Divisional Assistant

Divisional Assistant

Reference number: SC07077

Location: London

Schedule: Full-time

Salary Range: (Full time equivalent) - £34,275 - £40,344

Contract Type: Permanent

Are you ready to use your strong administrative and secretarial skills to support our leadership team dedicated to making a real difference in the lives of children and families in Southwark?

If yes, this is the perfect opportunity for you!

We are seeking dedicated and highly organised Divisional Assistants to join our Children's & Adults' Services team. In this exciting role, you'll play a pivotal part in helping us achieve positive outcomes for children and families in the borough. Join us and be part of a team committed to making a meaningful impact!

This is a full-time, permanent position (36 hours per week).

About the Service:

Southwark Children's Services provides essential leadership, support, and guidance to a diverse range of services and partners, all working towards improving outcomes for children, young people, and families in our community.

About the Role:

We are looking for organised and experienced Divisional Assistants to provide flexible and professional administrative, project and secretarial support to our Leadership Team.

In this role, you will work closely with Assistant Directors, enabling them to focus on strategic priorities and high-level business development.

Your responsibilities will include:

• Managing complex diaries and arranging meetings for the leadership team.
• Coordinating and responding to correspondence in a timely manner.
• Ensuring actions and requests are followed up efficiently.
• Preparing important documents, including meeting papers and board reports.
• Coordinating travel arrangements and booking events.
• Taking minutes at meetings chaired by Assistant Directors.
• Ensuring that meeting papers are distributed accurately and on time.
• A full Enhanced DBS check is required for this post.

About You:

The ideal candidate will thrive in a fast-paced, dynamic environment, where multitasking and adaptability are key. You will have strong IT and computer skills, along with excellent organisational and time management abilities to handle multiple priorities in a timely fashion.

The ability to work well under pressure, meet deadlines and maintain high-quality standards will be essential.

To be considered for an interview, your application should clearly demonstrate the following:

• Strong organisational skills with the ability to handle multiple priorities effectively.
• Excellent attention to detail.
• Strong IT skills.
• Excellent time management skills, with the ability to meet deadlines in a high-pressure environment.
• Outstanding communication skills, with a proactive and approachable attitude.
• Discretion and an understanding of confidentiality and political sensitivity in a large, complex organisation.

If this sounds like the role for you, please review the Job Description and Person Specification at the bottom of the advert to ensure you meet the essential requirements for this position.

About Southwark:

We are the largest local authority social landlord in London, managing 55,000 homes lived in by 40% of Southwark's residents. We are home to over 18,300 businesses including iconic London venues and social enterprises and we have a young, diverse and growing population.

At Southwark we are committed to making our borough just and fair and are taking positive action to tackle inequalities. Our residents and communities are our greatest asset and the passion we have for Southwark is shared by millions of Londoners who enjoy our outstanding cultural offer, use our hospitals and attend our universities. Our refreshed borough plan and focus on Southwark Stands Together, (which is our work with Southwark's communities and the council's staff to tackle racism, injustice and inequality) underpins all that we do.

Benefits and more information:

In your role, we want you to feel supported, challenged and rewarded. You will benefit from our family-friendly policies including flexible working, home working, and a local government pension scheme, plus many other staff benefits. You will join a motivated, driven and supportive team that strives for excellence and values its members. You will also be part of a successful and high-achieving team that is making a real difference to the lives of residents in the borough.

For more information about the wide variety of benefits you can take advantage of please visit our Staff Benefits page here -

Contact Information:

If you would like an informal discussion on the role, please contact Nina Scott via email at

Recruitment Timeline:

• Advert close date: 11:59pm on Friday 13 December 2024.
• Shortlisting date/s: Week commencing 16 December 2024.
• Interview date/s: Week commencing 6 January 2025.

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.

We are an organisation who is passionate about our people and understands that richness of diversity is a requirement to provide the best possible services to our communities. This is demonstrated through our council-wide ambitious commitment to tackle racial inequality in our communities and workforce through our Southwark Stands Together initiative. We particularly welcome applications from members of the black, Asian and ethnic minority communities to increase representation at senior management level in the Council.

Guaranteed Interview Scheme

As part of our commitment to inclusion, we offer guaranteed interviews for specific groups of people. To qualify, you'll need to meet the minimum requirements for the role, and identify with one of the below criteria:

• Members of the Armed Forces and veterans.
• Are currently in care or have previously been in care.
• If you consider yourself to be disabled or if you have a long-term health condition.

Attachments

• Job Description & Person Specification - Divisional Assistant