Vacancy Description

Achieving for Children is an award-winning social enterprise created by Kingston and Richmond Councils in 2014, expanding into the Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead in 2017. We are responsible for delivering the entirety of children’s services in all three local authorities.

Achieving for Children has been up and running for four years, and in that time we have established a reputation as one of the leading children’s services providers in the country. We are one of the Department for Education’s eight ‘Partners in Practice’, tasked with leading improvement across the sector.

We are looking for a School Support Officer to join our School Support Services Team in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead.

The School Support Services team is responsible for:

• Co-ordinating the Council’s Traded Service offer to schools.
• Procuring and managing some operational contracts for schools, such as waste and catering.
• Carrying out forecasting for future pupil numbers.
• Delivering the Council’s School Admissions service.
• Organising and delivering Home to School transport.
• Recommending and managing School Organisation matters and the Council’s capital programme for schools.

We are looking for a School Support Officer to join us and support all our services, but chiefly the Contracts and Traded Services, Home to School Transport, and School Admissions workflow. You will have excellent attention to detail and the ability to work in a fast paced environment handling matters of a sensitive and confidential nature. We would expect you to implement robust commissioning, contract and quality assurance processes and help monitor the effectiveness of our service delivery.

As a School Support Officer you will be responsible for:

• Ensuring continuous ‘Help desk’ cover is available from 8am – 5.15pm, Monday – Thursday, and 8am – 4.45pm on Friday and ensure that requests and enquiries are dealt with in an efficient and professional manner. Flexible working will be required to cover these hours with other team members.
• Assisting with the procurement and management of contracts to enable the services to meet objectives.
• Checking and processing invoices including following up and resolving issues.
• Supporting the admissions team with processing basic information regarding applications.

To be a School Support Officer you will demonstrate the following:

• Previous experience of working in a busy office environment, ideally in a school or local government.
• The ability to deal with sensitive and confidential issues and to be a responsive first point of contact for parents, schools, operators and suppliers.
• Excellent attention to detail, with good oral, numerical and written skills.
• Ability to work in a fast paced environment.
• Ability to maintain and manage databases and lists collaboratively and have good overall IT skills, including knowledge of Word, Excel, Access and Gmail.
• Knowledge of a Finance system (e.g. Agresso) would be an advantage, although training will be given.
• Have common sense, be able to work on own initiative and have a sense of humour.
• Takes ownership for customer queries.

If you would like to find out more about this exciting and varied role, please contact Lynne Penn, Support Services Team Leader or Gemma White, Business Development Team Leader on 01628 685748 for an informal discussion.

Achieving for Children is an equal opportunities employer and is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. We expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. Successful candidates will be required to undertake a Criminal Record Check.

Closing date: 25 August 2019

Interviews: w/c 2 September 2019

Further information on this vacancy

• Job Description/Person Specification