About Us:

Our support services help the whole council work to the best of their ability. They include the Council's Customer Access department, Human Resources, IT, Financial Management, Corporate Property, Audit, Fraud, Risk and Insurance.

We aim for excellence in these services as they will in turn benefit the community we serve. Please take a look at our current vacancies.

The Role:

We are looking for someone, ideally a graduate, who has an interest in local democracy and community leadership, to work as part of a team providing administrative support and advice to Council committees, our elected Councillors and the communities they serve.

In the current circumstances and until further notice all Governance staff - and many other Council officers - are working from home.

The job involves arranging, ‘attending’ (remotely at present) and minuting a range of public meetings; supporting and liaising closely with committee chairs, cabinet members and senior colleagues; and, more broadly, helping ensure open, transparent and robust decision-making and scrutiny challenge.  This is a great opportunity at the heart of a busy local authority and, whilst undoubtedly challenging at times, will provide a varied and solid grounding for a career here at the Borough or elsewhere in the wider public sector.

You must be self-assured, able to write clearly and concisely, a proven communicator with good IT skills, an eye for detail and bags of enthusiasm.  We’re looking for someone who’s flexible and hardworking, with instinctive political sensitivity and an appreciation of the need for confidentiality and professionalism at all times.

Your experience is important but so too is your outlook and attitude and we welcome applications from people from a wide range of backgrounds.

Candidates will be expected to explain clearly and concisely in their application their interest in local democracy and, importantly, in this job.  At interview stage we will assess your relevant knowledge and interest and look especially for candidates who are keen, informed, can ‘think on their feet’ and are well-presented.

Please refer to the Job Description for more information

About You:

•    A good knowledge of the responsibilities of a London local authority and a clear interest in the role of local Councillors
•    An interest and understanding of the role of party politics in local government
•    Politically sensitive and mindful of protocol
•    Ability to produce high-quality written material for different work purposes, e.g. email, minutes, briefings etc.
•    Experience of administering and clerking meetings
•    Experience and/or understanding of the challenges in providing support to elected Councillors and/or senior people
•    High-level interpersonal skills – smart, well-presented, professional and businesslike, with a friendly, courteous and open manner, able to express yourself clearly, confidently and tactfully to a wide range of people, including senior managers and high profile external people
•    An excellent telephone manner, with the ability to screen callers in a courteous and effective way and deal confidently and robustly with difficult callers
•    An appreciation of the highly visible nature of this role within the organisation and an organised approach to work, managing information etc. with an understanding of how to make best use of planning tools, progress monitoring progress 
•    Flexible and adaptable, experienced in working as part of a team
•    Significant experience of Microsoft Office applications, especially Outlook, Word, Excel and Powerpoint and an understanding of social media such as Facebook and Twitter 

Role Requirements:

(i)    To service and manage the business of one or more Council-side committee(s) and/or executive-side forums, including ongoing liaison with the Chair or Lead Member, agenda preparation, report writing and liaison with report-writers, clerking, minute drafting and all necessary follow-up action.

(ii)    To administer the Council’s Forward Plan of Key Decisions and the systems through which Key Decisions are taken, individually and/or collectively, by Lead Members.
(iii)    To represent the Chief Executive at meetings and as otherwise necessary, advising Members and colleagues as necessary on procedural matters and on the maintenance of efficient, effective and proper corporate governance.
(iv)    To exercise a corporate quality control role in relation to reports and other material submitted by departments to those committees and other forums for which the postholder is responsible and to do everything possible to ensure that all reports are prepared clearly written and in the proper form, that they meet statutory requirements and comply with the Council’s Constitution.
(v)    To facilitate open and transparent governance arrangements and, pursuant to this, deal helpfully with public enquiries and ensure report/decision publication arrangements comply both with the law and best practice.
(vi)    To work closely as required with the Chief Executive and other senior managers, keeping them fully informed of sensitive developments to enable them to intervene, where necessary, at a formative stage.  To advise them also on remedial action that may need to be taken.
(vii)    To advise officer colleagues and Councillors on key parts of the Constitution, procedures and systems and suggest the correct or best way (or alternative ways) of dealing with different governance issues arising.
(viii)    To assist in progressing e-governance developments in relation to the overall functions of the Team.

We work in partnership with Hampshire County Council (HCC) who deliver many transactional services on our behalf. Although most communications will be from HCC, all selection and appointment decisions will be made by RBKC. Certain services are shared across more than one Council area to nearby neighbouring Authorities. This enhances delivery and reduces costs. Your recruitment information will advise if your remit extends beyond RBKC.

We will primarily contact candidates by e-mail throughout the recruitment process, please monitor your email junk / spam folder as our system generated emails may be allocated to these folders by your email settings.

We engage our staff with a variety of learning types including face-to-face and virtual learning because we want to ensure our staff understand our values and behaviours, grow their skills and develop their careers.

We are committed to promoting equality and respecting diversity and welcome applications from all sections of the community.

We are a Disability Confident Employer – committed to ensuring that our recruitment and selection process is inclusive and accessible.