Business Support Officer - Governance Team - Internal

To apply for this job you must be an employee of Kirklees Council for the duration of the recruitment process – up to and including the start date - and have successfully completed your probationary period. Please note that if you work for an Academy you are not an employee of the Council.

As a Business Support Officer within the Governance Team you will work as part of a team that provides support and advice across a range of democratic activities. You will provide effective and professional support to Service Managers, wider Governance staff, Councillors, colleagues within the Council, partners and members of the public.

As part of a team, you will ensure you meet all legal requirements and deadlines and that your work is carried out to the Service’s high standards. This role requires a motivated and pro-active individual who can work in a variety of different areas.

You will work closely with your team and manager to review processes and systems to identify and implement best practice and meet the high expectations of our customers.

You will be working in a busy, political environment to support Councillors, Senior Officers and the public.  Your work will be varied and provide challenging opportunities for you to gain experience in a variety of different areas.  You will work on a range of activities and projects at a time and will be responsible for the quality, creativity and timeliness of your work ensuring that key priorities are met.

The Governance Team provides a range of functions that support the democratic, governance and decision making processes and structures within the Council.  Your main duties will include:

• Supporting the School Appeal Admin process, including liaising with Panel Members to arrange Panel hearings and making all necessary arrangements for the appeal to be heard and recording appeals submitted and subsequent outcomes within strict statutory deadlines.
• Using the Council’s democratic content management system (Mod Gov) to ensure that Councillor roles and responsibilities are accurately recorded and meeting documentation published in line with statutory deadlines;
• Providing assistance with the Governance Team’s training and development offer, including arranging sessions and preparing the necessary training materials;
• Ensuring that the governance content on the Council’s website is up to date and accurate;
• Archiving paper and electronic records in accordance with the Democracy Service Retention Policy, including logging of and transfer of paper files to the Council’s Central Archive; and
• Receiving and processing Petitions received by the Council, assessing criteria against the Petitions Scheme, assigning to a Responding Officer and keeping accurate records relating to the resolution.

You will be organised and responsive in undertaking your work, demonstrating excellent IT skills and written and verbal communication skills to be able to provide advice, use IT systems and packages and produce letters and formal documentation to a high standard including:-

• Updating and maintaining accurate records and associated processes in accordance with deadlines and legislative requirements;
• Processing orders and invoices, using Council purchasing systems (i.e. SAP);
• Using Microsoft Office packages and a range of software and web-based technology to produce specialist material, statistical information and reports;
• Handling personal and sensitive data and information, ensuring that this is done in accordance with council guidelines and General Data Protection Regulations and in an appropriate and confidential manner;
• Maintaining effective relationships with a range of customers both internal and external to the Council.

In order to be shortlisted for this job please demonstrate how you meet the Person Checklist as detailed on the attached Job Profile.