Coroner’s Service Support Assistant

Essex County Council; Chelmsford; On-site; GBP 26,000 - 33,000; Full time

Job summary

Essex County Council is seeking a Coroner Service Support Assistant to join the Chelmsford team on a 6-month contract. The role is full-time, 37 hours per week, with a salary of £13.49 PAYE or £17.275 Umbrella and a closing date of Monday 5 October 2026.

The position requires working from Seax House, with probation training and later 2–3 days per week with line manager agreement. The Coroners Service Support Assistant will support HM Coroner, logging new cases, making initial family contacts,

Qualifications

• GCSEs including Maths and English or equivalent.
• Excellent Microsoft Office skills (Word, Outlook, PowerPoint, Excel).
• Strong IT and keyboard skills.
• Experience working in a team and liaising with a wide variety of people.
• Experience dealing with telephone enquiries.
• Proven effective communication and interpersonal skills.
• Ability to prioritise effectively and present information clearly.

Responsibilities

• Filter incoming contact using established procedures and route to the appropriate officer.
• Take initiative to handle queries or complaints.
• Provide high quality, confidential admin support to coroner officers and manage own work.
• Arrange and manage juries for inquests and support court procedures.
• Maintain accurate confidential records and filing, both manual and electronic.
• Support modernisation of the Coroner’s Service and collect performance data.
• Collaborate with the wider team to uphold professional standards and service excellence.

Skills

IT skills

Teamwork

Telephone enquiries

Communication

Prioritisation

Education

GCSEs with Maths & English

Tools

Microsoft Word

Microsoft Outlook

Microsoft PowerPoint

Microsoft Excel

Job description

About The Role

Coroner Service Support Assistant

Location – Chelmsford

Full-Time, Temporary

6 Month Contract

37 Hours per Week

Salary - £13.49 PAYE / £17.275 Umbrella

Closing Date: Monday 5th October 2026

Please note this is a temporary opportunity for 6 months. You will be required to work from Seax House, Chelmsford, daily during Probation for training and development purposes and thereafter 2 to 3 days per week with Line Manager agreement.

The Opportunity

Essex Coroners Service supports 4 full-time Coroners in statutory duties as independent judiciary investigating the unnatural deaths across Essex, including Southend and Thurrock. The service has 5,500 referrals per year and holds over 1,000 inquests a year.

The Coroners’ Service Support Assistant works as part of a small, busy team providing administrative support to the HM Coroner. The role supports all aspects of the service including logging new cases, initial contact with families, acting as jury bailiff, preparing treasure cases right through to Disclaimer or Treasure Inquest, maintaining court schedules and much more. The admin team work closely with Coroner Officers, managers and HM Coroners to support the modernisation of the service.

‘This Role requires dealing daily with bereaved families at a very difficult time, and so excellent customer care skills are essential as well being very organised with up-to-date IT skills are ‘Essential’. This Team is also responsible for championing customer needs.’

Accountabilities

• Responsible for using specialist, procedural and organisational knowledge to filter incoming contact; dealing with the communication directly or referring it to the appropriate officer in a timely manner and ensuring senior staff are informed of urgent/important developments.
• Responsible for using initiative and taking independent actions in order to deal with queries/complaints.
• Responsible for providing high quality, accurate and efficient support to a team of coroner officers, much of which will be of a confidential nature, and to organise and quality check own work.
• Responsible for carrying out file administration, arranging and managing juries for Coroners inquests as instructed.
• Responsible for demonstrating effective communication and engagement with all service users and customers (internal and external).
• Responsible for maintaining and developing accurate confidential records and filing, both manual and electronic to ensure efficient and effective storage and retrieval of information.
• Working collaboratively with the wider Coroners Service team to support the development of high professional standards, a commitment to service excellence and continuous improvement.
• Supporting the modernisation of the Coroner’s Service, delivery of efficient processes and collection of performance data.
• Specific individual and shared targets and objectives are defined annually within the performance management framework.

The Experience You Will Bring

• Educated to GCSE level (including Maths and English)/NVQ Administration Level 2 or equivalent by experience.
• Excellent working knowledge of Microsoft Office applications, including Word, Outlook, PowerPoint, and Excel.
• Excellent IT and Keyboard Skills.
• Experience of effective working as a team member and ability to liaise with a wide variety of people.
• Experience of dealing with telephone enquiries.
• Proven effective communication and interpersonal skills.
• Ability to prioritise effectively.
• Ability to present information in an accurate, orderly, and disciplined manner.

To read more about us please visit: Climate, Environment and Customer Services

Why Essex?

As one of the largest and most dynamic UK local authorities, Essex offers a stimulating public service environment. Covering over 1,420 square miles and serving 1.8 million residents, we’re committed to transformational change and delivering better quality at lower cost. Recognised in the top three of the latest IMPOWER index for productivity, we ensure everyone matters in Everyone's Essex. With flexible working options and a focus on innovation, whether you are looking to develop your career or contribute to the local community, Essex is the ideal place for you.

In March 2026, the Government announced that councils in Greater Essex will be reorganised into five new unitary authorities from April 2028. In addition to this, Greater Essex has been accepted on to the devolution priority programme, where we will work towards establishing a Mayoral Combined County Authority. You can read more about these changes, and what this may mean for this role, on our careers site.

Essex County Council is proud to be a Disability Confident Leader. We’re committed to interview all disabled applicants who choose to apply under our Job Interview Scheme if they meet the minimum requirements of the job. Please speak to our Recruiters if you require any reasonable adjustments during the process. We’re also committed to interview all veterans and care leavers, who meet the minimum requirements of the role for which they are applying.

Once you’ve secured your role within Essex County Council you will receive many great employee benefits, including support for unpaid carers and flexible working arrangements to accommodate their needs.

At Essex County Council, we value integrity and ethical behaviour. We kindly ask that you embrace our code of conduct and the Nolan principles, including throughout the recruitment process. Your commitment to these standards helps us maintain a positive and respectful workplace for everyone.

As part of employment with Essex County Council (ECC) should your role require a DBS check you will be required to register with the DBS update service. The DBS update service ensures all registered DBS certificates are kept up to date and allows authorised parties to view the status of your certificate. This is an annual subscription, and you will be responsible for ensuring this is maintained. For further information on the DBS update service please go to https://www.gov.uk/dbs-update-service

Essex County Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults and expects all employees and volunteers to share this commitment.

If you would like to be kept up to date on other relevant opportunities, blogs, news, events and industry related news at Essex County Council, please join The Essex Talent Community

If you have queries on this role or require anything further, please email [e-mail]

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn. Further details can be found on our careers page.

Downloads

Pay and Reward | Our Ways of Working | About Us | Organisation Behaviours