Business Support Officer LBS-007 (Admin & Clerical)

Southwark Council values: Treating residents as if they were a valued member of your own family | Being open, honest and accountable | Spending money as if it was your own | Working for everyone to realise their own potential | Making Southwark a place to be proud of | Always work to make Southwark more equal and just | Stand against all forms of discrimination and racism 1 JOB DESCRIPTION POST TITLE: Business Support Officer (Systems & Finance) GRADE 7 DIVISION / UNIT Legal Services/Business Support DEPARTMENT Governance & Assurance REPORTS TO: Business Manager PURPOSE OF THE JOB To provide high quality professional financial and ICT business support to Legal Services primarily and more widely to Governance and Assurance department, as directed by the Business Manager. Responsible for the implementation and maintenance of digital and electronic ICT systems within the Legal Services division. To maintain processes for meeting service objectives and be responsible for the maintenance of business support systems, to support continuous service improvement. PRINCIPAL ACCOUNTABILITIES Responsibilities

1. To ensure that highly professional and efficient financial and ICT support is delivered to Legal Services primarily and more widely to Governance and Assurance department, as directed by the Business Manager.
2. To be a designated super user for all departmental electronic systems, including undertaking court bundling, electronic sealing, archiving and maintenance activities for the legal services’ case management system Visualfiles. Be able to respond to queries on a range of corporate IT systems and be able to produce appropriate outputs, e.g. reports.
3. Responsible for ensuring all office equipment is in good working order, proactively checking workstations and multi-functional devices regularly, supporting colleagues experiencing IT issues and raising IT support calls as required. Southwark Council values: Treating residents as if they were a valued member of your own family | Being open, honest and accountable | Spending money as if it was your own | Working for everyone to realise their own potential | Making Southwark a place to be proud of | Always work to make Southwark more equal and just | Stand against all forms of discrimination and racism 2
4. To take a lead role in the access and training needs of staff in the use of effective IT systems through regular consultation and keeping abreast of IT developments.
5. To adhere to financial management processes and ensure compliance with the Council’s Standing Orders and financial regulations.
6. To undertake day-to-day finance administrative duties within the team, including processing of reconciliations, raising purchase orders in SAP, payment of invoices, setting up and amending vendors using a variety of systems as required
7. To maintain quality assurance systems to ensure set procedures are complied with and best practice is followed within the team.
8. To lead on customer care issues, ensuring that internal colleagues, members of the public or external contacts receive an excellent service and complaints or enquiries are dealt with promptly and professionally.
9. To contribute to designated service projects as identified by the Business Manager.
10. Responsible for the production of regular and ad-hoc reports on a wide range of case management, finance and other information.
11. Responsible for undertaking section based or service wide finance and administrative processes. This will require the application and interpretation of defined criteria or seeking out solutions where issues are not straightforward, referring complex matters to appropriate colleagues.
12. Responsible for ensuring records management principles, procedures, techniques and related equipment and systems are applied to all legal and non-legal documentation following clearly defined retention and retrieval processes.
13. Ensuring adherence to relevant legislation, ensuring the use of designated templates and a high level of accuracy are maintained to support legal services whilst upholding strictest confidence both internally and externally.
14. Understand the conflicts with regards to the Data Protection Act and the Freedom of Information Act and their relevant implications. Southwark Council values: Treating residents as if they were a valued member of your own family | Being open, honest and accountable | Spending money as if it was your own | Working for everyone to realise their own potential | Making Southwark a place to be proud of | Always work to make Southwark more equal and just | Stand against all forms of discrimination and racism 3
15. Take responsibility for functions related to the smooth operation of the office environment and identifying and dealing promptly with any health and safety issues, both individually or as part of the team.
16. To review finance support systems and processes, identifying key areas for remedial action and to suggest improvements to be made to meet with general good practice, Council objectives and legislative requirements.
17. To work closely with the Business Support Officer (Systems and Finance) Governance & Assurance, providing additional support with major tasks and provide cover in their absence. JOB CONTEXT Organisational Structure The vision for Legal Services is: “To be the council’s first choice provider of legal services, offering a sustainable, high-quality, responsive & efficient value for money service to the council and to the communities of Southwark.”
18. Structure The post holder will formally report to the Business Manager, Governance and Assurance. Actual day to day tasks may be allocated by any senior member of the organisational unit.
19. Financial Responsibilities Dependent on the work of the section the post holder maintains systems that have a financial consequence, e.g. application of internal procedures, raising purchase orders, preparing invoice batches for upload to the Council’s finance system, SAP.
20. Contacts Regular contact with administrative colleagues in other areas, lawyers, management, members of the public and external organisations. This would generally involve the implementation of policy and procedures sometimes dealing Southwark Council values: Treating residents as if they were a valued member of your own family | Being open, honest and accountable | Spending money as if it was your own | Working for everyone to realise their own potential | Making Southwark a place to be proud of | Always work to make Southwark more equal and just | Stand against all forms of discrimination and racism 4 with complex, individual issues. Such contact may on occasions be challenging and requires the application of thoughtful customer care approaches.
21. Grade/Conditions of Service The employment is subject to a probationary period of twenty six weeks from your start date of employment with Southwark Council, during which time you will be required to demonstrate to the council’s satisfaction your suitability for the position in which you are employed. Southwark Council values: Treating residents as if they were a valued member of your own family | Being open, honest and accountable | Spending money as if it was your own | Working for everyone to realise their own potential | Making Southwark a place to be proud of | Always work to make Southwark more equal and just | Stand against all forms of discrimination and racism 5 PERSON SPECIFICATION The person specification is a picture of skills, knowledge and experience required to carry out the job. Knowledge, including educational qualifications Essential (E) How assessed (S/ I/ T) A relevant degree level qualification in finance / business / management studies or significant experience in business administration E S/I Advanced working knowledge of Microsoft 365 and case management or other document management systems. E S/ T Good understanding of the Freedom of Information and data Protection Act Issues and its application in the role. E I Good understanding of the need for confidentiality and be able to demonstrate steps to ensure integrity. E I Strong literacy skills in order to compile management information, non-standard correspondence, minute and produce accurate records of meetings. E T Advanced numeracy skills in order to compile complex statistical and financial information and undertake basic calculations. E S/T Understand how to organise and prioritise a workload. E T Understand how to manage manual and IT based records efficiently and with appropriate confidentiality. E I Understand the principles of service delivery in a busy, customer focused environment. E I Experience Experience of budget management and financial reporting systems. E I Experience of researching, preparing and drafting concise reports and the ability to present information to a variety of audiences. E I Experience of providing performance management reports using a wide range of IT packages at an advanced level, using Microsoft 365, Adobe Acrobat, legal case management E S/T Southwark Council values: Treating residents as if they were a valued member of your own family | Being open, honest and accountable | Spending money as if it was your own | Working for everyone to realise their own potential | Making Southwark a place to be proud of | Always work to make Southwark more equal and just | Stand against all forms of discrimination and racism 6 software. Experience of providing a business support function within a legal service or other professional practice. E I Experience of working with minimal supervision, organising workload, determining priorities to meet deadlines and taking responsibility for own actions. E I Experience of using office equipment and IT software to organise and achieve work-tasks. E I Experience of completing complex financial/invoicing processes. E S/ I Experience of building effective and professional working relationships, with the ability to influence staff, seniors and key stakeholders. E I Aptitudes, Skills & Competencies High level of computer literacy to maintain office and financial systems and produce information and documents. E I Advanced level of numeracy with the ability to provide financial management support and understand and interpret complex statistical information. E S/T Ability to work on own initiative and be proactive in developing and improving systems for performance monitoring and change. E I Good interpersonal skills and the ability to encourage positive working relationships with staff and colleagues. E I Ability to deal with correspondence, using excellent word processing skills to prepare letters and simple documents to a high standard. E T Ability to keep files in perfect order in compliance with office procedures and standards E I Ability to resolve problems creatively, and disseminate information clearly. E I/ T Strong customer focus with the ability to develop and maintain strong communication and working relationships with customers, colleagues and suppliers. E I Southwark Council values: Treating residents as if they were a valued member of your own family | Being open, honest and accountable | Spending money as if it was your own | Working for everyone to realise their own potential | Making Southwark a place to be proud of | Always work to make Southwark more equal and just | Stand against all forms of discrimination and racism 7 Professional and conscientious with good attention to detail to provide a high quality service to the customers. E I Ability to maintain confidentiality at all times and deal appropriately with sensitive matters. E I Equal Opportunities Must undertake duties and responsibilities with due regard to equalities issues and actively promote ways of eradicating discrimination through the Council’s policies and procedures. E I Special Conditions of Recruitment Required to carry out duties and responsibilities of the post in accordance with the council’s policies and procedures and standing orders. Comply with and promote the Council’s Equal opportunities policy Ability to work outside normal office hours as and when required. Key: E - Essential S - Shortlisting criteria I - Evaluated at interview T - Subject to test