Role: Secretary
District: Barnsley
Location: Churchfields, Barnsley
Salary: £25,242 - £27,204
Hours: 37
Contract Type: Permanent
In this role you will provide a comprehensive secretarial service to Senior Officers to enable the District to operate with maximum efficiency, working both independently and as part of a team.
Key responsibilities:
Provide a comprehensive service to the Head of District, using own initiative daily to make appropriate decisions, managing time to ensure opportunities for efficiency are maximised and maintaining a high level of confidentiality, discretion, and professional integrity, ensuring the Head of Dept is regularly updated and kept appraised.
Maintain and update the electonic diary of the Head of District including the booking of appointments, arrangement of meetings and forward diary planning
to maximise their availability and effectiveness, making all relevant arrangements (including travel itinerary).
Be fully conversant with Microsoft Office applications and produce accurate and professionally presented correspondence and documentation from emails, letters, reports, spreadsheets, presentations, etc.
To arrange and attend local and regional meetings as required, collating, preparing, and circulating papers in advance, updating action schedules from meetings, and progressing subsequent actions, including external partners and stakeholders where appropriate.
To maintain and develop role specific administration systems and procedures, maximising the use of desktop technology to improve operational efficiency and office processes. Maintain effective filing, retrieval, and management of both paper and electronic based systems to support audit trails and effective use of information. Maintain up to date records, ensuring archive material is safe and retrievable.
Receive incoming correspondence and prioritise accordingly. Where appropriate refer correspondence to relevant personnel within District, and/or acknowledge correspondence and prepare response on behalf of Senior Officers. Maintain the electronic inbox of the Head of District, screening incoming emails and actioning appropriately.
Make and receive phone calls, using initiative and judgment when handling enquiries at varying levels, liaising both internally and externally with partners and other Forces. Ensure messages are relayed and any action required are undertaken.
To assimilate, manage and communicate a wide range of information, some of which will be sensitive and complex and may involve matters relating to individual staff or to matters that are confidential and undertake progress checks/chasers as required.
To receive visitors and arrange appropriate hospitality as required.
Preparation of files and background materials for meetings attended by Senior Officers, obtaining specialised information/documentation.
To undertake typing to support the department as allocated by the Team Leader or Admin Manager
To assist with BSU duties, utilising Oracle to raise and receipt orders.
Skills and experience:
- Experience of managing busy diaries/conflicting appointments and prioritising appropriately.
Able to produce clear and concise documentation, such as agendas, certificates and action schedules.
- Recent experience of working in an office/secretarial role.
- Good standard of education (for example 5 GCSE's A-C or equivalent).
- High level of computer literacy and competency in the use of Microsoft Applications including Teams, SharePoint, Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
- Ability to work accurately under pressure.
Ability to touch type with speed and accuracy.
Skills and experience as documented in the role profile need to be evidenced in your application to be considered for interview.
For more detailed information relating to the role, skills and experience for this role, please click here to view the role profile.
What we offer:
We offer generous entitlements and supportive policies to enable a better work-life balance, some of which are listed below:
A highly competitive salary and access to a generous pension scheme
Generous annual leave allowance
A wide range of family friendly policies including enhanced maternity, paternity and adoption leave
Flexible working arrangements including flexi-time and hybrid working
A transparent and collaborative team culture underpinned by our core values of Fairness, Integrity & Trust
Comprehensive range of development and leadership courses to develop your career with South Yorkshire Police
Employee Assistant Programme (accessible 24/7) offering confidential support and advice
Flexible lifestyle benefits such as: Blue Light Card, Company Shop, Cycle to work scheme
Committed to embedding sustainability: South Yorkshire Police Sustainability Strategy 2020-2025 (yhrn.police)
Membership to the Sports and Social Club
Access to a wide range of staff support groups and networks
Eligibility:
Applicants must meet the minimum requirement checkable history criteria, which must be taken into account for individuals applying to work with South Yorkshire Police in any capacity. A minimum checkable history of 5 years is required for this role and successfully undergoing recruitment vetting procedure is a pre-requisite of employment with South Yorkshire Police.
Appearance & Standards:
South Yorkshire Police is committed to striking a proportionate balance between self-expression and the need to maintain role sensitive professional standards in dress and appearance. Officers, staff, and volunteers of South Yorkshire Police are permitted to have tattoos visible whilst on duty provided the tattoo is not considered to be unacceptable or otherwise inappropriate. Tattoos will be reviewed as part of the recruitment and selection process. s.
South Yorkshire Police’s overarching aim is to deliver an excellent police service to support safer communities. The public’s assessment of our excellence is influenced by the level of trust and confidence in us, as an organisation and as individuals. In comparison to the general public, police officers and police staff are held to a higher standards of behaviour and accountability. In applying to join the police, applicants are accepting of these higher standards and understand the implications on their right to privacy.
South Yorkshire Police’s Key Values:
At South Yorkshire Police we have 3 key values which run through everything we do Fairness, Integrity & Trust, the attached document details the key behaviours we expect all employees to adhere to.
Smarter ways of Working:
South Yorkshire Police is committed to developing working practices which assist staff to balance their personal and professional lives, whilst meeting the needs of the organisation. This in turn enables SYP to provide an outstanding service to the community.
There are 3 different categories as part of this which are: Fixed, Field and Hybrid.
This role has been evaluated as a hybrid role.
Hybrid: Applicable when the work can be undertaken at any location, whether that be a SYP building or from home.
Contact details:
For further information about the role, please contact: Gillian Blake on 01226 736334
Closing Date: 17th May 2026
Closing dates are not normally extended, other than in exceptional circumstances and agreement is made between the Recruitment Manager and the Line Manager for the role.
Candidate Information:
Please note that, should you be successful at the interview stage and before appointment, the relevant pre-employment checks are required. These include references, medical clearance, vetting clearance and sickness absence criteria check.
Diversity & Inclusion:
Applications are particularly welcome from female and ethnic minority candidates.
It is really important to us that the department represents the community we serve, in order for us to provide the best service, utilising a range of backgrounds, experience and skills. We support and value all officers and staff and the unique experiences they bring to the role. We strongly encourage and welcome applications from these valuable underrepresented groups.
If you are from an underrepresented group and want to find out more about the support we can offer, please contact our dedicated team on positiveaction@southyorks.pnn.police.uk
In addition, we will look to support anyone who requires Part Time/Job share working hours.
Documents to Review:
For the Police Staff Recruitment Vetting Handbook - Please Click here
For Application Guidance and Tips - Please Click Here
For the FIT Values of South Yorkshire Police - Please Click Here
View our recruitment video:
