Job title: Administration Assistant

Salary: B1 - £25,949.00 - £25,989

Hours: 37

Contract: Permanent

Location: City wide opportunities supporting our Children and Families Service.

Would you like to be part of something bigger and join us in our ambition to become the Best City, working together as a Team for Leeds? Do your values match ours, and do you have something to offer?

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.

This is a fantastic time to join us.

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 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

About the role

These roles provide administrative support to independent reviewing officers who are responsible for children who are looked after. The aim of the team 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.

We have a number of roles working in our safeguarding hub to deliver administrative support to a variety of social work teams across the city for Children and Families. You will manage your time effectively, use your initiative to solve problems and work well as an individual and as part of a team, you will be responsible for delivering effective and efficient administration support to the service area. You will positively embrace new ways of working to ensure a high-quality and consistent service is delivered to our customers.

The role involves hybrid working with a minimum of 2 days a week in the office, but flexibility is essential dependant on service need. During your training period, you will be required to do more days in the office. The roles are based in various buildings across the City.

What you will bring to the role

Key skills required:

Well-developed interpersonal and communication skills, including face-to-face, telephone and written communication skills.
Able to work with, and within, multiple teams and contribute to its development with suggestions for new ways of working.
Able to work on your own and use your initiative to adhere to timescales and deadlines.
Good numeracy and literacy skills and the ability to deal with complex tasks with support.
Able to collate data and use it to produce reports.

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 roles, please contact Emma Jackson at Emma.L.Jackson@leeds.gov.ukor Debbie.Lee-Soulsby@leeds.gov.ukwho will be happy to call for a chat.

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults.

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

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. Specific job purposes for all Business Administration Teams are detailed below. Further details regarding the vacancy you have applied for are detailed in the advert.

Responsibilities for Grade:

Working with high levels of accuracy for tasks such as checking documents, recording numerical and alphabetical information.
Identify problems and areas for improvement and offer solutions.
Work unsupervised, using your initiative to adhere to time scales and deadlines and manage your own workload.
Carry out administrative duties.
Ability to collate data and use it to produce reports.
Knowledge and experience of adhering to procedures and legislation relating to confidential information.
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, including face-to-face, telephone and written communication skills.
Work with, and within, multiple teams and contribute to its development with suggestions for new ways of working.
Work on you own and use 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.
Good numeracy and literacy skills and the ability to deal with complex tasks with support
An 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.

Skills Required

Safeguarding (A/I)

Job Purposes

Safeguarding

This role is fundamental in supporting Children & Families with their statutory child safeguarding and protection responsibilities. 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 be required to answer and refer incoming calls and therefore will need to speak directly to families, professionals and partners.