Senior Business Support Officer

Location: 1 Catford Road, Catford, London, SE6 4RU
Start Date: ASAP
Contract Duration: 6+ Months
Working Hours: Mon – Fri, 09:00 – 17:00, 37 Hours per week
Pay rate: £ 19.92 per hour
Job Ref: OR12142
 
Responsibilities

• Provide modern, customer-focused, efficient, and effective administrative and clerical support to directorates, including project support where required.
• Deliver a wide range of both routine and more complex administrative tasks to support the effective and efficient delivery of services within directorates.
• Focus on providing administrative support to the Housing Service, with potential future support to other Directorates as needed.
• Undertake all administrative work associated with the ordering and tracking of repairs works/disrepair specifications through to completion, including liaison with residents, contractors, surveyors, and other stakeholders, and effective use of key IT systems.
• Work with colleagues in other areas of the service to resolve operational issues, complaints, and enquiries, ensuring compliance with Lewisham Council’s deadlines for responses.
• Manage the delivery of complex repairs and damp and mould as required, including planning, sequencing, and coordination of works, and liaising with tenants, leaseholders, contractors, and other stakeholders.
• Support the design and implementation of high-quality administrative and management information systems to support the work of the service, including ongoing evaluation and review.
• Provide background information to enable staff to respond fully to reports of housing disrepair, complaints, and other enquiries.
• Collate and produce reports and statistical information for pre and post inspections, contractor performance, and other issues relating to contract management.
• Support the organisation of statutory visits, meetings, and case conferences, including preparing papers, inviting attendees, and booking travel.
• Take accurate notes at meetings or other events, ensuring confidentiality is maintained at all times.
• Support the organisation and delivery of events and training courses, including booking venues or catering and arranging travel/accommodation.
• Collate, print, and distribute documents or materials as required or requested by the directorate.
• Process all correspondence, including logging, distribution, monitoring, prioritising, and reporting on progress and filing as appropriate.
• Undertake basic research and analysis of information in relation to directorates.
• Foster positive team working across the service and promote effective working relationships with residents, contractors, and other key stakeholders to ensure smooth running of the repairs process.
• Provide financial administrative support, including processing payments, compensation claims, fees, raising of purchasing orders, virements, and provision of appropriate budget reports for management reporting.
• Manage basic internal queries and information requests, referring more complex queries to Team Managers as necessary.
• Assist in the delivery of general office management tasks within the department, including supporting Business Continuity and Health & Safety processes and maintaining corporate registers or contract lists.
• Comply with policies and procedures relating to safeguarding, child protection, health, safety, and security, confidentiality, and data protection, reporting all concerns to an appropriate person.
• Ensure duties are carried out in accordance with the Council’s policies and Code of Conduct, incorporating values and behaviours of being ambitious, inclusive, collaborative, accountable, and trustworthy.
• Take a proactive role, taking personal ownership and responsibility for the delivery of excellent customer services within your area, working closely with colleagues in relevant directorates to provide a seamless service.
• Support other areas of the authority with their administrative duties as part of a corporate administrative function, including support for OFTSED inspections, Peer Challenges, and any other urgent administrative matter.
• Change location in accordance with the needs of the service as required.

Person Specification

• Good understanding of the role and functions of local government and the key issues facing local government, particularly in an inner London context.
• Good understanding of the organisation, management, and control of administrative, business support, and customer contact processes.
• Understanding of the legal and financial framework within which local government operates, and its role within the local community.
• Awareness of quality and major service issues facing the Council, particularly housing services.
• Awareness of the impact of major legislative change on local authority political and organisational structures as well as services and functions.
• Understanding of the importance of confidentiality and sensitivity with regard to dealing with residents and members of the public.
• Ability to deliver a wide range of administrative, business support, and customer contact processes.
• Ability to work effectively under supervision, delivering allocated tasks and work priorities within a changing environment to meet deadlines.
• Able to maintain discretion when dealing with sensitive and/or confidential information.
• Ability to work on own initiative where appropriate, but identify when it is necessary to seek advice or refer non-routine or more complex issues and queries to a senior officer.
• Good ICT skills including spreadsheets, databases, and word processing.
• Confident user of core business ICT systems, including LCS, EHM, Controcc, Oracle, Tribal/Synergy, SharePoint, and Microsoft packages.
• Effective verbal and written communication skills, with a good level of numeracy.
• Excellent customer service skills, including an ability to deal sensitively with a wide range of customers and maintain good relationships with internal or external partners.
• Well-developed organisational and time management skills.
• Demonstrable experience of providing a high-quality and comprehensive administrative service, delivering core business processes to agreed performance standards.
• Demonstrable experience of dealing effectively with the public face-to-face, by telephone, and via web enquiries.
• Experience of working within a busy team.
• Experience in handling contentious and confidential issues in an effective manner.
• Experience in working within a pressurised environment, prioritising and organising conflicting workloads.
• Experience of liaising effectively with both statutory and non-statutory agencies.
• Good standard of general education.
• Awareness of and a commitment to Equality of Access and Opportunity in a diverse community.
• Understanding of how equality and diversity relates to this post.
• Able to remain calm when working under pressure with a high workload.
• Positive attitude to solving complex problems.
• Responsive and customer-focused attitude, with a flexible approach to working as part of a team and a willingness to learn new skills.
• Able to work outside standard working hours as required.

 
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