, with the ability to work on your own with minimal supervision, manage challenging workloads and competing priorities, whilst maintain attention to detail.
4. A proactive approach and the ability to use initiative to come up with solutions quickly when challenges arise.

Qualifications

The minimum formal qualifications required for this role would be 5 GCSE’s, or at least 3 years’ experience gained working in a similar role.

Other qualifications equivalent to these may also be acceptable, if you are in any doubt please contact the Recruiting Manager named at the bottom of the advert to discuss.

Please note: If you fail to demonstrate how you meet the minimum qualifications as stated above, your application will be automatically sifted out.

Technical skills

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

• Communications & Engagement
• Analysis and Use of Evidence
• Improving Performance
• Financial Management

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £32,140, Environmental Standards Scotland contributes £9,310 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Benefits

ESS is a small organisation focused on ensuring Scotland achieves the highest environmental standards. We seek skilled individuals who have a passion for improving environmental standards through public service, and that can work as part of a small multidisciplinary team.

In return, we offer a competitive employment package, including the civil service pension and a strong commitment to investing in each member of our teams personal and professional development. We also offer opportunities to work on some of the most significant and meaningful environmental challenges facing us today and the chance to play a part in helping to improve the quality of the environment for the people of Scotland.

As a new organisation we are building a culture that encourages inclusion and diversity and welcome applications from people from a diverse range of backgrounds.

The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window).

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

• Name : Alasdair Dewar, Business Support Manager
• Email : Alasdair.dewar@environmentalstandards.scot

Recruitment team

• Email : enquiries@environmentalstandards.scot

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