Bookbus Assistant

**About The Job** Salary**:£20,812 to £21,189 (Pro Rata **£8,164 to £8,312**)**
**Working Pattern**: Part time, 17 hours Term-time only, FTC until 31/12/2023

**Location**: Chichester and surrounding areas
**Interview date**:21st February 2023

Our library service operates a targeted, children’s mobile library service which visits preschools, nurseries and early years groups on a regular basis. The Bookbus service provides a book loan and information service for early years staff, story time sessions for groups of under-fives and time for children to make individual choices for stories shared one-to-one with adults.

One Bookbus visits preschools in Worthing, Littlehampton and Bognor area and the other in Crawley and Broadfield, and each has a Bookbus co-ordinator plus assistant who drives the vehicle.

Our Bookbus assistants are key to delivering an excellent service to preschool children and staff, helping to deliver a high-quality service by driving to each venue, parking safely and assisting children to get on and off the bus.

You will be involved in managing the workload during visits, facilitating the book lending, shelving books, reading to groups of children, answering early years staff enquiries and maintaining a safe environment on the mobile library for all visitors. It’s an active role: driving, carrying books, taking books from the library to stock the bus, moving around the vehicle and supporting children on the bus.

**Experience and Skills**
Key Skills:

- Ability to drive and manoeuvre a specially adapted bus safely and considerately.
- The ability to work as part of a small team completing shared tasks.
- Excellent interpersonal skills with the ability to confidently work with children and staff in preschool settings, alongside the Bookbus Co-ordinator.

Qualifications and/or experience:
4 GCSEs with A-C passes including Maths and English or equivalent qualification/experience is required.
- Full clean driving licence with C1 category and excellent driving skills.
- Experience of driving a bookbus or similar sized vehicle, such as a large transit van or equivalent, (holding a Certificate of Professional Competence (Drivers) (CPC) desirable
- Evidence of working with children and young people through previous work experience.
- Experience of providing a service giving basic advice and guidance.
- Understanding of wider library services and their importance for children and families.

**Rewards and Benefits**
As an employer we recognise that it is our employees that are central to everything we do. We aim to create a supportive and dynamic working environment where employees can achieve their full potential, achieve a healthy work-life balance and are rewarded for the work they do.

In addition to working within a great team and a competitive salary you will have access to:

- A generous pension scheme.
- Training and development opportunities, including coaching and mentoring.
- A strong supportive management team.
- A range of discounts giving our staff access to hundreds of offers with the opportunity to save over £1,000 (Including: Argos, Samsung, Asos, B&Q and many more).
- Free access to employee assistance programmes.
- Discounted membership at selected local sports and fitness centres.
- Car benefit scheme.
- A range of commuting and business travel discounts and initiatives

For a full list of the benefits offered to you as a West Sussex County Council employee you can find them on our **Rewards and Benefits** page.

**Further Information**
The reference number for this role is **CPP00684**.

Note for Recruitment Agencies: We prefer to hire people directly, but we do have a supplier list for when we need a helping hand. We'll be in touch directly if we need you

Job Reference: CPP00684