The Policy Support Officer supports the NSW Ministry of Health Investigations and Privacy Teams. Daily work can include records, correspondence, approvals, reports, website updates and shared mailboxes connected with privacy matters and serious wrongdoing concerns. View the official job ad.
The application asks for a resume, a cover letter and one targeted response. The targeted question carries the richest evidence because it asks how you supported a significant project while other priorities continued. Choose an example with a clear deadline, several moving parts and a challenge that required your judgement.
Your answer should let the reader see your working method. Explain how you tracked actions, kept records accurate, obtained approvals and told colleagues about changes. Include the point where pressure increased and show how your response protected the project.
In This Guide
- Role snapshot
- Application requirements
- Targeted response guidance
- Evidence to include
- Resume guidance
- Application help
Policy Support Officer Role Snapshot
| Role title | Policy Support Officer (Privacy and Investigations) |
|---|---|
| Organisation | NSW Ministry of Health |
| Location | St Leonards |
| Job reference | REQ672829 |
| Work type | Ongoing, full-time |
| Grade | Crown Clerk 5/6 |
| Salary | $102,936 to $113,579 plus superannuation |
| Closing date | 12 August 2026 at 11:59pm |
| Official job ad | View the official job ad |
Application Requirements For Policy Support Officer
- A resume with a maximum length of 3 pages
- A cover letter between 1 and 2 pages
- One targeted response with a maximum length of 1 page
Targeted question
Using an example from a recent role, describe how you supported your team in the delivery of a significant project, while also meeting the demands in other priority areas of the role. Outline what challenges arose and how you addressed them.
Eligibility
Check the citizenship, residency or work-rights requirements in the advertisement and application portal before lodging your documents.
How To Build The Targeted Response
Choose one recent project where your support affected delivery. Open with the project purpose, deadline and your responsibility, then identify the other work that remained with you. These details establish the pressure around the example without consuming much of the one-page allowance.
Give the largest share of the response to your actions. Show how you set priorities, recorded decisions, followed up contributors and maintained the quality of documents or data. When a challenge arose, explain what you learned, who needed an update and how you adjusted the work plan.
Close the example with specific delivery evidence. Useful results include an approval secured by the deadline, a report issued with accurate data, a backlog cleared during the project or a process change that helped the team keep control of later work.
| Part of the response | What to cover |
|---|---|
| Project context | Name the deliverable, its purpose, the timeframe and the people you supported. |
| Competing work | Identify the regular responsibilities or urgent requests that continued during the project. |
| Challenge | Describe the event that placed delivery at risk, such as missing information, a changed deadline, an approval delay or a records issue. |
| Your actions | Explain your planning, communication, tracking and quality checks, including any escalation or reprioritisation you handled. |
| Result | State what the team delivered and how your support affected timeliness, accuracy or control. |
Evidence To Include Across The Application
| Evidence area | Details that suit this vacancy |
|---|---|
| Coordination | Show how you monitored deadlines, dependencies and approval points across a busy work program. |
| Sensitive records | Describe the controls you used for correspondence, files, mailboxes or case information where access and accuracy mattered. |
| Written work | Refer to briefs, reports, meeting papers or web content that you prepared for a defined audience. |
| Judgement | Use an example where you identified a risk, raised it with the right person and helped the team take a sound next step. |
| Public-sector conduct | Explain how confidentiality, fairness and reliable recordkeeping shaped your work in a sensitive matter. |
Using The Cover Letter
Open with your experience in policy, program or administrative support and name the environments where you have handled sensitive information. Use a compact example that shows accurate written work or dependable records management. Your interest in the position can connect to the Ministry’s privacy and investigations responsibilities through work you have already performed.
Keep the project example for the targeted response. The cover letter can broaden the picture by showing another part of your fit, such as correspondence, reporting, website maintenance, onboarding support or preparation of papers for approval.
How To Strengthen Your Resume
Place recent support experience on the first page with the systems, document types and stakeholders you worked with. Achievement bullets can show volume, deadlines and improvements: a coordinated reporting cycle, an organised shared mailbox, an updated records process or a set of accurate executive papers.
Use three pages carefully by trimming routine duty lists. Give more space to work involving privacy, investigations, governance, complaints, fraud control, policy support or confidential records because those examples help the reader place you in this team.
Before You Submit
- Answer every part of the targeted question through one recent example.
- Show how other priorities continued while you supported the project.
- Give the challenge a clear effect on timing, quality, information or approvals.
- State your individual actions and the result the team achieved.
- Check that the resume, cover letter and response meet their page limits.
Help With Your Policy Support Officer Application
Use the free NSW Government cover letter template to organise your cover letter. For help selecting and shaping the targeted example, request application support.
Return to the official job ad before submitting to confirm the wording, limits and portal instructions.