There is an administrative post available to support the Family Support Team. The Family Support Team offers Social Work support to strengthen parenting. The team work directly with children to promote the wellbeing of vulnerable children and their families, and to help improve their outcomes and ensure their protection.

Every post is subject to PCC and Portsmouth Safeguarding Children's Board safer recruitment procedures.

The Service

The Children's Social Care and Safeguarding service helps, supports and protects Portsmouth's most vulnerable children and young people enabling them to lead safer, healthier and more fulfilling lives. It also acts as the corporate parent for the city's Looked After Children.

Going forward, the service and its Business Support function will embrace change, have a strong and sharp focus on exceptional customer care, and will respond flexibly and effectively to the Social Work Matters agenda and other transformational developments.

What is the role?

You will provide high quality administrative support within the Family Support Team. The role plays a vital part in the administration and smooth-running of business processes throughout the service and in the support of practitioners in enabling them to undertake their duties in safeguarding vulnerable children in Portsmouth as well as supporting the service to achieve its statutory and corporate responsibilities.

Most work involves both written and oral communication to provide high quality customer care and towards the production of accurate and professional records, as well as the ability to multi-task and work well under pressure.

Your duties will include many or all of the following: • Taking minutes at meetings of the more complex safeguarding matters, including those dealing with sexual and/or physical abuse or neglect. In addition, taking minutes that include complex terminology or content. • Supporting the preparation for Ofsted inspections and providing specialist administrative support to inspections. • Entering data into service information and caseload systems. • Administering the collection and presentation of service performance information. • Dealing with telephone, email and face-to-face enquiries. • Sorting post. • Co-ordinating purchase orders for stationery, goods and services and invoices. • Monitoring and administering PDR, supervision schedules, training, annual leave, TOIL and sickness information and other administrative staff support activities. • Booking appointments and arranging meetings, diary management. • Maintaining files and documentation. • Printing of reports for meetings. • Processing travel claim forms. • Carrying out all necessary word processing, spreadsheets, database and presentation duties. • Dealing with all correspondence, including confidential information. • Drafting correspondence to standard enquiries.

Who is the person?

You need to:

1. Have experience of working in an administrative role. 2. Ideally, have experience of working in Children's and/or Young People's Services. 3. Have minute-taking skills to enable you to take concise notes/minutes in meetings, shorthand would be desirable. 4. Have a good working knowledge of Microsoft Office, including Word, Excel, Access, Powerpoint and Outlook. 5. Have good numeracy and literacy skills. 6. Have good communication skills. 7. Have a customer-focus (internal and external) and be able to demonstrate consistently high standards of customer care and customer service. 8. Have a willingness and determination to help service managers and practitioners provide an effective service and support to children and families. 9. Have the ability to resource and collate information. 10. Have a good attention to detail and level of accuracy. 11. Have the ability to work flexibly to meet the requirements of the team and wider service 12. Have the ability to prioritise your workload and that of others as you maybe organising other diaries. 13. Have strong organisational skills. 14. Have a good awareness of Data Protection and Safeguarding Issues. 15. Be able to respond appropriately to enquiries from parents/carers who may be anxious or emotional due to issues concerning the safeguarding and well-being of children. 16. Be able to demonstrate personal resilience and professionalism when exposed to explicit and emotionally challenging information, for example, in relation to child maltreatment and abuse. Closing time/date: 4.00pm on Friday 3 October 2014. Applications received after this may not be considered. For details on how to apply and information on our Guiding Principles please click on the links below.