Executive Support Officer in Taunton

Join a purpose-driven organisation where your work will help enable outstanding compassionate care across Somerset. At St Margaret's Hospice, our people are at the heart of everything we do. We're looking for an Executive Support Officer to provide proactive, high-level support to our Executive Team. This is a varied and rewarding role where no two days are the same. You'll work closely with senior leaders, trustees and colleagues across the organisation, helping ensure the smooth running of key leadership and governance activity across the hospice.

Working Pattern: 22.5 hours per week. With flexibility, this could be worked over 4 or 5 days (Monday to Friday).

Location: Taunton or Yeovil with occasional travel required to the other site.

Hybrid Working: Option to work up to half the week at home.

The Interview Process Interviews will take place in person at our Taunton Hospice and will include:

• Competency-based interview questions
• A planning exercise
• A minute-taking exercise

These activities are designed to reflect the type of work involved in the role and help us understand your skills and experience.

Main duties of the job This is a pivotal role supporting the Executive Team and wider organisation through professional, proactive and compassionate executive support. You'll help senior leaders operate effectively by anticipating needs, managing competing priorities and ensuring meetings, communications and governance processes run smoothly and efficiently. Your responsibilities will include:

• Providing proactive executive support to senior leaders, including complex diary, inbox and meeting management
• Preparing high-quality agendas, reports, presentations, briefing papers and correspondence
• Coordinating Board, committee and leadership meetings, including minute taking and action tracking
• Supporting governance processes and maintaining accurate records and documentation
• Organising stakeholder meetings, events and leadership activities while building strong collaborative relationships across the organisation
• Supporting organisational projects and continuous improvement.

About us Our Values At St Margaret's Hospice, our values guide everything we do. We are:

• Compassionate: Kindness and care for everyone, every day
• Collaborative: One team, working together for one goal
• Ambitious: Striving for better, now and into the future.

If these values resonate with you, we'd love to hear from you.

Why join St Margaret's Hospice? You won't just be joining a fantastic team you'll become part of a welcoming, community-minded charity making a real difference every day. We offer a supportive and inclusive working environment alongside a range of benefits including:

• Holiday entitlement: 33 days holiday including bank holidays, rising to 35 days after 1 year and increasing with length of service (pro rata for part-time employees)
• Ability to buy and sell annual leave
• NHS employees may be eligible to continue their NHS pension scheme*
• Non-NHS employees receive 6% employer and 5% employee contributions
• Employee Assistance Programme Including:
• 24/7 GP consultations
• Wellbeing and health support
• Confidential counselling
• Legal, financial and medical advice
• Expert case management support for employees and families
• Additional benefits
• Life assurance cover (2x salary)
• Health Cash Plan
• Blue Light Card discounts
• Enhanced maternity leave*
• Excellent learning and development opportunities
• Free onsite parking at Taunton and Yeovil
• Opportunities to volunteer and support fundraising initiatives
• *Eligibility criteria apply

Job responsibilities Job Purpose To provide a high standard of professional, proactive and confident executive support to the CEO and wider Executive Team, and to provide high-quality governance administration to enable the Board and its committees to operate effectively. The postholder will act as a trusted first point of contact for the CEO/Executive, manage competing priorities with discretion, and ensure meetings, papers, actions and stakeholder communications are coordinated accurately and on time - supporting the hospice to deliver its strategic vision and ambitions, regulatory compliance and outstanding care for the community of Somerset.

Responsibilities

• Support of the CEO & Executive Team
• Provide high-level diary and inbox management, anticipating needs, prioritising appropriately and ensuring the CEO/Executive are fully briefed.
• Coordinate internal and external meetings, visits and events; arrange travel and accommodation where required.
• Prepare, collate and quality-check briefing packs, presentations and correspondence; draft routine responses and communications on behalf of the CEO/Executive.
• Record, track and follow up actions arising from Executive meetings, ensuring deadlines and owners are clear and updates are captured.
• Act as a professional first point of contact for the CEO/Executive Team, fielding enquiries sensitively and coordinating timely responses.
• Handle confidential and sensitive information with the highest level of discretion, ensuring appropriate storage, access control and retention.
• Board, Committee & Governance Support
• Plan the annual cycle of Board and committee meetings, in partnership with the Chair, Committee Chairs, CEO and governance lead.
• Coordinate agendas, papers and meeting packs to agreed deadlines; ensure documentation is accurate, complete and appropriately approved.
• Attend Board/committee meetings as required to take accurate minutes, record decisions and maintain clear action logs.
• Chase actions and provide assurance that decisions are communicated and implemented, escalating risks or slippage appropriately.
• Support trustee recruitment, appointment and induction administration (including documentation, training records and declarations of interest), working with the Chair and Director of People, Development & Governance.
• Maintain governance records and registers as required (e.g., terms of reference, attendance, declarations), ensuring version control and audit-ready filing, supporting the Company Secretary to meet necessary regulations.
• Support preparation for and follow-up from regulator/assurance activity as needed (e.g., Charity Commission, CQC-related governance evidence), working with relevant leads.
• Provide assistance with corporate governance administrative duties as required liaising with the Head of Governance.
• Corporate, Office & Systems Support
• Maintain efficient and secure electronic filing and information-management systems for CEO/Executive and governance documentation, including retention and disposal in line with policy.
• Ensure meeting logistics are in place (rooms, hybrid set-up, refreshments, accessibility requirements, and technology support), liaising with internal teams such as Estates and IT as needed.
• Process Executive/Board expenses, invoices and purchasing requests in line with financial controls; allocate cost codes and maintain accurate records.
• Provide administrative and project support to key corporate workstreams (e.g., strategy delivery, quarterly KPIs, estates programme, inclusion work, stakeholder engagement) including tracking actions, preparing papers and coordinating input.
• Contribute to continuous improvement of administrative processes, templates and ways of working (including the effective use of Microsoft 365 tools such as Teams and SharePoint).
• Offer flexible cover/support during peak periods, including occasional support to reception/front-of-house arrangements as required.
• Events, Engagement & Stakeholder Communications
• Support planning and delivery of key corporate events such as the AGM, Long Service Awards, Board development sessions and leadership engagement events, ensuring actions and communications are coordinated.
• Preparation, administration and minute taking of wider organisation meetings, for example Armed Forces Project Work, Our Voice, Inclusion & Culture Programme.
• Coordinate stakeholder meetings and communications with key partners, suppliers and supporters, ensuring accurate records and follow-up.
• Build positive working relationships across the hospice, demonstrating sensitivity to the hospice environment and to interactions with patients, families, supporters and volunteers.
• Support delivery of leadership key messaging, providing content and updates for internal communications and operating as the liaison between CEO/Executive and the wider workforce.
• Safeguarding, Confidentiality & Compliance
• Work in line with hospice values, policies and procedures, including confidentiality, information governance, data protection and records management.
• Maintain appropriate professional boundaries and sensitivity within a hospice environment.
• Comply with safeguarding policies and complete mandatory training as required for the role.
• Promote equality, diversity and inclusion, and contribute to a welcoming, respectful workplace.

Person Specification

• Working with others
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with confidence liaising with senior stakeholders internally and externally
• Strong team member, excellent interpersonal skills and ability to relate to people at all levels internally and externally
• Strong interpersonal skills and emotional intelligence; able to build trust and work collaboratively
• Outcome and Results
• Exceptional organisation and prioritisation skills; able to manage multiple deadlines in a fast-moving environment
• High attention to detail, including proofreading, formatting and maintaining version control
• Capacity to understand and retain several complex workstreams and administrative functions
• Leading in your area
• Significant experience providing senior administrative, PA/EA or executive support in a complex organisation
• Experience of minute taking for senior meetings, with the ability to capture decisions and actions clearly and succinctly
• Formal experience of project management or informal oversight and coordination of multiple projects
• Experience supporting Boards/Trustees and committees, including meeting cycles, papers and governance records
• Knowledge of charity governance and/or working within health, social care or hospice settings
• Compassion
• Demonstrates empathy, respect and professionalism, recognising the sensitivity of a hospice environment and always representing the hospice appropriately.
• Builds trusted relationships and works effectively with the CEO, Executive Team, trustees, colleagues, volunteers and external partners to achieve shared goals.
• Ambition
• Takes pride in delivering a high-quality service, shows initiative, and looks for ways to improve systems and ways of working to support the hospice's strategic aims.
• General
• Acts with integrity and accountability, maintains confidentiality, and is open to feedback and learning.

Education and Qualifications

• Strong working knowledge of Microsoft 365 (Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams and SharePoint) and confidence learning new systems
• Excellent numeracy and literacy skills, with ability to read budgets and account
• Experience handling confidential and sensitive information with sound judgement and discretion
• Self-motivated, with ability to use initiative to anticipate issues, solve problems and recommend practical improvements
• Resilience and flexibility, including willingness to work outside normal hours occasionally to support key meetings/events

Disclosure and Barring Service Check This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.