About us at Hounslow

We’d love you to join us at the London Borough of Hounslow! Our people are deeply committed to providing excellent services to our residents, doing all we can to make lives as good as they can be.

We are an outstanding council, serving an outstanding borough. With brilliant, visionary leadership, a dynamic Cabinet and a can-do culture, we’ve built strong partnerships which have transformed how we serve one of London’s most diverse boroughs. Hounslow is the world in one place and full of potential. We are stepping up for our residents like never before.

About our Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion

We live by five core values: Lead with Heart, Do New, Pass on the Power, Harness the Mix and Be a Rock. All our work has equality, diversity and inclusion at its very heart, best articulated in “Harness the Mix”. It's about breaking down barriers between our parts and people and unlocking the problem-solving power of our amazing mix of minds.

We serve a diverse community, we have a diverse workforce and we are committed to being an inclusive employer.

We work hard to create representation across our workforce and leadership community, we have thriving employee network groups and our learning and development programmes help us lead, model and breathe ways of working that eliminate inequality, inequity, injustice and bias.

As part of this and under our commitments as a Disability Confident Employer, we make reasonable adjustments to accommodate our candidates. There’s space for you to tell us what you need within our application form.

Our Benefits

If you join us, you’ll have access to a range of employee benefits. Read more about these here.

About The Role

This is an exciting opportunity to be part of the Community Hub and Library team in the London Borough of Hounslow as a Community and Library Assistant, working an 18-hour fixed term contract for 18 months.

The role is based at Bedfont Community Hub and Library, but flexibility is required, as you will need to be able to work at any of the 11 community hubs and libraries within the London borough of Hounslow.

As a Community and Library Assistant, you will play a pivotal role in providing access to community hub and library services, community engagement, events and activities and access to council and partner services.

The successful candidates will deliver the best visitor experience and act as the first point of contact for the Community Hub and Library. You will require a strong skill set across customer service, communication and organisation, children and adult activities, ICT and cash handling.

Work Pattern

Week 1 - Monday 1.15 - 8, Tuesday 9.30 - 5.30
Week 2 - Monday 1.15 - 8, Tuesday 9.30 - 5.30, Saturday 9 - 5.30
Sunday 11- 4 at Hounslow library by rota every 10 weeks

Interview

The interview will consist of 5 questions followed by the reading of a book from the baby book or picture book collection and a strict ordering test. At the interview start time you will be given 10 minutes to choose a book from the selection provided and to preview the questions.

About The Team You’ll Be Working In

You’ll be based with the Community Hubs and Libraries team. Our community hubs and libraries offer residents access to information and resources, support, books, children and adult activities, computers, photocopying, free wi-fi, study spaces, room hire and more.

They provide spaces for our residents to study and learn, build social connection through activities and access advice and guidance and council services.

We have over 230,000 items available to residents excluding the specialist collections and c.345,000 annual visits. We are also part of The Libraries Consortium which gives our members access to more than 3 million items.

About You

• Deliver the best visitor experience in a friendly and engaging manner in person, by phone, and email.

• Offer advice, guidance and assistance to customers on the use of the community hub and library services, resources, materials, computers and applications, council services and other library facilities.

• Use a range of ICT software and hardware, databases, internet search, including Microsoft Office.

• Show initiative and have a can-do attitude with the ability to work unsupervised.

• Deal with challenging situations and behaviour in a calm and professional manner.

• Prepare and deliver fun and engaging activities for both children and adults including book clubs, crafts and storytime sessions and create promotional materials.Take a positive role promoting the community hub and library service to ensure the facilities are always well-presented and tidy.

• Carry out cash-handling and banking with accuracy and attention to detail.

Qualifications:

English A-C GCSE or equivalent or able to demonstrate an equivalent level of attainment through qualification or experience in a relevant discipline.

Essential for the Role:

Enhanced DBS

Read more about the work you’ll be doing in the Role Profile.

When Interviews Will Be Held And Who To Contact

The key information you need about the role should be in the role profile, but if you have any further questions about the role, please contact:

Email: Michael.McGovern@hounslow.gov.uk

Interviews for this job will be held during week commencing Monday 28th September 2026.