Referral Officer

We have an exciting opportunity for a Referral Officer to join us at Front Door For Families. The role is for 22 hours a week and is based within the multi-agency safeguarding hub (MASH), based at Kingswood Street, Brighton. This is an administrative role and is completely office based. You will be working with key professionals including health, education and police who work closely together to enable timely decisions to be made to safeguard children, young people and families more effectively.

Principal Accountabilities

1 To be responsible for receiving, where appropriate, contacts to the Front Door For Families

2 To identify customer and partner agency enquiries promptly and proactively, eliciting information and assessing the appropriate response.

3 To research and collate information from Children’s Services databases and other agency information to enable further decisions using the Brighton & Hove’s Right support at the Right time Framework for Children and Young People.

4 To receive and respond to contacts and referrals about children using relevant procedures to ensure they are progressed appropriately.

5 To undertake detailed system / database searches to obtain information and process checks in partnership with the Police, Probation Service, education, health, CAFCASS and other organisations.

6 To undertake administrative work and ensure information is input on the client database to ensure accurate case records are maintained.

You must be prepared to implement the Council’s Equalities Policy at a level appropriate to the job and must at all times carry out your duties with due regard to the Council’s Equalities Policy.

You will need to be

Educated to NVQ level 2 or equivalent, or equivalent experience

Experience of dealing with the public through a variety of formats including telephone and email.

Experience of researching computer systems, assessing and collating information.

Experience of working in a confidential environment.

Excellent communication skills both verbal and written, with the ability to deal effectively with customers who have diverse and complex needs in an effective and calm manner.

Excellent understanding in sign posting to the available facilities for children and families.

Ability to work under pressure.

Excellent keyboard skills and ability to operate IT systems efficiently, including experience of inputting and retrieving data/information from computer systems e.g. databases and word-processing.

To be able to demonstrate a commitment to the principles of Equalities and to be able to carry out duties in accordance with the Council’s Inclusive Council Policy.

This role is a permanent role and interview are to be held on 4th November 2026.

There is full information about the role below and attached but, if you would like an informal discussion, please contact Caroline Russell, service manager on caroline.russell@brighton.hove.gov.uk

Encouraging a diverse workforce
Our city is known and loved for its diversity. Not only is the mixture of people, culture and skills vital to the economic and social development of the city, it's what makes Brighton & Hove such a great place to live, work and visit. We are committed to developing and retaining a workforce that is representative of the diverse communities we serve so we welcome applications from individuals from all backgrounds. In order to achieve our aims of proportionate representation, we particularly encourage applicants from a BME or White Other background as well as those who identify as disabled, male or trans.

Find out more about our commitment to being a fair and inclusive place to work where everyone can achieve their potential by reading about our fair and inclusive actions, our anti-racism strategy and the work we are doing to encourage a diverse workforce (brighton-hove.gov.uk).

Why work for us?
As a council, we want to:
• be connected
• be confident
• be innovative and creative
• be diverse and inclusive
• be healthy and psychologically safe
For more information about our values and the benefits of working at the council, visit Why work for us which gives details of our wellbeing support, our benefits including leave and pensions as well as details of our training and development.

How to apply
Please read our Apply for a job at the council pages carefully. They give you all the guidance you need to complete your application as well as information on what will happen after you’ve submitted your application and at interview.

As part of your application, you will need to provide your education and career history and answer some application/shortlisting questions. Your answers to the application/shortlisting questions are the most important part of your application as they will be used in the shortlisting process to assess whether you meet the essential requirements for the role that are set out in the person specification and to decide whether you should be offered an interview. Before you start your application, please read our Shortlisting questions guidance (brighton-hove.gov.uk) as this gives important advice which will increase your chance of success in the shortlisting process.

AI advice for candidates
We are interested in hearing about your experience and skills in your own words. While we value people who know how to use AI, we ask that you minimise using it in your application.

We are keen to hear how your experience and skills align to our values and the skills and experience needed to perform well in our roles with clear real examples from you. To support you in this, we have guidance on using the STAR model which can help you ensure you are telling us your whole story. We also provide clarity on the skills we are looking for in our adverts and in the job description/person specification attached to each job advert.

All the applications we receive are read by at least two hiring managers and we do not use AI in this process. Our experience of reading applications is that those that have heavily used AI contain generic paragraphs that are strikingly similar to other applicants’ responses. This makes it extremely difficult to differentiate between applications, and doesn't give us enough evidence of your individual skills. There is a risk that we will therefore not be able to shortlist you. Instead, we recommend you ensure your application stands out by presenting clear examples of your actual skills and experiences in your own words.

Additional information
Your starting salary will be pro rata if the above position is less than 37 hours or term-time only.

Please note that this post is subject to a Basic Disclosure Criminal Records.

Please note that this post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, and is subject to a Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) Check.

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