County Hall, Dorchester/Bridport Children’s Centre
Are you looking for an exciting opportunity to help drive change and be part of a dynamic but friendly team that provides excellent support to the children and families in Dorset?
If so, then a fantastic opportunity has arisen to join the Children’s Services Business Support Team. We have a permanent full-time Team Administrator vacancy in our West Locality Business Support team. The team are currently based in County Hall, Dorchester or Bridport Children's Centre. You can work at either location dependant on which suits you better. However, in the longer term the post might be completely based in Bridport when a suitable location is identified.
This post offers the flexibility of working in a hybrid way (covering our core hours of 08:40am to 17:20pm Monday to Thursday and 08:40am to 16:00pm on Friday) providing support based in both the offices mentioned, as well as ‘virtual’ support working from home. We maintain an effective team ethic by communicating with daily huddles as well as using Microsoft Teams to communicate throughout the day, providing a network of support within the Business Support team based in both the Bridport and Dorchester Offices, as well as working from home.
Hybrid work is a flexible working model now adopted by Dorset Council where employees work partly in the physical workplace, and partly remotely – either at home or from another workspace. Within Business Support we do offer a physical presence in the office. However, this does not require the whole team to be in the office every day, enabling the business support team to work on a flexible rota basis. Your work pattern would be shaped around business/service needs/sickness/annual leave cover etc.
The Dorset Council framework outlines that the behaviours expected of all our employees, and these apply wherever you are working from. We do not all need to be working from the same place to do our jobs effectively, it’s important that you have the right training, tools, and support so you can feel confident. We also want our employees to work in ways that allow them to fulfil their service needs and find a good work/life balance. The behaviours we demonstrate, the attitudes we hold and the approaches we take at work are key to the success of Dorset Council. We are passionate about being a digital council, which involves putting people and their needs first and then using technology to improve their lives. This also applies to the way we work and how we connect with other colleagues. Technology can help make our jobs easier, allow us to collaborate with each other and work more effectively so we can fulfil our goals and make a difference.
We work as one team, energising, challenging, and inspiring each other every day. We openly support and develop each other, going out of our way to offer knowledge, time, and practical help. That means working collaboratively, sharing our expertise, and celebrating individuality and diversity through our employee networks.
We are invested in the continuous improvement and development of our staff, providing full training for the position. Working for Dorset Council also offers opportunities for career progression with working in Business Support providing an excellent start as you will be collaborating with several areas across Children’s Services.
Reporting to a Team Leader, the role will be varied and interesting and the post holder will need to be motivated and flexible in their approach to work, confident in using their own initiative and able to prioritise a demanding workload to tight deadlines. The post holder will be part of a team responsible for delivering high-quality business support to the operational Locality team which includes: Social Care · Early Help · Educational Psychologist · SEN/SEND provision · Early Years Support and Advice Service · Specialist Educators.
Our business support is customer focused and compliant with the Council's behaviours, standards and statutory obligations e.g., Data Protection and would include:
- General administration tasks including data entry, scanning, and uploading documents, dealing with correspondence, phone triage and managing email inboxes
- Arranging meetings and note taking
- Providing support for project work if and when required
- Maintain data, gather information, and ensure data quality including collection and reporting processes
- Function as a point of contact
- Undertake financial functions as required including procurement, payments, and invoice processing
- Event management e.g., book venues, administrating course registrations and preparing resources
The experience, knowledge and skills required for this role are specified in detail in the Person Specification and Job Description. Whether you are working from home or are in the office, you will have an eye for detail and the ability to work on your own initiative as well as being an effective team member with a 'can do' approach.
In Business Support we are modern and forward thinking and within that, we embrace being digitally focused. IT systems used include Microsoft packages, including Teams, and service specific systems such as Mosaic, Synergy and Nexus. Training for service-based systems will be provided however a good working knowledge of IT including the use of Outlook, Word and Excel is essential. Some of your training will need to be office based to ensure that you get the best experience and support from your team.
The working environment is busy and dynamic subject to interruptions to deal with queries from operational managers and staff and will involve taking telephone calls.
There will occasionally be work content of a sensitive/distressing nature particularly in teams involving direct contact with children and families. This will require resilience and confidentiality.
Join us and you will find an organisation that values your contribution. That supports your professional growth and development and that cares about your personal wellbeing. You will enjoy working in an open, supportive environment, where you respect the integrity of the people around you and they respect you.
The nature of the work is highly confidential and therefore you will be required to undergo a DBS clearance owing to the sensitive nature of the work. The post does not require much travel but there might be occasions when you would be required to go to another site for training etc.
For further information, please contact Samantha Ray on 01258 474037.
Please note Dorset Council does not accept CVs in place of an application form as we require the same range of information from all our candidates.
We’re passionate about making Dorset a great place to live, work and visit. Working for us should be no exception.
At Dorset Council we:
- provide more than 450 services to over 300,000 residents
- have ambitious aspirations
- are excited about our future
- care about Dorset and all the people who live here
- know that all roles make a difference and that our employees are key to our success
You will:
- have access to a range of employee benefits
- be part of an organisation that supports each other to grow and succeed
- have access to range of training opportunities which will help with your personal development and career progression
We are challenging ourselves to become a more diverse and inclusive organisation. We recognise that recruitment and inclusion of individuals with diverse skills, perspectives and backgrounds will bring real strength to the council and our communities. We have a commitment to equality and welcome applications from everyone.
We are proud to be a Disability Confident Employer. We offer an interview to everyone who declares a disability and meets the essential criteria for the role.
We are keen to make our interviews accessible. Let us know on your job application if you have a disability and need any reasonable adjustments.
We also look for applicants who share our commitment to our behaviours. We will ask you to evidence when you have demonstrated them as part of the selection process.
If appointed, the personal information we collect from you will be shared with Cifas who will use it to prevent fraud, other unlawful or dishonest conduct, malpractice, and other seriously improper conduct. If any of these are detected you could be refused certain services or employment. Your personal information will also be used to verify your identity. Further details of how your information will be used by us and Cifas, and your data protection rights, can be found at https://www.cifas.org.uk/fpn
This post requires you to have access to sensitive information. It will be subject to a Basic Criminal Records Check. See our policy on the employment of ex-offenders.
This role is UK based and we will need to establish your Right to Work as part of the appointment process.
We use generic job descriptions and person specifications. This means the job title on any attachments may differ from the job title in the advert. We may provide specific information in a context statement if relevant.