Business Support Officer

Job introduction

Are you an enthusiastic and organised administrator? Would you like to work in a team supporting children throughout their care journey?

If this is you, we would welcome your application to our Business Support Officer vacancy.

For an informal discussion, please contact Sharron Frost, Business Support Manager -

Interview date: December 2025

About the role

As a Business Support Officer, you will be working in a team to support children from diverse backgrounds throughout their journey from assessment to leaving care. You will be a key member of the pod of social workers whilst also working alongside a number of other pods as part of the larger team.

You will have a full induction to the work and be supported to attain the required skills by training and shadowing to enhance existing/transferable skills and learn and understand the role.

Ideally you will have experience of working in a busy office environment with the ability to prioritise your workload around the demands of the service whilst still managing to meet statutory deadlines. This role involves the use of various computer packages, and you will provide customer-focused information to people who contact the team. You will be highly organised and have an ability to work both independently and as part of a team. You will need to enjoy solving problems and managing an evolving workload with good time management skills being essential.

The post will involve some exposure to distressing information about young people and/or family circumstances.

Here is what our Business Support Officers say about working in Families Children & Learning:

"The diversity of duties and working in Children's Services is what attracted me to the role"

"Supporting my social workers gives me a lot of job satisfaction - I feel like I am really involved in helping families' lives"

"Feeling you have helped a client in the absence of the social worker in trying to sort out their problems. Having an understanding of their case and developing a rapport with some of the parents."

"The part I have most enjoyed about being the Business support Officer for the Pod is how I've felt truly part of the team. Just because I'm business support and they're social workers, they've never not included me in group discussions, supervisions or activities outside of work; I've been extremely lucky to have worked with the Pod"

Key skills you can offer:

• A flexible, adaptable approach to work with ability to multi task effectively according to business priorities

• Ability to deal with confidential information tactfully and with discretion

• Accuracy and attention to detail

• Experience in business support duties including arranging meetings, and taking minutes which may be of a complex nature.

• Competent in working with Outlook and Microsoft Office packages

• Ability to deal with confidential information tactfully and with discretion.

• Inputting and retrieval of data on service-based IT system

Our offer to Business Support Officers:

• Career average pension scheme
• 24 days leave a year, rising to 28 days after 5 years' service
• Being an active part of group supervisions
• 1-2-1 support from your Business Support Manager
• A programme of learning and development opportunities
• An online toolbox of resources to support the work of the Business Support Officer
• Peer support from other business support colleagues across the service
• Benefits such as: bus ticket and cycle loans; reduced cost gym membership with Freedom Leisure

Please read our Apply for a job at the council (brighton-) 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 complete your education and work history and provide answers to some shortlisting questions. Your answers to the 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 guidance here (Shortlisting questions guidance (brighton-) as this gives important advice which will increase your chance of success in the shortlisting process.

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 upload your Application Form and answers to some shortlisting questions. Your answers to the shortlisting questions are the most important part of your application as it 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 guidance here (Application Form guidance (brighton-) and (Shortlisting guidance (brighton-) as this gives important advice which will increase your chance of success in the shortlisting process.

Additional information

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

For more information about our values and the benefits of working at the council, visit Why work for us

Company information

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-).

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

Salary range

• £29,540 - £31,022 per year

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