Business Support Officer

Achieving for Children; Kingston; On-site; GBP 35,000 - 39,000; Full time

Job summary

A public sector social enterprise in Kingston seeks a Business Support Officer for its Single Point of Access team. The role involves processing data, providing administrative support, and excellent customer interaction. The ideal candidate will possess solid experience in a business support capacity along with GCSE qualifications in Mathematics and English. This is a full-time position offering a salary between £35,520 and £38,256, with numerous employee benefits including annual leave and flexible working options.

Benefits

29 days annual leave

Local Government salary and pension scheme

Flexible working options

Employee Assistance Programme

Qualifications

• Educated to GCSE level C or above in Mathematics and English.
• Experience of working in a business support capacity providing a wide range of administrative support.
• Demonstrated excellent customer service skills.

Responsibilities

• Process all data and referrals received in the SPA.
• Support the uploading and processing of data.
• Prepare and distribute agendas, presentations and papers.

Skills

Customer service skills

Administrative support

Data management

MS Office proficiency

Education

GCSE level C or above in Mathematics and English

Tools

MS Word

MS Excel

MS PowerPoint

Google Docs

Google Sheets

Job description

Job Information

Achieving for Children is a Community Interest Company that has a public sector ethos, combined with the freedom to innovate enabling us to do things differently. As a not-for-profit social enterprise owned by three local authorities (Windsor & Maidenhead, Kingston and Richmond), we offer the freedoms of a social enterprise with the employment benefits of local government. To find out more about us.

Role: Business Support Officer

Join Us : Be part of our Outstanding teams!

We are proud to share that children's services in Kingston have achieved an OUTSTANDING rating from Ofsted in December 2024, receiving the highest judgement rating in all five assessment areas. This marks Kingston's second consecutive OUTSTANDING rating, a true reflection of the commitment to ensuring children and young people across the borough have a fairer start in life, and providing the support and services they and their families need to live happy, healthy and successful lives. To find out more click.

If you would like to be part of our success story, take a look at the below opportunity to see if it's the right fit for you.

We are looking for a Business Support Officer to join the Single Point of Access (SPA) team.

The Single Point of Access (SPA) is the gateway for all incoming contacts into children’s services. The SPA ensures that consistent and timely responses are provided to all enquiries so that children, their families and professionals working with them receive high quality information and, where necessary, support and protection from children’s services and other agencies or professionals. Through the Multi- Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH), the SPA works in partnership with the police, health and mental health, probation, and adult services to share information so that we can together provide the most appropriate response to concerns about children. The Business Support Officer role within the SPA is unique in that the role sits directly within the team, unlike other Business Support teams within AfC.

Operational details

Operational area: Kingston and Richmond

Primary place of work: Guildhall 2, Kingston upon Thames KT1

Appointment type: Permanent

Business area: Children's Social Care

Full time / Part time: Full-time

Salary: from £35,520 (SCP18) to £38,256 (SCP23)

Hours: 36

Estimated Interview date / s: TBC

Closing Date: 10 / 12 / 2025

Ref No: 2197

(PDF, 366.68kb)

About the role

This is a level 2 role due to the complexity of the Single Point of Access (SPA), and the need to be aware of a range of different systems, and be able to quickly access these efficiently in order to process information in a timely manner. There is a high level of responsibility to ensure that processes are followed correctly and that the right information is sent to the right teams. The SPA processes approximately 1500 to 2500 contacts a month. Part of this role will be supporting the uploading and processing of all data and referrals received in the SPA. There will be opportunities for project work, including reviewing systems within the SPA which change regularly due to the nature of Social Care. This will include ensuring all of our rotas and policy and procedures are up to date. The post holder will undertake daily business support operations including managing the post and maintaining stationery supplies and will prepare and distribute basic agendas, presentations and papers and take minutes where appropriate for meetings relating to the SPA. This post holder will be the lead for the SPA Robot which supports in uploading contracts.

The Contextual Safeguarding Service is located within the SPA, and there will be opportunities to support this team through mapping meetings and locations meetings. This will also include chances to explore different technologies to support this team most effectively. This role will also coordinate with other Business Support teams within AfC to ensure consistency across the organisation. The SPA Business Support Officer will be managed by a SPA Team Leader.

For further information about this role, please contact Dan Clark by email.

About you

The successful candidate will be :

• Educated to GCSE level C or above (or equivalent) in Mathematics and English.
• The ability to support the SPA team by creating quality contacts and recording information in order for social workers and SPA management to outcome referrals.
• Experience of working in a business support capacity providing a wide range of administrative support.
• Demonstrated excellent customer service skills - interacting with internal and external users is a core requirement including routine enquiries from members of the public, which could be face to face, receiving and responding to incoming communication.
• A working knowledge of using a wide range of MS Office or Google packages, including Word, Excel and PowerPoint and Google docs, slides and sheets.
• Experience of keeping and maintaining records (in accordance with local policy) and producing accurate reports, presentations, written updates to a range of stakeholders (which may include families, children or young people).
• Experience of providing high-level meeting support including organising and taking minutes.

About our benefits

We are focused on creating a positive supportive environment, where you will have access to a really wide range of resources, as well as a competitive salary and all the perks to enable hybrid working. In AfC you will also have access to :

• 29 days annual leave, increasing to 33 days after 2 years and 35 days after 4 years with an additional day off in your birthday month (Or for term-time workers, your leave entitlement consists of the non-working periods in your contract)
• Tailored induction sessions commencing on the date you start working for AfC
• Local Government salary and pension scheme (LGPS or Teachers Pension)
• Flexible working options - helping to keep a good work life balance
• A comprehensive Employee Assistance Programme
• A range of staff benefits and discounts
• An excellent learning and development offer to support your career pathway

To find out about all of the breadth of benefits of working for Achieving for Children. For our social work offer. For our Recruitment Journey,

Important Information

Start dates: Achieving for Children have meaning successful candidates join on a set date in each month. Candidates are advised to prepare for this should a job offer be accepted to ensure eligible continuous service is not affected.

Right to work: The UK has introduced a new points-based immigration system affecting EU and Non-EU workers and sponsorship requirements. We advise checking the right to work guidance.

Equality: We particularly welcome applications from sections of the community who are currently underrepresented within our teams. Achieving for Children are committed to making our recruitment practices as inclusive as possible for everyone. We are committed to promoting equality and diversity and developing a culture that values differences, recognising that employees from a variety of backgrounds bring important and positive contributions and can improve the way we deliver services. We are proud to be a Disability Confident employer.

Safeguarding: We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. We expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. This post is exempted under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and as such appointment to this post will be conditional upon the receipt of a satisfactory response to a check of police records via Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS).

We reserve the right to close this vacancy once a sufficient number of applications has been received. Therefore, it is strongly advised that you complete and return your application as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.