Integrated Service Assistant

**About Us**
Here at West Sussex County Council we are ambitious for our children and our workforce. We are committed to improving our services for the children and families in West Sussex we support. You will join us as at a key time on our improvement journey. The work we have started includes establishing a new and experienced leadership team driving forward our ‘Children First’ improvement plan.

We don’t underestimate the work that still needs to be done and the challenge ahead. That’s why we need professionals, like you, who really want to be part of the positive change that is happening. Be part of an ambitious improvement plan and make a significant difference to children and families in West Sussex. There’s never been a more rewarding time to join.

For further information about us and about working in Children’s Social Care at West Sussex County Council, please visit **Careers in children's social work in West Sussex**.
**About The Job**
Salary**: £19,650 - £20,043
**Working Pattern**: Full-time
**Location**: Bognor Regis

We’re looking for a passionate and empowering Integrated Service Assistant to join our Family Time Contact Centre in Bognor Regis. You will be responsible for providing information, support, guidance and front-line service delivery to families, children and young people.

The Family Time Contact Service arrange and deliver supervised contact where Children’s Social Care are required to supervise a child’s contact with a parent or family members with whom they are not resident and work to ensure that contact is a warm and supportive experience for children and young people. We work alongside our social work colleagues, striving to meet the required expectations and provide good evidence upon which Social Workers and the courts make their decisions regarding the permanency of children.

As an Integrated Service Assistant, you’ll provide a reliable, efficient and effective flexible administrative support service, including responding to client queries, giving standard information and guidance relating to the service, maintaining records and producing standard correspondence, and providing support and day to day processing according to set procedures. You will also need to be resilient, able to use your own initiative and confident in working independently as you will be one of the first points of contact for many families who may be upset, confused or angry, and will need to know how to respond to them appropriately. You’ll also respond to queries from various professionals such as social care, foster carers and other agencies.
**Experience and Skills**
Key Skills**:

- Good communication, customer service and interpersonal skills in order to interact effectively with sessional workers, team members, social workers, parents and foster carers.
- Ability to work as part of a team completing shared tasks in order to deliver a service to others.
- Good interpersonal skills with the ability to confidently work with children, young people and families, e.g. dealing with complex queries and family issues, responding appropriately to challenging behaviour such as aggressive or distressed individuals.
- Ability to meet set deadlines and to understand when problems need to be referred upwards e.g. in responding to complaints for a quick and accurate solution.
- Good analytical and judgement skills in order to effectively assist with customer queries.
- Proficient IT skills, including Microsoft Office suite, internet and other databases.

**Qualifications and/or experience**:

- 4 GCSEs with A-C passes including Maths and English or equivalent qualification or experience demonstrating that level of numeracy and literacy.
- An IT qualification or equivalent experience demonstrating good working knowledge of IT systems/procedures.
- Experience of working with challenging families with a clear understanding of the challenges and barriers they may face with engaging with professionals.
- Experience of team working.
- Experience of administration skills, accessing various databases to source information, and working under pressure and to time constraints.

**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. As well as a generous pension scheme, you’ll be entitled to 24 days annual leave with the option to buy up to 3 additional days. For a full list of the benefits offered to you as a West Sussex County Council employee, please visit our **Rewards and Benefits** page.
**Further Information**
The reference number for this role is **CAFHE03625 **.

RMS

Job Reference: CAFHE03625