Children's Service Agent

An opportunity has arisen for a well-organised and resilient individual to join the Children and Family Services Business Support Team as a First Response Children's Service Agent. The main focus will be to act as the first point of contact for Children's Social Care service users by telephone and email. This role is part of the wider Business Support Service and as such an important part of this role is to provide back up to colleagues across locality areas and to assist in handling urgent work on a day-to-day basis., As a Children's Service Agent, you will join a friendly motivated team committed to providing excellent customer service.,

• To work with a range of internal and external agencies to ensure the safeguarding of children and young people and referral to services to achieve the best outcomes for the child.
• To provide the best quality service for all First Response Children's Duty service users, maintaining professional standards and responding to concerns appropriately.
• To process a range of referrals received from professionals and members of the public via email and telephone and to be responsible for a range of generic email boxes to process different types of referrals.
• To utilise case management systems for inputting and gathering accurate and timely information.
• To consult with other agencies to obtain missing mandatory information required.
• To communicate effectively with Social Workers, Team Managers, professionals and members of the public and use initiative to respond quickly and escalate enquiries to a senior where there are immediate safeguarding concerns.
• To be able to follow written processes and guidance provided and to be able to prioritise your own workload and work as part of a team., We are keen to support employees to balance their working life with other commitments. Therefore, wherever possible, we will consider working arrangements that suit an individual's personal circumstances whilst still meeting the needs of the Council. If you would like to discuss the possible flexible working options that might be applicable to this role, please contact the person named below. This may include requests for term-time working, part-time hours, compressed hours, flexible start and finish times, home/remote working, etc.
  
  Have recognised Academic Qualifications e.g. 'GCSE', 'A' Levels, Vocational Quals, Professional/Further Education Quals in relevant area. NVQ 2 in Business Administration or equivalent. Or equivalent level of relevant experience.
• Have experience of communicating with a wide range of people including professionals and members of the public.
• Be able to handle sensitive and distressing information.
• Have experience of working in a fast paced and stressful environment whilst accurately maintaining records and following processes.
• Have the ability to prioritise your own workload, work to tight timescales and maintain a professional demeanour.
• Be able to work under own initiative and work well within a team.
• Be computer literate and be an able and accurate typist.
You must also have an understanding of, and commitment to, equal opportunities, and the ability to apply this to all situations. In addition, we also expect you to share our commitment to our values and will ask you to evidence when you have demonstrated them as part of the selection process.


• Guaranteed contracted hours.
• Opportunities to progress within a large public sector organisation.
• Excellent Local Government Pension Scheme.
• Generous annual leave entitlement.
• Access to staff wellbeing and counselling service.
• Access to an employee discount scheme, providing a whole host of retail discount including your supermarket weekly shop and gym membership!
• Work for an organisation which 95% of our staff say is a good employer.