Job Introduction
The Building and Supporting Your Future Teams and Child Safety and Asylum Team provide social work support to our children in long-term care placements, unaccompanied minors and support to our care leavers.
The Role
Most work involves both written and oral communication to provide high quality customer care and the production of accurate and professional records, as well as the ability to multi-task and work well under pressure.
Your duties will include many or all of the following:
Dealing with and signposting queries via email and telephone, communicating with professionals and service users daily. Booking appointments and arranging meetings. Sorting in-coming and out-going post, dealing with all correspondence in confidence. Processing purchase orders, i.e. purchasing items as required and correlation of invoices. Carrying out all necessary word processing, spreadsheets, database and presentation duties. Uploading correspondence and recording information onto caseload systems.
Facilitating the asylum unaccompanied minor's administration process and updating relevant systems in relation to government returns and related in-house processes and procedures. Arranging interpreters on behalf of the team. Taking minutes of more complex meetings, Safeguarding Strategy meetings and often of a sensitive and/or confidential nature.
Please ensure that you read the full job profile attached for the details and expectations of this role, paying particular attention the section 'Who is the person' as you will need to refer to this when completing your Personal statement.
The ideal candidate
You will need to
- Have experience in administrative roles (ideally within Children’s or Young People’s Services).
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Be able to take accurate minutes of complex and confidential meetings.
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Be proficient in Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint, Outlook).
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Excellent attention to detail, organisational skills, and the ability to prioritise workloads.
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Demonstrate resilience and professionalism when dealing with sensitive information.
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Understand Data Protection and Safeguarding principles.
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Provide outstanding customer service and support to both internal and external stakeholders.
Working Arrangements: Initially work at Civic Offices until competent to work in a hybrid way after 5 months probationary period
Interview details: Interviews will be held on 19th August 2026
About Portsmouth City Council
Portsmouth City Council is a unique organisation, committed to making a difference, and is guided by core values that set who we are as people, what we stand for, and how we act.
We are committed to our values of respect, integrity, collaboration, inclusivity and being people-focussed. These values set out how we can contribute to the success of the council and our own success as individuals. Learn more about our values and behaviours.
Application process
We anonymise applications during application & shortlisting to ensure only relevant information is considered.
We encourage candidates to add all career and education history to their application, as we do not review CVs as part of the shortlisting process.
As part of your application, we ask that you complete a personal statement, this statement is crucial and is where you must demonstrate how you meet the requirements of the job against each of the points described in the 'Who is the Person' points on the Job Profile using examples from your experience or transferable skills. This might be through qualifications or descriptive examples from your work / personal experience.
We are a disability confident employer and Armed Forces Covenant gold standard. More information can be found at Equality, diversity and inclusion - Careers portal
We are committed to offering an interview to all those candidates that qualify under our corporate commitments and meet the minimum criteria, however, for roles that receive a large number of applications, we will select the candidates that best meet the minimum criteria.
You will need to demonstrate that you have the Right to Work in the UK. No post will be offered without it. We are not able to offer sponsorship for this position.
Should you require any support in completing the application form please contact [email protected] or call the recruitment team on 023 92 616 800.
Safeguarding
Portsmouth City Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, and young people, and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. Every post is subject to PCC and Portsmouth Safeguarding Children Partnership safer recruitment procedures.
Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) at Standard/Enhanced level will be required prior to any offer of employment and this post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974. Please read the relevant DBS privacy notice before submitting any information.
