Business Support Officer LBS-005 (Admin & Clerical)

Southwark Council values: Treating residents as if they were a valued member of your own family | Being open, honest and accountable | Spending money as if it was your own | Working for everyone to realise their own potential | Making Southwark a place to be proud of | Always work to make Southwark more equal and just | Stand against all forms of discrimination and racism 1 JOB DESCRIPTION POST TITLE: Business Support Assistant GRADE 5 DIVISION / UNIT Legal Services/Business Support DEPARTMENT Governance & Assurance REPORTS TO: Business Support Officer PURPOSE OF THE JOB Responsible for the delivery of the highest quality outcomes and effective legal support to Lawyers within Legal Services and internal and external stakeholders. To ensure the support provided to legal services is cost effective and customer focussed. To support the legal service and the council in ensuring that the principles of good governance in decision making are achieved. To provide professional business support to Legal Services primarily but also to Governance and Assurance generally as directed by the Business Manager. PRINCIPAL ACCOUNTABILITIES Responsibilities

1. Responsible for delivering section based or service wide administrative processes. This will require the application and interpretation of defined criteria or seeking out solutions where issues are not straightforward, referring complex matters to appropriate colleagues.
2. Responsible for ensuring records management principles, procedures, techniques and related equipment and systems are applied to all legal and non-legal documentation following clearly defined retention and retrieval processes.
3. Ensuring adherence to relevant legislation, ensuring the use of designated templates and a high level of accuracy are maintained to support legal services whilst upholding strictest confidence both internally and externally.
4. Understand the conflicts with regards to the Data Protection Act and the Freedom of Information Act and their relevant implications. Southwark Council values: Treating residents as if they were a valued member of your own family | Being open, honest and accountable | Spending money as if it was your own | Working for everyone to realise their own potential | Making Southwark a place to be proud of | Always work to make Southwark more equal and just | Stand against all forms of discrimination and racism 2
5. Respond to enquiries made by internal colleagues, members of the public or external enquiries.
6. Identify the need for office support tasks and take appropriate action to provide. Duties may include; dealing with incoming phone calls, booking rooms, facilitating meeting and interview arrangements, data management – scanning, archiving, logging and distributing post, participating in reviews of processes and systems.
7. Maintain various administrative related manual or electronic systems, including corporate IT systems, spreadsheets, databases, text files. Be able to respond to queries on at least one corporate IT system and be able to produce appropriate outputs, e.g. reports.
8. Take responsibility for functions related to the smooth operation of the office environment, including ordering stationery, keeping office areas and file storage rooms tidy at all times and identifying and dealing promptly with any health and safety issues, both individually or as part of the team.
9. Undertake a range of administrative tasks:  Take notes/minutes and service meetings that include information that is particularly sensitive or confidential (e.g. child protection, legal issues etc.). Undertake follow up action as directed.  Attend meetings to share information or answer queries on the section’s administrative process.  Participate in projects led by others, involving fact finding, research, maintaining project plans etc.  Undertake the manual and electronic sealing of deeds, contracts and documents.  Archiving and file retrieval of case files and other documents.  Maintaining library services and research material required by the service. Maintenance and management of hard copy storage and electronic subscriptions where applicable.  Maintaining Legal Services’ recognised templates and ensuring the recording, usage and any discrepancies which may arise. Southwark Council values: Treating residents as if they were a valued member of your own family | Being open, honest and accountable | Spending money as if it was your own | Working for everyone to realise their own potential | Making Southwark a place to be proud of | Always work to make Southwark more equal and just | Stand against all forms of discrimination and racism 3  To provide efficient and effective support to fee earners in the team by emailing correspondence, photocopying and maintaining files in accordance with Lexcel accredited practice manual. JOB CONTEXT
10. Organisational Structure The vision for Legal Services is: “To be the council’s first choice provider of legal services, offering a sustainable, high-quality, responsive & efficient value for money service to the council and to the communities of Southwark.”
11. Structure The post holder will formally report to the Business Support Officer. Actual day to day tasks may be allocated by any senior member of the organisational unit.
12. Financial Responsibilities Dependent on the work of the section the post holder maintains systems that have a financial consequence, e.g. application of internal procedures, ordering of stationery.
13. Contacts Regular contact with administrative colleagues in other areas, lawyers, management, members of the public and external organisations. This would generally involve the implementation of policy and procedures sometimes dealing with complex, individual issues. Such contact may on occasions be challenging and requires the application of thoughtful customer care approaches.
14. Grade/Conditions of Service The employment is subject to a probationary period of twenty six weeks from your start date of employment with Southwark Council, during which time you will be required to demonstrate to the council’s satisfaction your suitability for the position in which you are employed. Southwark Council values: Treating residents as if they were a valued member of your own family | Being open, honest and accountable | Spending money as if it was your own | Working for everyone to realise their own potential | Making Southwark a place to be proud of | Always work to make Southwark more equal and just | Stand against all forms of discrimination and racism 4 PERSON SPECIFICATION The person specification is a picture of skills, knowledge and experience required to carry out the job. Knowledge, including educational qualifications Essential (E) How assessed (S/ I/ T) Educated to A-level or equivalent, or qualified by experience. E S/ I Good working knowledge of the following applications at a level to respond to typing requests, compile reports, correspondence, presentations, maintain spreadsheets, meeting arrangements: Microsoft Word, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint. E S/ T Good understanding of the Freedom of Information and data Protection Act Issues and its application in the role. E I Good understanding of the need for confidentiality and be able to demonstrate steps to ensure integrity. E I Literacy skills in order to compile management information, non-standard correspondence, minute and produce accurate records of meetings. E T Numeracy skills in order to compile simple statistical and financial information and undertake basic calculations. E T Understand how to organise and prioritise a workload. E T Understand how to manage manual and IT based records efficiently and with appropriate confidentiality. E I Experience To have clerical experience including: Maintaining records and administrative systems both manual and computerised. Photocopying, collating and preparing manual and electronic bundles of documents E S Experience of composing written materials that meet customers’ needs: Typing requests appropriate use of e-mail related to the administration of meetings including note/minute taking E S/T Experience of working with minimal supervision, organising workload, determining priorities to meet deadlines and taking responsibility for own actions. E I Southwark Council values: Treating residents as if they were a valued member of your own family | Being open, honest and accountable | Spending money as if it was your own | Working for everyone to realise their own potential | Making Southwark a place to be proud of | Always work to make Southwark more equal and just | Stand against all forms of discrimination and racism 5 Knowledge of quality assurance systems within a legal practice, in particular Lexcel. I Understanding of how a local authority works. Knowledge and understanding of best practice in a legal practice. E I Experience of dealing with moderate financial/invoicing processes. E S/ I Aptitudes, Skills & Competencies Good interpersonal skills and the ability to encourage positive working relationships with staff and colleagues. E I Ability to deal with correspondence, using excellent word processing skills to prepare letters and simple documents to a high standard. E T Ability to keep files in perfect order in compliance with office procedures and standards E I Ability to resolve problems creatively, and disseminate information clearly. E I/ T Professional and conscientious with good attention to detail to provide a high quality service to the customers. E I/ T Equal Opportunities Must undertake duties and responsibilities with due regard to equalities issues and actively promote ways of eradicating discrimination through the Council’s policies and procedures. E I Special Conditions of Recruitment Required to carry out duties and responsibilities of the post in accordance with the council’s policies and procedures and standing orders. Comply with and promote the Council’s Equal opportunities policy Ability to work outside normal office hours as and when required. Key: E Essential S Shortlisting criteria I Evaluated at interview T Subject to test