Service Support Assistant

The starting salary for this role is £23,243 per annum for a 36 hour working week. 

We currently have two positions available:

• 1 x Full-time, 12 month fixed-term or secondment opportunity
• 1 x Full-time, 24 month fixed-term 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 once you have built up the skills to work independently.

About the Team

Our Service Support Assistant positions sit within our Adult Social Care Information and Advice Service in our Customer Service area of the Council, acting as a first point of contact for customers who have Adult Social Care enquiries.

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.

About the Role

As a Service Support Assistant, you will be responsible for providing customers and partner agencies with general information about care and support services in their local area before passing them to our second line call handlers for more complex enquiries, as well as providing administrative support to the team.

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.

About You

The ability to work under pressure and multitask confidently across various IT systems is essential for this role.

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 4-week training program upon 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.

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 remotely in a confidential space, including access to secure Wi-Fi

At Surrey, our values and behaviours are just as important as our skills and abilities. They shape who we are as an organisation. Find out more about the values we follow.

The job advert closes at 23:59 on Sunday 16^th October 2022.

Interviews will take place in October 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 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. For more information about the wide variety of benefits you can take advantage of please visit MyBenefits for Surrey County Council staff.

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.