Administration Assistant

Job title: Administration Assistant

Salary: B1 - £24,404 - £25,183

Hours: 37 & 18.5

Contract: Permanent

Location: Hybrid working - various office locations

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 delivers over 500 different services to residents and is dedicated to bringing the benefits of a prosperous, vibrant, and attractive city to the people of Leeds. This is a fantastic time to join us.

Benefits of working with us

We pride ourselves on offering the best employee experience, with a genuine commitment to keeping our colleagues safe and well at work. You can expect great benefits whilst working for us, including:

• a competitive pay progression structure including generous employer pension contributions.
• flexible career paths with tailored personal and professional development.
• support for you, your home and your family including personal, and financial wellbeing support.
• hybrid working arrangements (subject to needs of the role) and a flexitime system.

For more information about our benefits please see the benefits section of our jobs page

Introduction to the role of the team

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.

We currently have a number of Administration Assistant roles working in BAS supporting Adults & Health social work supporting Area teams/Mental Health team/Learning Disability team and the Hospital team. The roles are based across the city in various offices including Tribeca House and St James' Hospital. You will provide administrative support to social workers within a fast-paced environment.

The role involves hybrid working with a minimum of 2 days a week in the office, but flexibility is essential dependant on service need.

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 you 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.
• Good attention to detail and 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 Gemma Hughes 0113 3785290 or Deborah Chapman 0113 3786095

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

A Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check will be carried out on preferred candidates.

We promote diversity and want a workforce that reflects the population of Leeds and the communities we serve. Leeds City Council is recognised in Stonewall's Workplace Equality Index 2024. We are also an Age-friendly Employer, a Mindful Employer and a Disability Confident Leader.

All new Leeds City Council appointments are made subject to the satisfactory completion of a six month probationary period.

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, candidates must consider their own eligibility for sponsorship for a particular role through the Skilled Worker route before applying.'To be eligible for sponsorship you'll usually need to be paid the 'standard' salary rate of at least £38,700 per year or meet one of the other eligibility criteria. For more information visit Skilled Worker visa on the government website. Please ensure you are eligible before applying.

Job Description

Job Purpose:

Shared Services consists of over 700 employees in the Business Support Centre and Business Administration Service. These services provide 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 above list is not exclusive or exhaustive, and the service may require the job holder to undertake duties commensurate with the level of the role. The Council has adopted a flexibility protocol and this role will be expected to work within these parameters.

ESSENTIAL REQUIREMENTS: It is essential that the Candidate should be able to demonstrate the following criteria for the post within the context of the specific role duties and responsibilities: Candidates will only be shortlisted for interview if they can demonstrate on the application form that they meet all the essential requirements.

Method of Assessment will be through one or more of the following Application Form, Test, Interview or Certificate.

• Well-developed interpersonal and communication skills, including face-to-face, telephone and written communication skills.(A/I)

• Work with, and within, multiple teams and contribute to its development with suggestions for new ways of working. (A/I)

• Work on you own and use your initiative to adhere to timescales and deadlines. (A/I)

• Knowledge of the applications, systems and IT programmes utilised by the service and being able to accurately record and retrieve information. (A/I)

• Good numeracy and literacy skills and the ability to deal with complex tasks with support. (A/I)

• An understanding of the importance of providing excellent customer services and experience of dealing positively with challenging situations. (A/I)

DESIRABLE REQUIREMENTS: It is desirable that the Candidate should be able to demonstrate the following criteria for the post within the context of the specific role duties and responsibilities: Candidates are not required to meet all the Desirable requirements however these may be used to distinguish between acceptable candidates.

Skills Required

• Safeguarding (A/I)

Relationships: The post holder will be required to maintain effective relationships with other Leeds City Council staff, Elected Members, members of the public and other partnership organisations as appropriate.

Physical Conditions: Primarily office based, potentially working face-to-face with customers, working within the council boundaries as required. Leeds City Council has a no smoking at work policy.

Social Conditions: Annual leave of 25 days, plus 4 days following 5 years local government service pro rata. 8 statutory holidays.

Economic Conditions: Grade: B1

Hours: †37 †hours per week, any part time opportunities will be detailed in the advert

Flexitime: Eligible to participate in flexi-time scheme

Conditions of Service: NJC National Agreement on Pay and Conditions of Service for Local Government Services apply.

Prospects: Promotion: Whilst there is no automatic progression to any more senior posts, opportunities do exist for advancement and promotion, dependent upon normal staff movements and on the capabilities of the individual post holder.

Training: The Department encourages training both "in-house" and external to meet the needs of the individual and of the Department.

DBS Checks: Some posts may be subject to checks with the Disclosure and Barring Service. A criminal record will not necessarily be a bar to obtaining employment; this will depend on the circumstances and background to any offence.

Disabled employees: Where the postholder is disabled, every effort will be made to supply all necessary aids, adaptations or equipment to allow them to carry out all the duties of the job. If, however, a certain task proves to be unachievable, job redesign will be given full consideration.

Council Values: The council values are at the heart of everything we do. They inform the way we design and deliver our services and the way we all work and behave. Our values | Leeds Jobs

Children & Families Social Care

This role is working in the Business Administration Service to deliver administrative support to a variety of social work teams across the city for Children & 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, responsible for delivering effective and efficient administration support to social work teams.†You will positively embrace new ways of working to ensure a high-quality and consistent service is delivered to our customers.

Payments

This role is working in the Business Administration Service supporting the finance payments hub which is responsible for smooth running of finance and administration processes on behalf of Council services.†You will work to meet statutory and financial deadlines, working in partnership with services to ensure organisations and individuals are paid in a timely manner. You will ensure deadlines are met whilst looking at improving the way in which we work, to deliver a high-quality service to customers.

Adults & Health Social Care

This role is working in the Business Administration Service to deliver administrative support to a variety of social work teams across the city for Adults & Health. You will manage your time effectively, use your initiative to solve problems and work well as an individual and as part of a team, responsible for delivering effective and efficient administration support to social work teams.†You will positively embrace new ways of working to ensure a high-quality and consistent service is delivered to our customers.

SENSAP

This role is working in the Business Administration service supporting the Special Educational Needs Statutory Assessment and Provision team (SENSAP) which is responsible for enabling children and young people with complex Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) to access the right educational support and provision to achieve their life aspirations. You will work as part of a team to meet statutory deadlines throughout the referral process. The work is predominately based within the Synergy suite of applications which hosts all Leeds pupil level educational data. You will be able to communicate clearly and effectively as you will be responsible for corresponding to queries through our inbox and busy phone line. Attention to detail and confidentiality (GDPR) is essential.

Traded

This role is working in the Traded Administration Team which is responsible for supporting services who have a traded offer within Leeds City Council. You will work as part of a team to set up and record data for training courses offered predominantly to schools and setting staff. The work is mainly based within the Leeds for Learning platform. You will be able to communicate clearly and effectively as you will be responsible for corresponding to queries through our inbox and phone line.

Learning Inclusion

This role is working in the Business Administration Service delivering administrative support to teams within Learning Inclusion to improve attainment and achievement for vulnerable leaners, children, and young people with Special Educational Needs & Disabilities (SEND).You will work as part of a team to process referrals; the work is predominately based within the Synergy suite of applications which hosts all Leeds pupil level educational data. You will be able to communicate clearly and effectively as you will be responsible for corresponding to queries through our inbox and phone line.

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.