Business Support Officer

The Service

The Children and Families Services supports and protects Portsmouth's most vulnerable children and young people enabling them to lead safer, healthier, and more fulfilling lives. It also acts as the corporate parent for the city's Looked after Children.

The Role

The Business Support Officer works within the Family Support and Safeguarding South Locality Team and is based at Civic Offices. This is a busy challenging role, perfect for someone who enjoys working as part of a team and wants to do a worthwhile job.

You will provide high quality administrative support to the Locality team who provide intervention with children and families so it is important they work in partnership with parents and other professionals so that the right services can be provided longer term.

Key Responsibilities:

• Minute-taking for complex meetings (e.g., Strategy meetings, group supervisions)
• Data entry into systems like MOSAIC
• Handling service performance data
• Managing post and document scanning
• Responding to telephone enquiries, including safeguarding concerns
• Booking services (translators, accommodation, hire cars)
• Financial tasks (raising purchase orders, reconciling purchase card)
• Word processing, spreadsheets, presentations
• Supporting managers with reports, diary management, and typing
• Ensuring business continuity across the department

Please note, this role is officed based 5 days per week.

The ideal candidate

We are looking for someone who is:

• Experienced in administrative roles, ideally within Children’s or Young People’s Services
• Experienced in Shorthand or minute-taking skills to enable you to take concise notes/minutes in meetings.
• Proficient in Microsoft 365 (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams)
• A confident communicator with excellent literacy and numeracy skills
• Customer-focused with a commitment to high standards of service
• Detail-oriented, organised, and able to prioritise effectively
• Knowledgeable about Data Protection and Safeguarding
• Capable of maintaining confidentiality and handling sensitive information

Please ensure that you read the full job profile attached for the details and expectations of this role, paying particular attention the section 'Who is the person' as you will need to refer to this when completing your Personal statement.

Application process

We anonymise applications during application & shortlisting to ensure only relevant information is considered.

As part of your application, we ask that you complete a personal statement, this statement is crucial and is where you must demonstrate how you meet the requirements of the job against each of the points described in the'Who is the Person' points on the Job Profile using examples from your experience or transferable skills. This might be through qualifications or descriptive examples from your work / personal experience.

We are a disability confident employer and have an Armed Forces Covenant. We are committed to offering an interview to all those candidates that qualify under one of our commitments and meet the minimum criteria.

You will need to demonstrate that you have the Right to Work in the UK. No post will be offered without it.

About Portsmouth City Council

What we can offer you:

Portsmouth City Council is a unique organisation, committed to making a difference, and is guided by core values that set who we are as people, what we stand for, and how we act.

Read more about working at Portsmouth City Council and our benefits on our careers portal homepage: Careers Portal - Find jobs with Portsmouth City Council

Portsmouth City Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, and young people, and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

DBS Disclosure at Enhanced level will be required prior to any offer of employment and this post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974.

Every post is subject to PCC and Portsmouth Safeguarding Children Partnership safer recruitment procedures.

Should you require any support in completing the application form please contact recruit@portsmouthcc.gov.uk. or call the recruitment team on 023 92 616800