Description Discover yourself in Lewisham where what you do makes a difference to our vibrant and culturally diverse communities! We have a rich history of welcoming people from all over the world and are proud to be recognised as the UK’s first Borough of Sanctuary, for our work in championing the rights of refugees and migrants. Introduction Do you want to make a positive difference to the lives of children and families in Lewisham? If so, we would like to hear from you. We are currently recruiting Business Support Officers to support the development of Children’s Social Care services. What’s the role? We are on an exciting journey of change in Children’s Social Care and are making improvements based on the Signs of Safety approach. As part of our improvement journey we have reviewed the organisation of the workforce alongside the business processes and administrative support to ensure this meets with the needs of Children’s Social Care. We are now looking for people who are willing to work flexibly and in collaboration with others to fulfil service needs. The main areas of support include: Customer Contact : dealing professionally and sensitively with enquiries from members of the public and other professionals. Maintaining a high standard of customer care with colleagues and other partner agencies. Receiving & accurately logging data and information on our databases, ensuring that the appropriate action is taken in accordance with given timescales, processes and procedures. General administrative support : high volume admin tasks, taking notes at meetings or other events, processing applications, organising staff visits and meetings, organisation and administrative support to highly sensitive and confidential meetings, support the collation of data for Freedom of Information requests and basic project management support. General office duties include filing, photocopying, scanning, sending & receiving post, maintain accuracy of databases and retrieving information from electronic and archive storage. Undertaking reception duties and supporting business continuity processes. Finance : ordering goods and services, processing invoices, taking payments from customers, processing cash/cheques/BACS payments and managing prepaid cards and travel requests all in line with financial regulations. ICT : trouble-shooting for Microsoft Office Word, Excel and Outlook & line-of-business systems or specialist applications, managing requests for a range of ICT and mobile phone requests, such as setting up user accounts, maintaining telephone and email lists. Property & equipment : Receiving deliveries, maintaining storage spaces, keeping office supplies and ICT equipment up to date, undertaking health & safety duties HR : Supporting data collection, recruitment activities, organisation of induction and training for all new staff What’s in it for you? Excellent training and development opportunities, plus a range of benefits including: Generous holiday allowance Local Government Pension scheme Flexible working and family friendly policies Season ticket and bicycle loans A range of staff discounts including local subsidised gym memberships Supportive staff networks What we’re looking for We want to recruit permanent business support staff who are keen to help deliver our vision which is underpinned by the following values: Accountability - understanding our role and being accountable for our own actions Child’s Story - putting the child at the centre of plans and actions Quality Assurance providing good quality service and seeking feedback so we can continue to improve on what we do One Service - working in collaboration with others to meet our aims Thinking - clearly and calmly to reach decisions Relationships - building and maintaining excellent relationships within children, families, colleagues, partners and others outside of the division Purposeful plans - being smart, innovative and collaborative in our planning The successful candidate will have an understanding of the services provided by Children’s Social Care and be committed to making a positive contribution to the workforce. These positions will involve working in a sensitive and highly confidential environment with some exposure to distressing information about families and young people’s circumstances. This can be a fast paced environment, so we are looking for people who can think clearly and calmly to ensure systems and processes are accurately maintained. You will have the ability to prioritise changing workloads and be proactive in promoting efficient and effective ways of working to meet service demands and statutory guidelines. In addition, you should be an effective communicator and someone who excels in consistently delivering excellent customer care to service users, internal staff and external partner agencies. You should be confident in using your own initiative and be a flexible and effective team player. Most of the information we capture and process is held within a range of line-of-business systems or specialist applications e.g. LCS, EHM, ContrOCC, Oracle and SharePoint so you will need to be confident in navigating and learning the use of a range of IT applications including core packages such as MS Outlook, Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Assessments of customer service and administration skills will be a part of the selection process. In return, we’ll offer excellent development opportunities, plus a range of benefits that includes a career average pension scheme and the opportunity to make a real difference to our local community. Location Whilst the service is primarily based in Laurence House, 1 Catford Road, Catford, London, SE6 4RU, we operate a hybrid approach whereby you may be required to work both in the office and from home as determined by service requirements. Applicant handbook - please read the guidance in this handbook when applying. It is essential that you complete the application fully and that your supporting statement covers how you meet each of the person specification criteria listed. For an informal discussion about this job, please contact Kaley Rual 020 8314 9129. Please click here to view the Job Description and Person Specification Salary £32,442 - £33,384 per annum (Scale 4) N.B: All appointments will be offered at the minimum spinal column point (SCP) for the grade of the role. The only exception to this will be when matching current salary (up to the maximum of the scale), which is subject to evidential proof. Diversity Lewisham Council is a Disability Confident employer. We welcome and encourage job applications of all abilities. If you require any reasonable adjustments in the application or interview, please contact the lead contact on this advert. We will make reasonable adjustments to make sure our disabled applicants and those with health conditions are supported throughout our recruitment process. We support the access to work scheme, further details are available at www.gov.uk/access-to-work/apply The Council has a dedicated employment support service, Lewisham Works, which offers Lewisham residents guidance in relation to applying for jobs. If you want to join Lewisham Works, please email JobsAndSkills@lewisham.gov.uk and an advisor will be in touch with you. The Council reserves the right to close adverts early if there is a large response. Let’s stay connected, follow us on social media: LinkedIn Facebook Twitter Instagram