Programme Support Assistant London 2023

The House of Commons a unique and exciting place to work right at the heart of the UK's thriving democratic system. 

Behind the scenes, the House of Commons Service is made up of more than 3,000 employees who support and facilitate the smooth day to day running of the House. They provide professional services to Members of Parliament, their staff, and the wider parliamentary community.

Staff Benefits

In addition to your salary, we offer an attractive range of benefits including: 

• 30 days’ annual leave (increasing to 35 days after first full leave year). 
• Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 27%. 
• Access to training and development. 
• Flexible working. 
• Interest free season ticket loan and bicycle loan. 

Introduction 

The Chamber and Participation Team (CPT) brings together all the disciplines that support the House of Commons Chamber within one coherent structure – the procedural offices that facilitate the core function of legislating, the operational teams who focus on ensuring that the Chamber runs effectively and efficiently, and the public-facing teams who promote Parliament’s role and seek to engage citizens across the UK with parliamentary business.

The Education and Engagement Programme Support Assistant role sits within the Education and Engagement Team who deliver face-to-face and online educational programmes and learning resources for schools, teachers, home educators and school-age children across the UK.

The Role 

This role will support the day to day running of the Learn with the Lords Programme, which provides opportunities for school aged young people to engage with members of the House of Lords, through an extensive Programme of online and in-person sessions and events.

The Education and Engagement Programme Support Assistant will provide high level administrative support, communicating with teachers/educators and members of the House of Lords via email and telephone/Microsoft Teams call. The post holder will manage bookings and sign-up processes across the Programme, ensuring that correspondence is dealt with in a timely fashion and escalated when required. Part of this role will involve facilitating online Q&A sessions between members and school groups.

Some of the responsibilities for this role include

• Processing school bookings and sign-ups for sessions and events across the Learn with the Lords Programme, completing the relevant administration
• Collating and distributing briefing material to members ahead of their online sessions, responding to/escalating enquiries when required
• Setting up and delivering Microsoft Teams test calls with schools ahead of online sessions
• Facilitating Learn with the Lords Online sessions, warmly welcoming the school and member to the session, screen sharing material on behalf of the member and providing technical support

Skills and Experience 

To be successful in this role you will demonstrate:

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with experience of tailoring language and messages for different stakeholders and audiences, including school-aged young people.
• Experience in providing excellent customer service to a range of audiences.
• Strong organisational skills, with the ability to work efficiently and prioritise tasks to meet tight deadlines.
• Experience of working with IT systems such as databases, CRM, bookings systems and Microsoft Office software (particularly Teams, Excel, Word and Outlook)
• Ability to work successfully within a team, whilst upholding the values of equality, diversity and inclusion