Job title: Senior Administration Assistant
Salary: B3 £26,403 - £28,142
Hours: 37
Contract: Permanent
Location: Role based at Merrion House, but you may be asked to work across other sites
As a senior administration assistant, you will thrive on being part of a team that provides support for the most vulnerable children and adults in Leeds.
Leeds City Council is one of the largest employers in the region with over 14,000 employees. We seek to recruit and develop talented individuals who embody our council values and ambitions.
About you
As a senior administration assistant, you will bring to the role:
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The interpersonal and communication skills required to deal with a wide range of people including face-to-face, telephone and written communication skills. Including the processes for dealing with varied information with a range of audiences.
- Be able to work with, and within, multiple teams of staff and contribute to its development with suggestions for new ways of working.
- Have experience of working on your own and using your initiative to adhere to timescales and deadlines.
- Bring your knowledge of the applications, systems and IT programmes utilised by the service and being able to accurately record and retrieve information
- Bring you experience and understanding of the importance of providing excellent customer services and experience of dealing positively with challenging situations.
About the role
This role provides administration support to the Duty Advice Team is fundamental in supporting Children & Families with their statutory child safeguarding and protection responsibilities. You will be required to answer and refer a large volume of incoming calls throughout the day and therefore will speak directly to professionals, partners and families.
By providing administrative support you will find this is a rewarding role if you have an interest in supporting professionals to help some of our most vulnerable families. You would be required to deal with sensitive and confidential information professionally and in accordance with strict deadlines and information governance requirements. You will have access to emotive and difficult information therefore it is important that you understand and appreciate the nature of this role, and your own emotional resilience if you are successful in the recruitment process. Training will be in person at Merrion House, after the training is completed, a hybrid working pattern will be discussed.
What we offer you
We take pride in offering the best employee experience, with benefits including:
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a competitive salary and annual leave entitlement plus statutory holidays
- membership of the West Yorkshire Pension Fund with generous employer contributions
- flexible and hybrid working arrangements subject to service requirements
- a clear career pathway and continuing professional development opportunities
- a range of staff benefits to help you boost your wellbeing and make your money go further
How to apply
Please complete the online application form.
Read our guidance for further advice. Please check your information carefully and ensure you complete all sections before submitting your application.
If you have any queries or would like an informal chat about the role please contact Anisha Amin, Administrative Supervisor on 0113 378 9651
We welcome applications from everyone and actively seek a diverse range of applicants from all backgrounds and cultures. We particularly encourage applications from, but not limited to, women, carers, veterans as well as LGBT+, ethnically diverse, disabled and care experienced people.
This role is based in the UK. Home Office guidance states that candidates must evidence their right to work in the UK prior to commencing employment, either as a UK or Irish citizen, under the EU Settlement scheme or having secured any other relevant work visa.
If you do not have the right to work in the UK, you must consider your own eligibility for sponsorship for a particular role through the Skilled Worker visa route before applying. To be eligible for sponsorship you'll usually need to be paid the standard salary rate of at least £41,700 per year or meet one of the other eligibility criteria. Ensure you are eligible before applying.
Job Description
Shared Services consists of employees in the Business Support Centre, Business Administration Service and Contact Centre. These services provide administration support activities to a wide range of teams and services across the council. We help the council to streamline operations by redesigning processes, reviewing models of delivery to enable better sharing of resources and exploiting existing or introducing new technology to modernise the way we work.
Our staff use a range of computer programmes and systems to support services which include those working with teams based across the council in a number of different administration roles. The role involves hybrid working (home/office dependant on service need), potentially working face-to-face with customers and working within the council boundaries as required.
Specific team job purposes are listed below.
Responsibilities:
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Work with high levels of accuracy for tasks such as checking documents and recording numerical and alphabetical information.
- Identify problems and areas for improvement and offer solutions.
- Support staff and develop new team members.
- Use initiative and judgement where appropriate, providing outcomes and solutions for customers from a range of options.
- Work on your own, manage your own workload and use your initiative to adhere to time scales and deadlines.
- Carry out a range of administrative duties.
- Collate data and use it to produce reports.
- Understand legal business, financial, audit, confidential and operational requirements of the service, and the impact on its day-to-day work.
- Maintain effective relationships with other Leeds City Council staff, Elected Members, members of the public and other partnership organisations as appropriate.
- Work flexibly moving within service areas, working at different locations depending on service demand
- Flexible and adaptable to change to assist other services as required commensurate to grade
- Participate in appraisal, training and development activities as necessary to ensure up to date knowledge and skills
- Improve own practice through observation, evaluation, discussion with colleagues and development programmes.
- Work collaboratively with colleagues, knowing when to seek help and advice.
- Contribute to the overall ethos, work, and aims of the service by attending relevant meetings, training days/events as requested.
- Be aware of and comply with Leeds City Council policies and procedures e.g. child protection, health, safety and security, confidentiality and data protection, reporting all concerns to an appropriate person
- Be aware of and support difference and ensure equality for all working in an anti-discriminatory manner, upholding and promoting the values, standards and equal opportunities of Leeds City Council.
- Recognise and appropriately challenge any incidents of racism, bullying, harassment or victimisation and any form of abuse of equal opportunities, ensuring compliance with relevant policies and procedures.
- The Council has adopted a flexibility protocol, and this role will be expected to work within these parameters.
- The duties outlined are not meant as an exhaustive list and will also comprise any other duties within the spirit of the post commensurate with the job evaluation outcome for this post.
Qualifications: Qualifications demonstrating ability in numeracy and literacy or equivalent knowledge
PERSONAL SPECIFICATION
ESSENTIAL REQUIREMENTS: It is essential that the Candidate should be able to demonstrate the following criteria for the post within the context of the specific role duties and responsibilities: Candidates will only be shortlisted for interview if they can demonstrate on the application form that they meet all the essential requirements.
Method of Assessment will be through one or more of the following Application Form, Test, Interview or Certificate.
Skills Required
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Well-developed interpersonal and communication skills with a wide range of people including face-to-face, telephone and written communication skills. Including the processes for dealing with varied information with a range of audiences.
- Able to work with, and within, multiple teams of staff and contribute to its development with suggestions for new ways of working
Knowledge Required
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Knowledge of the applications, systems and IT programmes utilised by the service and being able to accurately record and retrieve information.
Experience Required
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Of working on your own and using your initiative to adhere to timescales and deadlines.
- Experience and understanding of the importance of providing excellent customer services
- Of dealing positively with challenging situations.
Behavioural & other Characteristics required
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Committed to continuous improvement.
- Able to understand and observe Leeds City Council Equality and Diversity Policies.
- Carry out all duties having regard to an employee’s responsibility under Health & Safety Policies.
- Willingness to actively participate in training and development activities to ensure up to date knowledge, skills and continuous professional development
- Understand and embrace our values, behaviours and codes of conduct.
DESIRABLE REQUIREMENTS: It is desirable that the Candidate should be able to demonstrate the following criteria for the post within the context of the specific role duties and responsibilities: Candidates are not required to meet all the Desirable requirements however these may be used to distinguish between acceptable candidates.
Knowledge Required
Specific Job Purposes
Duty & Advice / Domestic Violence Front Door - This role involves providing high-quality front-line telephone advice and other administration related support to customers contacting the Children & Families Duty and Advice Team. You will ensure a responsive, professional and caring service is provided to customers and appropriate safeguarding referrals are made to the Social Work Duty and Advice Team. You will work closely alongside social work colleagues including Social Workers, Team Managers and Service Delivery Managers to ensure this critical service runs smoothly. This is a highly sensitive safeguarding support role where you will be required to comply with information governance practices and deal with emotionally sensitive telephone referrals. You would be required to maintain a good knowledge of customer issues, processes and related services to enable you to deal with and resolve customer enquiries without assistance, and to direct customers to the correct contact point in complex cases. You will also support with MARAC/DRAM administration arrangements which deals with cases of high-risk domestic violence.
