Children's Service Agent

Golearnleicestershire; England; Hybrid; GBP 26,000 - 29,000; Full time

Job summary

A local government authority in England seeks a First Response Children’s Service Agent. The role involves acting as the first point of contact for service users, managing referrals through effective communication. The position requires strong organisational skills, experience in customer service, and the ability to handle sensitive situations. The salary ranges from £26,832 to £28,146 annually, and hybrid working arrangements are available. Join a supportive team committed to safeguarding children and young people.

Benefits

Guaranteed contracted hours

Local Government Pension Scheme

Generous annual leave entitlement

Access to staff wellbeing and counselling service

Employee discount scheme

Qualifications

• Experience in communicating with a wide range of people, including professionals and members of the public.
• Experience working in a fast-paced and stressful environment whilst maintaining records accurately.
• Ability to prioritise workload, work to tight timescales while maintaining a professional demeanor.

Responsibilities

• Act as first point of contact for Children’s Social Care service users by telephone and email.
• Provide high-quality service to First Response Children’s Duty service users.
• Process referrals via email and telephone, ensuring accurate information input.

Skills

Communication

Organisational Skills

Dealing with Sensitive Information

Ability to Work Under Pressure

Initiative

Teamwork

Computer Literacy

Education

Recognised Academic Qualifications (e.g., GCSE, A Levels)

NVQ 2 in Business Administration or equivalent

Job description

Organisation: Leicestershire County Council

Work Location: County Hall, Glenfield, Leicester LE3 8RA

Worker Category: Hybrid Worker

Salary: £26,832 - £28,146 per annum (pro‑rata for part‑time)

Working Hours: 30 hours per week

Contract Type: Permanent

Closing Date: 4th January 2026

Interview Date(s): 22nd January 2026

An opportunity has arisen for a well‑organised and resilient individual to join the Children and Family Services Business Support Team as a First Response Children’s Service Agent. The main focus will be to act as the first point of contact for Children’s Social Care service users by telephone and email.

This role is part of the wider Business Support Service, and as such, an important part of this role is to provide back up to colleagues across locality areas and to assist in handling urgent work on a day‑to‑day basis.

What we offer

• Guaranteed contracted hours.
• Opportunities to progress within a large public sector organisation.
• Excellent Local Government Pension Scheme.
• Generous annual leave entitlement.
• Access to staff wellbeing and counselling service.
• Access to an employee discount scheme, providing a whole host of retail discounts, including your supermarket weekly shop and gym membership.
• Work for an organisation which 95% of our staff say is a good employer.

About the Role

As a Children’s Service Agent, you will join a friendly motivated team committed to providing excellent customer service.

Main duties and responsibilities

• Work with a range of internal and external agencies to ensure the safeguarding of children and young people and referral to services to achieve the best outcomes for the child.
• Provide the best quality service for all First Response Children’s Duty service users, maintaining professional standards and responding to concerns appropriately.
• Process a range of referrals received from professionals and members of the public via email and telephone, and be responsible for a range of generic email boxes to process different types of referrals.
• Utilise case management systems for inputting and gathering accurate and timely information.
• Consult with other agencies to obtain missing mandatory information required.
• Communicate effectively with Social Workers, Team Managers, professionals and members of the public and use initiative to respond quickly and escape enquiries to a senior where there are immediate safeguarding concerns.
• Follow written processes and guidance provided, and prioritise your own workload and work as part of a team.

A DBS enhanced check for a regulated activity is required for this post.

For information on our approach to the recruitment of ex‑offenders, please see our policy statement.

About You

To apply for this post, you must respond to and provide evidence of the following essential criteria within your personal statement. This should be no more than 1,000 words.

• Have recognised Academic Qualifications, e.g. 'GCSE', 'A' Levels, Vocational Quals, Professional/Further Education Quals in relevant area. NVQ 2 in Business Administration or equivalent. Or equivalent level of relevant experience.
• Have experience in communicating with a wide range of people, including professionals and members of the public.
• Be able to handle sensitive and distressing information.
• Have experience working in a fast‑paced and stressful environment whilst accurately maintaining records and following processes.
• Have the ability to prioritise your own workload, work to tight timescales and maintain a professional demeanour.
• Be able to work under own initiative and work well within a team.
• Be computer literate and be an able and accurate typist.

You must also have an understanding of, and commitment to, equality, diversity and inclusion.

In addition, we also expect you to share our commitment to our values and will ask you to provide evidence when you have demonstrated them as part of the selection process.

Reasonable adjustments will be considered for applicants with a disability.

Interested in Flexible Working?

We are keen to support employees to balance their working life with other commitments. Therefore, wherever possible, we will consider working arrangements that suit an individual personal circumstances whilst still meeting the needs of the Council. If you would like to discuss the possible flexible working options that might be applicable to this role, please contact the person named below. This may include requests for term‑time working, part‑time hours, compressed hours, flexible start and finish times, home/remote working, etc.

Every role within the Council has a defined working style that determines where it can work. The worker category applicable to this post is detailed in the above advert. You can find out more about our worker categories on our Working Styles page on our career site.

For more information or an informal discussion, please contact

Simon Parn – Senior Business Support Officer

Telephone: [phone]

To contact me by email, please click here.

How to Apply

Leicestershire County Council is an inclusive organisation which is on a journey to embed and celebrate equality, diversity and inclusion at every level. We warmly welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds, as having a diverse workforce with different perspectives and ideas is fundamental to our values and enriches the services we offer our communities. We particularly welcome applicants from Ethnically Diverse and LGBTQ Plus communities and people with disabilities to create a balanced workforce and one that reflects the communities we serve. Applicants with a disability who meet the criteria listed in the 'About You' section above will be offered an interview under the Disability Confident Employer Scheme.

To apply for this job, please click on the apply button. You will need to upload a supporting statement as part of your application which explains how you meet the criteria listed in the 'About You' section above. For more information, see the How to Apply section on our career site.

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.

If you have any technical issues when trying to apply for this post or you want to request an application pack in an alternative format, please contact our Employee Service Centre by telephoning 0300 3030222 or raising a ticket via our online portal: https://emss.org.uk/support.

By applying for this post, you agree to our Terms and Conditions.