Service support officer

Professional Practice Support is brought together to underpin service delivery by providing effective customer‑focused administrative support. This includes managing the front‑of‑house staff team, assisting the group manager on health and safety requirements, financial transactions and monitoring, maintaining databases, acting as the link between customer access channels and the delivery of services through the scheduling of requests, elements of interaction with customers, stakeholders, partners and members, and other general administrative functions.

The post holder will provide effective, efficient and customer‑focused support services to designated Service Teams, ensuring compliance with procedures and practices to support the delivery of efficient front‑line services. The post holder will also provide support to the Professional Group Leader as required.

Principal Accountabilities

1. Deliver high quality, efficient and responsive service support in line with practices and procedures to support the delivery of customer‑focused services. Provide a wide range of office‑based services including communicating and being the first contact with vulnerable and at times emotionally charged customers.
2. Promote and safeguard the welfare of children, young people and/or vulnerable adults.
3. Ensure excellent customer service and meet customer promises and service standards of the department and across other service areas as required. Provide a wide range of office‑based services and communicate with members of the public, the call centre and internal and external agencies to ensure best service delivery.
4. Provide guidance and support to customers, officers and team members using knowledge and skills, allocating information and sourcing relevant advice via appropriate channels.
5. Directly support the Locality Safeguarding Group Manager and Professional Practice Group Leader by overseeing property maintenance and health and safety for the site and offices, ensuring a healthy, safe and productive working environment. Manage day‑to‑day site operations, conduct corporate periodic fire safety checks, fire risk assessments, compile fit‑for‑purpose in‑house health and safety procedures, conduct fire evacuations, building risk assessments and monitor annual inspections of building equipment. Investigate, report and rectify all building maintenance and health and safety issues/incidents using Airs web and NPS portal in line with Corporate Health and Safety protocol. Maintain inventory of equipment, IT and furniture.
6. Maintain a range of highly confidential filing systems for non‑active filing, including sensitive personal information. Update, retrieve and track file locations on Carefirst/Liquid Logic as required. Archive and destroy in accordance with statutory and departmental requirements.
7. Directly manage a small staff team, coordinating, allocating and monitoring support. Monitor performance and skills to ensure a motivated and effective workforce. Lead recruitment and selection of staff, plan effective inductions, deliver in‑house training, supervision, conduct PPDs, and manage individual learning and development. Allocate, organise and prioritise their work to meet departmental requirements. Assist Professional Practice Managers with any appropriate work requests.
8. Contribute to the acquisition and control of financial provision across Localities and Children Homes by maintaining financial documents to ensure records are accurately processed following corporate protocol. Process requests for goods and services following appropriate procurement procedures, verify deliveries, resolve discrepancies, update records, and prepare financial documents for payment. Manage location and acquisition of specialised items and monitor system for ordering, storage and distribution of stationery, equipment and supplies.
9. Responsibly manage the distribution of large cash amounts across localities and children's homes. Guide Social work teams and Children Home staff on cash protocol and alternative purchase methods. Monitor and balance a large imprest account, reconcile against bank statements, cancel outdated cheques, address discrepancies, liaise with audit. Ensure Section 17 spend is accurately coded to relevant analysis code and recorded on the relevant spreadsheet.
10. Prepare financial information reports for the Group Manager and Consultant Social Workers, advising on anomalies in conjunction with financial regulations and audit guidelines. Contribute to overall distribution of budget coding by monitoring spend and advising the Group Manager on cost distribution. Rectify budget discrepancies by investigating unexplained spend, identifying correct cost centre and processing journal transfers.

Compensation

Grades: 5.
Pay Ranges: £26,824.00 – £29,064.00.
Job Classifications: 3‑Not Politically Restricted, Designated As Not Politically Sensitive (Philips Restricted Posts), 5‑Enhanced (Child Workforce – Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS)), Casual (Travel Allowance Policy), No – Childcare Disqualification Requirement, No – Statutory Post, OSP – Other Support Staff (School Workforce Census).

Benefits

• A competitive salary
• An excellent pension through the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS)
• Initially 23 days annual leave depending on length of service, plus eight public holidays per year, and three additional days off (one in May/August and one during the Christmas/New Year period)
• Career development and learning experiences from a range of training courses and learning methods
• Supportive and forward‑thinking culture
• Great career development opportunities

Disability Confident

A Disability Confident employer will generally offer an interview to any applicant that declares they have a disability and meets the minimum criteria for the job as defined by the employer. In certain recruitment situations such as high‑volume, seasonal and high‑peak times, the employer may wish to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled and non‑disabled people. For more details please go to Disability Confident.

Equality and Inclusion

We are committed to increasing the diversity, equality, and inclusion within our workforce to represent the people we serve and build an environment in which everyone can feel like they belong. We encourage people from all backgrounds to apply.

Safeguarding

The Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults and expects all employees and volunteers to share this commitment.