Service Support Officer

Are you looking for an exciting opportunity to help drive change and be part of a new service? If so, then a fantastic opportunity has arisen to join the Children’s Services Business Support Team. We have a vacancy based within our Dorchester Locality Business Support Team. The post is fixed-term, running until 31st March 2025. While the post is based within our Dorchester Locality, the post will support all localities across Weymouth, Blandford, Sturminster, Ferndown, and Wareham.

In July last year, the Department for Education officially announced the Families First for Children Pathfinder. Dorset has been recognised for the fantastic work with children, young people, and families taking place by being selected to be one of only three initial pathfinder sites nationally, testing the delivery of key reforms across the sector. Find out more here: https://youtu.be/cHyrnt82lPo 

The concept of Safeguarding Families Together is to embed specialist adult service workers alongside children’s social workers, with an approach to keeping children safe in the family home. It is based on ‘whole family working’ to meet both child and adult needs by working together and sharing information between professionals to provide the right support when they require it.

One of the key concepts is Group Case Supervision, whereby the multi-disciplinary team comes together to review progress, discuss outcomes, and agree on next steps.

In Business Support we are modern and forward-thinking, and within that, we embrace being digitally focused and offering a valuable resource for those providing services to help improve the lives of children and young people living in Dorset.

We work as one team, energising, challenging, and inspiring each other every day. We openly support and develop each other, going out of our way to offer knowledge, time, and practical help. That means working collaboratively, sharing our expertise, and celebrating individuality and diversity through our employee networks.

This post offers the flexibility of working in a hybrid way, providing support based in both the locality offices as well as working from home, while maintaining an effective team ethic with daily huddles to catch up and pass on any information, as well as using Microsoft Teams to communicate throughout the day, providing a network of support within the Business Support team.

Hybrid work is a flexible working model now adopted by Dorset Council where employees work partly in the physical workplace and partly remotely, either at home or from another workspace. This role will, at times, require a physical presence in the office. However, this will not require the whole team to be in the office every day, enabling the business support team to work on a flexible rota basis. Your work pattern would be shaped around business/service needs and sickness/annual leave cover etc.

The Dorset Council framework outlines the behaviours expected of all our employees, and these apply wherever you are working. We do not all need to be working from the same place to do our jobs effectively; it’s important that you have the right training, tools, and support so you can feel confident. We also want our employees to work in ways that allow them to fulfil their service needs and find a good work-life balance. The behaviours we demonstrate, the attitudes we hold, and the approaches we take at work are key to the success of Dorset Council. We are passionate about being a digital council, which involves putting people and their needs first and then using technology to improve their lives. This also applies to the way we work and how we connect with other colleagues. Technology can help make our jobs easier, allow us to collaborate with each other, and work more effectively so we can fulfil our goals and make a difference. 

We are invested in the continuous improvement and development of our staff, providing full training for the position, training in the variety of computerised systems we use, as well as collaborating in a range of areas such as Social Care, SEN, and Early Help. Working for Dorset Council also offers opportunities for career progression, with working in Business Support providing an excellent start as you will be collaborating with several areas across Children’s Services.

About you

The experience, knowledge and skills required for this role are specified in detail in the Person Specification and Job Description, but we are looking for someone who is organised, flexible and can meet the demands of a busy work schedule and ensure deadlines are met. Whether you are working from home or are in the office, you will have an eye for detail and ability to work on your own initiative as well as being an effective team member with a ‘can do’ approach. 

IT systems used include Microsoft packages, including Teams, and service specific systems. Training for service-based systems will be provided however a good working knowledge of IT including the use of Outlook, Word and Excel is essential. Most of your training will need to be office based to ensure that you get the best experience and support from your team.

The role involves keyboard/computer work, but the variety of tasks supported will ensure regular opportunities for breaks away from the computer screen.

The working environment is busy and dynamic subject to interruptions to deal with queries from operational managers and staff and will involve taking telephone calls.

There will occasionally be work content of a sensitive/distressing nature particularly in teams involving direct contact with children and families. This will require resilience and confidentiality.