Admin Officer (Id1839)

Do you want a role safeguarding standards of animal and plant health and welfare? If so, we would love to hear from you!

The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) is an executive agency of the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, and works on behalf of the Scottish Government and Welsh Government. Our diverse teams of over 3,000 skilled and committed professionals come together to provide research, advice and support to UK Government for safeguarding animal, public and plant health for benefit of the environment and economy.

The duties of a scientist /technician in APHA laboratories will include sample testing in order to establish the diagnosis of animal disease, monitoring animal health, screening for incursion of exotic disease, and performing statutory testing. A wide variety of tests are undertaken utilising serology, microbiology, parasitology and molecular biology techniques. All work is undertaken in a minimum of Containment level 1 facilities, with some work being undertaken at the higher containment levels. The job involves working with pathogens and hazardous samples, and must be undertaken following safe working practices as specified in instructions and safety documentation. All laboratories perform to ISO 17025 standards, and all work must conform to these standards. The APHA operate a network of laboratories offering different test portfolios at each site, requiring the job holder to understand the wider role of the department, and how this fits with other departments of the wider agency.

This role is part-time, working Wednesday to Friday.

Administrative procedures/ office duties

• Take ownership for a set of defined admin procedures as determined by line management.
• Ensure actions are carried out in accordance with the procedures and within the necessary timescales.
• Providing support and guidance to others (internally & externally) on procedures.
• Arrange despatch of packages sent via courier

Reception/Telephone Duties

• Signing in visitors, signing in parcels, dealing with queries from the general public.
• Operation of small desktop telephone switchboards
• Taking incoming calls, answering simple queries or taking messages and passing them onto appropriate persons.

Office Equipment

• The use of a range of computer software, for example, agency databases, Microsoft packages and internet. Maintain awareness of training manuals and local guidance notes on each. Be able to use and report problems for all the software in the role. The use of office equipment to include computers & peripherals, photocopiers etc.

Filing

• Deputy Records Management Officer Role
• Maintaining registry system.
• Retrieve archived reports and requested by lab staff.

Purchasing

• Responsible for ordering lab supplies including the use of I-procurement as requested.
• Responsible for collating all purchase order paperwork, processing orders, matching, checking invoices, raising credit notes and passing to managers for approval.

Reports

• Booking in and updating daily submissions on LIMS.
• Extraction of test results from RL reporting system and incorporation into a Word report.
• Responsibility for the correct storage of electronic reports.

Sample Reception

• Unpack daily submitted samples from various APHA laboratories, checking to ensure samples match paperwork according and receiving said samples on SMS.
• Triage samples submitted direct from Public/PVS/Outside Bodies.

Lab departments

• Assisting in receipt of samples, booking in of samples and reporting of results where required.
• Other lab duties as required by managers.