Casework Advisor

Local Government Ombudsman; Coventry; Hybrid; GBP 28,000 - 36,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Pension: LGPS

Work/life balance

Learning and development

Family-friendly

Season ticket loan

Wellbeing programme

Civil Service Sports Club

Eye care reimbursement

Bike loan

Reasonable adjustments

Job summary

Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) in Coventry is seeking a Casework Advisor for the Intake team. You will be the first point of contact for members of the public, handling enquiries via telephone, online complaints service and post.

You will identify new complaints, gather information, and explain the LGSCO role. The position emphasises accuracy, attention to detail and clear written communication in a busy frontline environment.

Qualifications

• There are no essential qualifications but candidates must be able to demonstrate excellent oral communications skills, be numerate and capable of producing clear written communications.

Responsibilities

• Identify new complaints and accept them, explaining the LGSCO role to the public.
• Receive and process information from complaints online, email, telephone or post.
• Gather adequate information to enable investigation and ensure accurate data entry.
• Handle enquiries with attention to detail and professionalism.

Skills

Excellent oral communications

Numerate

Clear written communications

Empathetic with customers

Active listening

Education

No formal qualifications required

Job description

Hybrid working – allocated to our Coventry office

Location

Based in Coventry .

Role

Casework Advisors form part of our Intake team, which is the initial point of contact with LGSCO. The team’s objective is to provide an accessible and knowledgeable front-line service to members of the public. The team handles all new enquiries, through a dedicated telephone helpline, the online complaints service, and via postal correspondence.

As a Casework Advisor you will identify new complaints, accept complaints, explain the role of LGSCO and filter out misdirected enquiries.

You will receive and process information sent via the online complaint service, email, telephone or post from members of the public who wish to make a complaint or have an enquiry about doing so. You will gather and record sufficient information to enable us to investigate the complaint. The quality of the information you gather is essential for dealing with complaints effectively. You must have attention to detail to ensure the information you enter on our complaints database is accurate.

Details

Hours 35

Holiday 25 days rising by 1 day with three years’ service and a further 2 days with five years’ service.

Requirements

Education

There are no essential qualifications but candidates must be able to demonstrate excellent oral communications skills, be numerate and capable of producing clear written communications.

Skills

• Excellent oral communications skills, numerate and capable of producing clear written communications
• Ability to deal empathetically with customers in extracting important points, exercising tact and diplomacy.
• Ability to listen, obtain, extract, record and re-present information that is accurate and appropriately detailed and concise
• Ability to deal with challenging callers

Experience

12 months experience of providing information and/or advice to a diverse range of members of the public over the telephone, including recording information using ICT.

At the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman we value our staff and work hard to reward them.

We are an ambitious, focused, inclusive and friendly organisation which is recognised for the important work we do. There are a range of benefits for all our staff enjoy. These include:

• Pension: You’ll be entitled to join the Local Government Pension Scheme which is a career average scheme.
• Work/life balance: We encourage all employees to have a healthy work/life balance and offer flexible working arrangements, such as agile working and flexi-time, together with a wide range of different working patterns. All are subject to business needs.
• Learning and development: We provide our staff with access to a learning and development programme to enable them to succeed in their role. Where membership is relevant to your role in the organisation, we will also pay the annual membership fee for you to be a member of your professional body.
• Family-friendly: We offer generous maternity, adoption, paternity and parental leave, and provide for paid and unpaid special leave.
• Season ticket loan: We offer our staff the ability to have a loan for your annual travel season ticket.
• Wellbeing : We have a programme which includes an Occupational Health Service and access for you to an excellent, confidential Employee Assistance Scheme. This is a free 24-hour counselling service for advice about your work and personal life challenges
• You will be able to join the Civil Service Sports Club.
• As well as reimbursing the cost of your eye tests, we will subsidise your eye care where a prescription is for VDU usage and we will cover the cost of an annual flu jab.
• Bike loan: We run a Cycle to Work Scheme which allows you to pay for the cost of your bike (up to a limit) as a loan which is deducted from your salary.
• Reasonable adjustments: We recognise how important it is to make reasonable changes for staff where appropriate.

About the LGSCO

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) is an arms-length body sponsored by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, and is responsible for investigating complaints against local councils, social care providers and some other public organisations in England.

We provide a free service to the public, offering an accessible route for people to seek redress without needing legal action. Our focus is on resolving issues fairly, recommending appropriate remedies, and improving systemic practice so others are not affected in the same way.