Senior Support Services Officer (Democratic Services)

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About the role

A unique opportunity to join Democratic Services and influence one of the largest unitary Councils

North Northamptonshire Council is an ambitious, exciting, innovative and supportive place to work. The Council is committed to focused service delivery to improve the lives of our residents. Following local government reform, we are well on our way into our transformation journey to deliver excellent services in an inclusive and creative environment where ideas are encouraged alongside a commitment to staff development.

The Council has an ambitious growth agenda, securing significant levelling up funding to support regeneration projects and an overall revenue and capital budget of £292 million. The Council is proud to have delivered a balanced budget and despite the challenging financial position nationally is as a result, able to remain focused on delivery of its objectives.

We operate a hybrid "Executive" governance model and have invested in our Democratic Services team to support delivery of the Council's priorities, with a new structure to deliver a holistic service across the Council's democratic functions.

We are committed to your personal development; the variety of administrative duties delivers an exciting workload and opportunity to develop and lead a small team and in house systems. Our approach provides you with an opportunity to influence and play a broad role in the Council and the way it delivers services and supports our elected members.

What will you be doing?

To manage the administrative support function within the Democratic Services team as directed by the Committee Manager.

To manage the general administrative support within the service as required, including but not limited to:

• Recording and distributing incoming correspondence and dealing with outgoing correspondence, to include administration of the service's main email inbox;
• Maintaining an appropriate filing system for the service's records;
• Recording and processing of the service's orders and invoices;
• Assisting with the production and distribution of meeting agendas, minutes and reports;
• Assisting the Head of Democratic Services in maintaining an appropriate record of the service's performance in relation to its key performance indicators;
• Leading on the administration, webcasting arrangements and housekeeping of Council meetings, as directed by the Democratic Services Managers;
• Ensuring the team's staff are appropriately trained in the usage of ERPG and other software packages required for the performance of their duties;

There may be a requirement for the postholder on notice to work outside of normal working hours, for which the appropriate time in lieu will be provided.

If this sounds like a job for you, we would love to hear from you. The closing date for applications is 7th March 2025.

If you would like to have a discussion about the role, please contact Francesca McHugo, Committee Manager, on 07483 178568.

Please refer to the attached Job description for full details of job responsibilities

About you

You will:

• Be educated to NVQ Level 2/GCSE equivalent with GCSE English (or equivalent).
• Have a good working knowledge of a range of IT applications
• Have previous experience of providing administrative assistance and it would be great if you also have experience in managing staff
• Be able to maintain a high level of attention to detail with the ability to plan and manage your own workload

Our benefits

Here at North Northamptonshire Council, we're transforming for the better, using all our creativity and imagination to create the best life for our local people.

You'll find that we have a wide range of careers that may be more surprising than you think!

Why choose us?

We offer a vibrant working environment with:

• a competitive salary
• a pension scheme, where we pay a significant contribution on top of your contribution. It provides life cover and ill-health protection.
• lots of opportunities to develop your skills, knowledge and potential in a large unitary council
• generous leave entitlement (28 days, rising to 33 days) and bank holidays, plus the option to buy up to an extra 10 days
• hybrid and flexible working arrangements, where practicable for service needs to help you with a healthy work-life balance.

We provide a range of great benefits such as an Employee Assistance Programme, an Employee Benefits Scheme, wellbeing support, travel rates at HMRC rates, as well as supporting a range of active Employee Network Groups.

About us

Our Values and Behaviours

Our values define who we are and how we operate, by forming the foundation for how we interact with our customers, colleagues and provide our services. They are also at the forefront of our decision making and delivery and are:

Customer-focused
Respectful
Efficient
Supportive
Trustworthy

Our Key Commitments

Our key commitments help ensure that the priorities we make, now and in the future, maintain the necessary breadth of focus in those areas that we believe matter most.

We are proud to be a recognised Disability Confident Employer and is committed to providing an inclusive recruitment process and will offer an interview to disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role.

North Northamptonshire Council re-signed the Armed Forces Covenant in June 2024 which highlights the Council's pledge to support the Armed Forces community. The council obtained the silver status award for the Defence Employer Recognition Scheme (ERS) and we are now currently working towards achieving Gold status.

We aim to be a carbon neutral Council by 2030.

Further information can be found at Jobs and careers | North Northamptonshire Council (northnorthants.gov.uk)