About the role
The role is to be the first point of contact for all Adult Social Care queries and referrals for the Northampton and South Northants areas. This involves taking a high volume of incoming calls from people in the community looking for Social Care assistance, their families or other professionals, where you could be signposting them to local services or taking basic referrals and putting information onto our internal database to be picked up by our team of Social Care workers. This is an imperative role within the care pathway, and the start of someone's journey to living their best life.
What will you be doing?
The successful candidate will need to be able to multitask and prioritise responsibilities, use their own initiative and work alongside other Business Support Officers to provide cover where necessary. We need someone who is able to work under pressure, to deadlines, and who is friendly and reliable.
Duties alongside ad-hoc general administration tasks will include; data tidying, maintaining spreadsheets, taking notes at weekly meetings as well as minuting Safeguarding, Best Interest and Adult Risk Management meetings when required.
About you
Applicants will need to be comfortable working independently, be able to demonstrate excellent customer service skills, along with a commitment to continuous improvement. They will have a good level of IT skills with a sound knowledge of Word, Outlook and Excel (including other Microsoft 365 programmes) and have a good attention to detail.
The successful candidate will need to hold a full driving license as well as having access to their own transport as the role may require travelling to other offices and meetings across the county.
Our benefits
We offer a wide range of benefits to our employees, these include:
- Generous annual leave entitlement of 27 days annual leave per year, 28 days for senior managers (pro rata for part time employees), plus bank holidays. An additional 5 days, linked to continuous service and ability to purchase up to 6 weeks additional leave per year.
- Local Government Pension Scheme plus immediate life cover (3 times your annual salary from day one) and ill-health protection.
- Employee discounts with local and national retailers, days out, finance, health and beauty, travel and eating out plus lots more.
- Cycle to Work scheme
- Car Lease scheme
- Employee Assistance Programme - We have an employee support programme run by Health Assured, an independent, external organisation. Health Assured is available for you and your immediate family members, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year and includes telephone counselling, legal advice, bereavement support and medical information.
- Ongoing training and development opportunities.
- A variety of flexible working options to support your work/life balance, including part time, term time, 9-day fortnight, etc. (subject to business needs).
- Our West Ways of Working – We want our workforce to thrive, and we equip our workforce with the right technology to support hybrid and collaborative working. Recognising that not all roles can be carried out remotely or part remotely, some of our roles are assigned as fixed worker based out of one of our locations across West Northamptonshire.
- Making a difference - If you want to use your skills and experience with an organisation that are genuinely invested in making a difference, are committed to improving people's lives, and whose success has a direct impact on the wellbeing of your family, friends and people in your local area, then West Northamptonshire Council is the place for you.
The council is in the process of implementing a new pay structure and terms and conditions which will be applicable to this role. The outcome could result in a future variation to the advertised salary, and this will be discussed at interview.
About us
We’re a new council, following one of the largest shake-ups in local government reform in recent history. As a new authority, we’re embarking on an exciting journey to deliver exceptional services for our residents, customers and communities.
Our vision at West Northamptonshire Council is ‘to make West Northants a great place to live, work, visit and thrive’. We truly stand by this and work hard every day to make this a reality. Our corporate values, THRIVE, stand for: Trust, High Performance, Respect, Innovate and Empower, they underpin everything we do and how we deliver services.
At West Northants Council, it’s about our people. People who thrive with ambition, bubble with new ideas, demand better ways of working, caring about every detail, and who never shy away from a challenge. Our culture is a gateway for new experiences. A place to forge new opportunities. To empower you in your career and unite you with like-minded people.
When potential is unlocked, talent thrives.
Choose a career that offers you a true sense of achievement, fills you with pride and challenges you in a positive way, every day.
West Northants Council, where careers thrive.
