Advisory Officer (Contact)

The starting salary for this role is £29,291 per annum for a 36-hour working week. This position is offered as a 24-month fixed term contract or secondment opportunity.

Based at Dakota in Weybridge, the team offers a blended model of working with the opportunity to work from home for 3 days per week after your initial office-based induction. 

Our Advisory Officer positions sit within our Adult Social Care Information and Advice Service Team which sits within our Customer Service area of the Council, acting as a first point of contact for customers who have Adult Social Care queries.

The government is introducing social care charging reforms from October 2023, changing the way people in England pay for social care to make the system fairer and to ensure people do not face enormous care costs.  As an Advisory Officer, you will be responsible for providing customers and partner agencies with comprehensive information and advice about care and support services in their local area. This is to help people understand how care and support services work locally, the care and funding options available, and how people can access these services. 

Our working environment is outcome focused, you will be working in a fast-paced setting ensuring that cases allocated are resolved in a timely manner and in line with legislation/policies and best practice.  The ability to work under pressure and multitask confidently across various IT systems is essential.   

We want to be honest with you, the nature of some of the calls and correspondence we receive can be sensitive and at times upsetting. We recognise it can be challenging to take calls about abuse, neglect or from someone who is at risk or in crisis but it is so important that we provide this service to people who need it. As such personal resilience is key for this role. We will then add a comprehensive 6-week training program on starting with us and commit to ensuring you will never be on your own and have a supportive environment and team to work with. 

Although this role involves working as part of a well-supported team, you will be given the tools to work independently to allow you to deliver work to a high standard.

In order to safeguard our customers and handle confidential information, a Basic DBS ‘Disclosure & Barring Service’ check will be required for this role.

The range of knowledge, skills and behaviours essential to be successful in this role are:

• An understanding of social care and health issues, with a basic awareness of public sector and voluntary agencies
• Experience of providing high levels of customer care and professionalism in a busy environment
• Able to quickly build rapport and effect successful relationships with customers and partner agencies
• Excellent IT skills and ability to use databases to a high standard of accuracy
• Able to work autonomously with initiative and as part of a team
• Able to travel to Weybridge for at least 2 days per week
• Able to work from home in a confidential space, including access to secure Wi-Fi

The job advert closes at 23:59 on Sunday 25th September 2022.

Interview date to be confirmed and will include an IT test and telephone based scenario. 

Contact Details

For an informal discussion please contact Kim Garland, Maria McIntyre, or Sandra Wright by e-mail at ASC.infoandadvice@surreycc.gov.uk.

We look forward to receiving your application. Please click on the apply online button below to submit.

Benefits

From flexible working to job sharing (where possible) we are committed to providing a healthy work life balance. A laptop and mobile will be supplied if applicable to your role. You will benefit from 26 days annual leave, rising to 28 days after 2 years' service, a generous local government salary related pension, as well as the option to join our car lease scheme.

Our Commitment

Surrey County Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. We want to be an inclusive and diverse employer of first choice reflecting the community we serve and particularly welcome applications from all underrepresented groups.