Secretarial Assistant

Secretarial Assistant Better Futures

Are you experienced in working in a public facing role? Do you want a role where you can make a difference to the lives of children, young people and families?

This is an exciting opportunity for a highly motivated individual to join a well- established Barnardo's Service as a Secretarial Assistant. Many of the children and families we support have faced challenges and adversity in life. In this role you will be the initial contact with other professionals supporting them as well as welcoming the children and families into the service for assessment by our specially trained workforce.

About Better Futures Service

Better Futures Cymru is a specialist service which provides assessments and longer-term therapeutic interventions for children and young people who display problematic or Harmful Sexual Behaviour; and young people who are at risk of or who are abused through Child Sexual Exploitation.

The Service has worked in partnership with 6 local authorities across the South Wales area for the last 20 years and has close working relationships with Social Services and Youth Justice Teams across the partnership.

Our work is informed by current research and guidance and uses a range of therapeutic approaches including the trauma recovery model.

Location: The post will be based in Barnardo's Better Futures Offices, in Pyle, Bridgend.

Job role

You will assist the Service Administrator in the provision of general administrative and secretarial support to the Service Practitioner and Management Teams, whilst also providing ad-hoc administrative support to our Partnership and Regional/National offices.

Your duties will also include:

• Maintaining appropriate, confidential record systems (e.g. children's case files, family files, volunteer files, management, and administrative records).
• Maintaining the Procedure Guide, Staff Directory and Staff Notes as
• Assisting in the production of regular statistics/returns/forms on a range of topics and resources.
• The provision of telephone and reception arrangements which will include welcoming to service users/members of the public and visitors; which may involve applying sensitive listening skills and providing a calm influence, particularly where users are agitated, possibly angry and confused - and will require accurate feedback of any remarks or actions to appropriate, more senior staff members where the post holder has cause for concern.
• Assisting in the processing of invoices and Imprest petty cash claims for goods and services.
• Keyholding duties; ensuring that all windows and doors are secured, including use of the building security alarm system.

Essential criteria

• Experience of Microsoft Office 365, including Outlook, Excel, Word, Teams and PowerPoint.
• Excellent computer skills
• Attention to detail and previous experience of data input/analysis.
• An excellent telephone manner and the ability to communicate information clearly and accurately, and in a timely manner.
• Be able to work as part of a team, or independently according to Service
• Be adaptable, flexible, and able to work well under
• Previous experience of working within a busy office
• Previous experience of handling highly confidential and sensitive information and knowledge of GDPR.
• Previous experience of diarising calendar appointments and arranging
• Previous experience of minute

Desirable Criteria

• Previous experience of working within a Children's Service
• Cash handling
• Some knowledge of Health and Safety

What we can offer you

• A supportive working environment which includes monthly Supervision from your line manager.
• Opportunity to work within a specialist Children's Service

Need more information?

If you require any further information about this opportunity, please contact Service Administrator Hannah John or Sharron Wareham, Service Manager, (email can be found on our website via link).

Please note due to the high volume of applications for some posts, this advert might close before the displayed closing date. We recommend that you apply for this role as soon as possible.

Pay & Reward Framework

We know that our colleagues go above and beyond in delivering our vital work, driven by their passion and commitment to Barnardo's values. We also know that we can only realise our ambitions and achieve better outcomes for more children, thanks to the talent, hard work and creativity of our people.

For all these reasons, we are committed to a new approach to pay and reward, to ensure it is fair, attractive and progressive, which was rolled out in April 2023. This is a positive change for the charity, and a part of our People & Culture Strategy. It will assist us in supporting colleagues to belong, thrive and grow in their colleague journey at Barnardo's and in time will offer clear routes of progression for colleagues in both their career and their pay.

Whilst the full pay band and salary range is advertised, our approach to starting salaries is to appoint between the minimum to mid-point of the pay band this ensures that pay steps are available to reward our colleagues annually based on their contribution to excellence and alignment to our values and behaviours. More details on Barnardo's pay framework can be found upon application.