Postmortem Room Assistant (ID2035)

We currently have an exciting and dynamic vacancy for a full-time (Monday-Friday) Postmortem Room Assistant within the Veterinary Investigation Centre at Shrewsbury.
This role will provide the opportunity to develop your own skills and future career. Your responsibilities will include acting as a post-mortem room assistant to our veterinary investigation officers along with associated laboratory duties, maintenance of health & safety and quality standard and, as required, support to the admin team., You will be working in a friendly and supportive team in a fast paced, reactive and varied role. You will need to have excellent organisation skills, adhere to procedures and the flexibility to turn your hand to different tasks as the situation demands. You will be engaging with a broad range of partners and forming relationships with colleagues across the wider APHA team.
Your main duties will include:
Post-mortem Room & Laboratory Duties
+ To be responsible for the receipt of carcasses/live animals and preparation of carcasses for veterinary inspection.
+ To assist veterinary colleagues in taking samples at post-mortem for testing.
+ Preparation and reading of smears.
+ Storage and archiving of samples.
+ Dispatching of samples for testing to other locations.
+ Disposal and manual handling of carcass waste.
+ Preparation of reagents.
+ Cleaning/sterilising equipment and facilities.
+ Laundry duties.
+ Staining smears for specific organisms such as Coxiella, Brucella and Chlamydophila.
+ Worm egg counting from faecal samples.
+ Maintaining adequate levels of consumables, placing orders with procurement team as required.
Safety, Health and Wellbeing
+ To comply with APHA Health, Safety and Welfare policies and procedures.
+ To assist the VIOs with management of safety within the laboratory.
+ To ensure that chemicals and disinfectants are managed and stored safely.
Additional Duties
+ Participation and planning of Health & Safety contingency exercises.
+ Routine monitoring and maintenance of equipment.
+ Participation in audits to maintain accreditation to ISO17025:2017.
Administrative procedures
+ Providing support, as required, with various administrative duties to the immediate and, when required, wider team including, but not limited to, booking in submissions, inputting data onto APHA data systems, preparation of reports and filing.
+ Answering the TSE Helpline – checking details of fallen stock against the cattle tracing database.
Customer Service
+ To liaise with, and provide excellent customer service to Stakeholders, Delivery Partners and Customers, both internal and external, to understand and appreciate their needs and requirements. Some roles will involve arranging collection of dead or diseased animals for postmortem, liaising with farmers, haulage companies and local vet practices.
+ Liaising with laboratories over test results and reports., We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
+ Delivering at Pace
+ Working Together
+ Making Effective Decisions
We only ask for evidence of these behaviours on your application form:
+ Delivering at Pace, As part of the pre-employment process for this post, successful candidate(s) will be able to agree a contractual workplace from those locations listed in this advert. The agreed contractual workplace is then the substantive and permanent place of work for the successful candidate(s)
Where the location is ‘National’ the successful appointee should discuss and agree an appropriate contractual location in line with both Defra’s location policy and site capacity, prior to proceeding with pre-employment processes.
Successful applicants currently employed by the hiring Defra organisation for this post may choose to remain in their current contractual location or may choose to change contractual location to one of those listed above. This should be discussed and agreed prior to proceeding with pre-employment processes.
The agreed amount of time spent at a workplace for this post will reflect the requirement for Civil Servants to spend at least 60% of their working time in an organisation workplace with the option to work the remaining time flexibly from home. Working time spent at a workplace may include time spent at other organisational locations including field-based operational locations, together with supplier, customer or partner locations. This is a non-contractual agreement which is consistent with common Civil Service expectations.
Travel costs to non-contractual workplaces will be subject to departmental travel and subsistence policies. Travel costs to contractual workplaces are the responsibility of the employee.
The successful candidate is required to carry out all their duties from a UK location, and cannot do so from an overseas location at any time.
Defra includes the core department, APHA, RPA, Cefas and VMD.
The role is based at APHA Shrewsbury. Due to the nature of this post, you will need to be on-site five days a week.
Reserve List
A reserve list may be held for a period of 12 months from which further appointments can be made., + UK nationals
+ nationals of the Republic of Ireland
+ nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
+ nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
+ nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
+ individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
+ Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service
Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service
The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.
We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).
The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.
The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

Diversity and Inclusion
The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information
This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.
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.

Do you want to apply your communication and problem-solving skills in a role that provides variety and flexibility?
Do you have excellent communication skills?
Do you thrive in a fast-paced, changing environment?, + Well-organised and be able to respond to competing priorities, adapting skills and resources to changing circumstances.
+ A team player, working well with others but can carry out individual tasks as required with the minimum of supervision.
+ Ability to communicate clearly and effectively both verbally and in writing.
+ Proactive in their approach to work.
+ Accuracy inputting data and storing of records.
+ Be physically fit.
+ Experience of using Microsoft packages Outlook, Excel, Word and be able to demonstrate a good level of IT literacy.
+ Customer service focused., Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.
People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Alongside your salary of £23,811, Animal and Plant Health Agency contributes £6,428 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.
In return for your dedication, we will support your ongoing personal development through appropriate training. Inclusion, support, and the development of our people matter to us. We aim to support the career and personal wellbeing of everyone in APHA. Our benefits include generous annual leave, flexible working, a contributory pension, staff bonuses and recognition, salary sacrifice benefit options, and an employee discount scheme., New entrants are expected to start on the minimum of the pay band.
Reasonable Adjustment
If a person with disabilities is put at a substantial disadvantage compared to a non-disabled person, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes.