About Us

Are you highly organised and have a keen eye for detail?

Are you an experienced Business Support or Administration professional looking for a new challenge?

Do you have an interest in Education and SEND services?

If yes, then we have the perfect role for you!

The Business Support service’s vision is a simple one: ‘to implement a robust, flexible and resilient business support service across Children’s Services’.

We have an exciting opportunity for an experienced Business Support Officer to join our Children’s Services Business Support service, primarily supporting the Education Welfare Service. 

The Education Welfare Service provides parents and carers with help, information and guidance to help young people make the most of school. They support parents and carers with their child’s attendance and how to recognise signs of non-attendance. They also explain the parent's legal duty to make sure their child attends full time education.

In this role you will:

• Process data received from schools regarding starters and leavers. Review this data and investigate pupil destinations. Tracking pupils on part-time places and pupils on managed moves. 

• Try to locate children missing in education, to find out where these children are, cross referencing this with the starters and leavers list and reporting this on a termly basis to the DfE.

• Support elective home education, locating children by contacting schools including those outside of the borough and sometimes the Home Office.

• Update various case management systems to support your work.

• Compile referrals into the service, including preparing all paperwork associated with this task and minuting meetings in relation to them. 

This is a fast-paced service, and we require someone that is: 

• able to work under pressure 

• highly organised

• able to manage their own workload 

• confident with Excel spreadsheets 

•  excellent at maintaining data bases and spreadsheets. 

Excellent communication skills are essential in this role, in particular, the confidence to talk to parents and colleagues across education and other government departments. You will understand the importance of confidentiality and possess good organisation skills enabling you to manage a varied workload.

Whilst primarily supporting the Education and Welfare service you will also be a team player in the wider Business Support service, as we require all Business Support Officers to have a flexible approach in supporting other areas and at times may even be required to work elsewhere across the directorate. This role reports directly to a Business Support Team Manager, who manages the work we undertake in the Education and SEND service area within Children’s Services. They will ensure that you get all the support, training and development you need to be able to successfully undertake your role. 

Contact details

If you’d like an informal discussion or to know more about the role, please contact Linda Holdersen: Linda.Holdersen@richmondandwandsworth.gov.uk 

Benefits

At Richmond and Wandsworth Councils, we care more about how you work and what you achieve, rather than where you work on any given day. The difference you can make to our local communities is what really matters most to us, service delivery must always come first. We have carefully considered agile ways of working to provide the best experience for residents, stakeholders and our staff. Our agile working strategy actively supports and encourages a dynamic work environment and daily working experience. Agile working helps put the needs of our staff at the centre of everything we do, so if specific flexible working arrangements helps you with this, feel free to let us know. 

Your wellbeing and the flexible way in which you can work is and will remain a key priority for Richmond and Wandsworth Councils. We want you to thrive and feel empowered in your work!

We recognise the importance of a good balance between work and home life so we do everything we can to accommodate flexible working including, working from home and other arrangements. Please just let us know in your application or at any stage throughout the process (and beyond) if these are options you’d like to explore. 

We also offer a generous holiday allowance of 40 paid days (pro rata) including bank holidays and a wide range of learning and development opportunities. 

In addition, we offer a comprehensive range of staff benefits such as membership of the Local Government pension scheme, childcare vouchers, new technology scheme, interest-free loans on annual travel cards, discounts with many leisure activities, restaurants, shops and other establishments.

Indicative Recruitment Timeline

Closing Date: 11:59pm on Sunday 14th January 2024

Shortlisting Date: Week commencing 15th January 2024

Interview Date: Week commencing 22nd January 2024

Useful Information:

The closing date is given as a guide. We reserve the right to close this vacancy once a sufficient number of applications has been received. We strongly advise you to complete your application as soon as possible to avoid disappointment. Please note that the advertised dates for interviews may change. If they do, we will let you know as soon as possible.

Richmond and Wandsworth Councils are committed to making our recruitment practices as inclusive as possible for everyone. We are committed to promoting equality and diversity and developing a culture that values differences, recognising that employees from a variety of backgrounds bring important and positive contributions to the Councils and can improve the way we deliver services. We are proud to be a Disability Confident employer.

Important Information:

This post is exempted under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and as such appointment to this post will be conditional upon the receipt of a satisfactory response to a check of police records via Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS). The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) helps employers make safer recruitment decisions and prevent unsuitable people from working with vulnerable groups, including children. It replaces the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) and Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA).

How to apply:

To be considered for interview your application must highlight your knowledge, skills and experience listed in the Job Profile located at the bottom of the advert.

Richmond and Wandsworth Councils