Downside Neighbourhood Centre is a project run by The Children’s Society, and is a Children’s Centre offering services to children and families within the Downside and Manshead ward of Dunstable in Central Bedfordshire. Our services include early intervention and prevention, health visitor access, Speech and Language, access to Job Centre plus teams, midwives, family support, outreach services, youth clubs and access to the community development officer for the local and Police Community Support Officers.

We are seeking to appoint an Administrative Assistant to assist in providing efficient and well-ordered administrative support to the Children’s Centre team.

You will undertake administrative duties such as word processing, filing, data inputting, minute taking, ordering of equipment and stationery, and you will be the first point of contact for all enquiries either by the telephone or face to face.

You will need experience of working in an administrative position and a working knowledge of Microsoft Office (including Excel and Powerpoint) and a general level of education to GCSE standard or equivalent.

Hours of work will be 18 per week. Temporary until 31 March 2011, continuation subject to funding.

Administration Assistant

Location:

Downside Neighbourhood Centre

Reward Band:

Admin and Other Professional Workers B

(XDN) £18,037 - £20,545 pro rata

Reporting to:

Administration Manager

Job purpose:

To provide efficient and well ordered administrative services for the Project and team.

Key activities:

• To provide efficient and well ordered secretarial and administrative services to the Project enabling the Project to provide a high level of service to children and young people.
• To assist the project manager in the preparation of project budgets and monitoring expenditure.
• To provide and maintain financial and management information applying some interpretation and judgement on their presentation.
• To provide a high standard of service and advice to internal and external users in order to support the work of the project
• To respond effectively, sympathetically and in confidence to enquiries and requests made by team members and all internal and external contacts using your initiative in dealing with matters.
• To prioritise your own workload meeting deadlines in line with overall project requirements and as agreed with your line manager.
• To maintain accurate project records using appropriate office management systems and processes.
• To provide accurate and timely reports and information on administration and operational matters using available data and producing reports to an agreed format.
• To contribute to the administrative planning processes as agreed with your line manager.
  

Attainments:

In order to be considered for this post you will have to demonstrate that you already have:

Experience

• Administrative/secretarial experience in a paid or voluntary capacity.

Qualifications

• General level of education to GCSE standard, or equivalent

Work based knowledge

• Office management systems
• Budget management
• An understanding of Health and Safety issues in a working environment

Skills

• Time management – a proven ability to prioritise tasks and manage workload
• Minute taking at group meetings
• IT skills – Word processing, spreadsheets, data base and email (The Children’s Society uses Microsoft Office applications).

Core competencies:

In order to be successful in this role you will be able to demonstrate that you have the ability to:

Leading others

• understand other people’s needs and deal with queries effectively knowing where to channel queries within the project and the Society.
• take a leadership role within the project team when required to do so, and be accepted by the team in this role.Innovation
• be aware of quality standards of administrative work. and actively work towards improving your work by being open to suggestions and being prepared to doing things differently.

Communicating with others

• Talk in language that others can understand, speaking clearly and audibly and present written information clear and concise way.

Building and maintaining Partnerships

• show tact, sensitivity and support while building good relationships, both internally and externally

Managing yourself

• be committed to achieving high quality work, seeing things through to meet targets and deadlines.
• take initiative to solve problems and actively take steps towards own learning improving performance.

Agreeing and meeting Targets

• Work under fairly close supervision

Managing resources

• consistently pay attention to the use and control of project resources.

Providing Services to others

• Build and maintain good levels of service
• Ensure services delivery reflects the needs of stakeholders
• Recognise and value diverse and different perspectives
• Identify opportunities for children and young people to be heard and involved meaningfully in our work to make a difference.
  

Special Job Circumstances:

This post has the following special circumstances:

• the occasional need to provide administrative support within local Children’s Society, Children’s Centres.

(Please note: if you have difficulty meeting these conditions because of a disability or family circumstances the appointing manager will discuss it with you in order to consider reasonable adjustments to the job or working conditions)

Relevant Personal Characteristics:

So that you personally can succeed in this role and The Society you will require:

• to promote The Society’s values in day to day work.
• at all times to carry out your responsibilities with due regard to the Society’s policies and procedures
• a commitment to keeping children and young people safe
• a commitment to diversity and equality and dignity in working relationships and practice.
• to be flexible and adaptable and able to cope with changing priorities and demands
• maintain confidentiality in all aspects of The Children's Society’s work
• a commitment to health and safety