• The role is within the children's department of the customer service team based at County Hall (currently Deane House due to winter mothballing).
• Full time position – 37 hours a week
• Grade 13 - £23,893-25,979
• We support a hybrid working model where a balance of both home and office working (an average of 2 days a week once trained) are welcomed, as long as you have an area at home that you can work in dealing with confidential calls. Equally, if you prefer to be in the office that too is welcomed.
• Annual leave 25 days or, with more than 5 years continuous service, 28 days
• We are interested in candidates who have previous experience with any of our services on a personal or professional basis.

We’re working to improve the lives of people in Somerset – and you’ll be a key part of that.

Our focus is on ensuring that each customer gets a resolution to their query and are spoken to in a caring and polite manner. 

It may help if we tell you a little about the types of calls that we take and the work that you may be involved in:

• Children's social care – taking calls from concerned members of the public, helping professionals make referrals into the service, liaising with social workers
• Statutory SEND – talking to parents about the EHCP process
• Inclusion Advice Line – advising and supporting SENCOs and other education professionals concerning behaviour, exclusions,
• School admissions and transport – Advising families about starting or moving schools and applying for transport.

We offer ongoing support, training and guidance to help you be the best you can be. But it will really help if you:

• Have previous experience with any of our services on a personal or professional basis.
• Good computer skills and be able to learn new systems.
• Have an understanding of good customer service.

We’re proud to be here for the people of Somerset. And that means everyone in Somerset. An important part of this is ensuring that we are as diverse and inclusive as the people and communities we serve.

Previous telephone experience is not essential but you must be able to demonstrate good customer service, enthusiasm to learn about our services, empathy and understand the confidential and sometimes difficult nature of the calls we take.   You will need to be resilient as some of the calls will be emotive and distressing. 

Following your comprehensive training programme, you will be well supported by your manager and team with regular one to ones and coaching.  

As we have said, any experience of our services is valued so please do make that very clear in your application to help us understand what you can bring to the role. We’re proud to be here for the people of Somerset. And that means everyone in Somerset. An important part of this is ensuring that we are as diverse and inclusive as the people and communities we serve.

We welcome applications from a diverse range of backgrounds and experiences to enrich our team. You can always contact the hiring manager for a chat if there’s anything you want to talk about before you apply.

We are proud to offer an environment that is supportive and rewarding, working as part of a team who are passionate about the work they do to improve the lives of people in Somerset.

We offer great training and development opportunities, with supportive management. As well as this, we have some fantastic employee benefits available:

• We promote a healthy work-life balance and offer flexible working arrangements wherever possible, including working from home.
• Generous annual leave allowance, with the opportunity to purchase additional leave
• Staff discounts in gyms.
• Employee Assistance for the times you may need some support and a variety of employee wellbeing services.
• Auto enrolment onto our generous Pension Scheme and optional pension enhancement through our Additional Voluntary Contribution scheme.
• A Flexible Benefits Scheme via salary sacrifice to obtain a cycle for work and health screenings.
• My Staff Shop offering discounts in shops, online shopping, restaurants, cinema tickets, insurance benefits and more.

For an informal chat about the role, you can contact Lindsay Johns by email Lindsay.johns@somerset.gov.uk or on 07976 696959.

When completing your application/CV please provide your full employment history and ensure that any gaps in employment are explained. Please start with your current or most recent employment.

If you have all the information you need, just hit the apply button - we can’t wait to hear from you.

This roles requires a Basic DBS via the Disclosure Procedure.