Job title: Senior Administration Assistant

Salary: B3 £26,403 - £28, 142

Hours: 37

Contract: Permanent

Location: East Leeds – Kernel House, LS14

We are looking to recruit a Senior Administration Assistant to support our Children & Families services with a strong focus on performance, reporting, data quality and statutory activity.

You will provide accurate and timely administrative and performance support to service managers and operational teams, contributing to statutory returns, internal reporting, panels and meetings.

The role involves handling sensitive and confidential information, working to strict deadlines and supporting the smooth running of critical safeguarding and decision‑making processes.

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:

Ability to analyse and collate data and use it to produce reports
Excellent communication skills, with a positive attitude
Flexibility and Resilience
Strong organisational skills
Strong minute taking skills, or a willingness to learn

About the role

The Business Administration Service (BAS) provides administrative support across Leeds City Council and all its services. The aim of BAS is to develop a professional service which meets service needs and supports the delivery of the Best Council Plan, ensuring the efficient use of resources, capacity, and technology.

As a Senior Administration Assistant, you’ll thrive on working in a fast-paced working environment. This role involves managing the administration of fostering panel outcomes, minute taking, updating database systems on a regular basis, tracking data for statistical purposes and producing a variety of regular reports. Strong multitasking skills and a keen interest in spreadsheets are essential.

You may have access to emotive and difficult information therefore it is important that you understand and appreciate the nature of this role, and the emotional resilience required.

The role involves hybrid working with a minimum of 3 days a week in the office, but flexibility is essential dependent on service need and you may be required to work at additional office locations. During your training period, you will be required to do more days in the office.

What we offer you

We take pride in offering the best employee experience, with benefits including:

a competitive salary and annual leave entitlement plus statutory holidays
membership of the West Yorkshire Pension Fund with generous employer contribution
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 on completing your application.

If you have any queries or would like an informal chat about the role please contact:

Gaynor Watson, Team Co-ordinator on 0113 378 8648/ gaynor.watson@leeds.gov.ukor Caroline Regan (Mon – Wed), Team Leader 0113 3780156/ caroline.regan@leeds.gov.uk

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 visaroute 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. Please ensure you are eligible before applying.

Job Description

Job Purpose:

The Business Administration Service provides 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.

This role provides high-quality administrative and data support to the fostering and placements service. The postholder is responsible for producing regular and ad hoc reports, maintaining accurate records within Mosaic, coordinating and monitoring Mockingbird Family Hub activity, and supporting wider fostering teams through meeting support, communications, and peer guidance. The role requires strong organisational skills, attention to detail, and confidence working with data and spreadsheets to support service delivery, statutory reporting, and informed decision-making.

Responsibilities for Grade:

Working 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.
Supporting staff and develop new team members.
Use own 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.
Ability and experience to carry out administrative duties.
Ability to analyse and collate data and use it to produce reports.
Understanding of legal business, financial, audit, confidential and operational requirements of the service, and the impact on its day-to-day work.
Work flexibly and move within service areas – working at different locations depending on service demand.
Willing to abide by the Council’s Equal Opportunities and Health and Safety Policies.
Willing to actively participate in training and development activities to ensure up to date knowledge, skills and continuous professional development.

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.

Essential requirements: Candidates will only be shortlisted if they can demonstrate that they meet all the following essential requirements.

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.
Work with, and within, multiple teams of staff and contribute to its development with suggestions for new ways of working.
Experience of working on your own and using your initiative to adhere to timescales and deadlines.
Knowledge of the applications, systems and IT programmes utilised by the service and being able to accurately record and retrieve information.
Experience and understanding of the importance of providing excellent customer services and experience of dealing positively with challenging situations.

Essential behavioural and other characteristics

Understand and embrace Leeds City Council values and behaviours and codes of conduct
Committed to continuous improvement in all areas and work towards delivering the Leeds Ambitions of health and wellbeing, inclusive growth, thriving strong communities, and a resilient sustainable city
Able to understand and observe Leeds City Council policies and procedures
Carry out duties having regard to an employee’s responsibility under Health, Safety and Wellbeing
Participate in appraisal, training and development activities to ensure up, to date knowledge and skills
Be aware of and support difference and ensure equality for all working in an anti-discriminatory manner, upholding equality and diversity of Leeds City Council
Recognise and appropriately challenge any incidents of racism, bullying, harassment, victimisation, and any form of abuse, reporting any concerns to the appropriate person
Flexible and adaptable to change to assist other services as required commensurate to grade.
The Council has adopted a flexibility protocol and the role will be expected to work within these parameters

Desirable requirements: Candidates are not required to meet all the following desirable requirements however these may be used to distinguish between candidates.

Safeguarding