Customer Service Advisor - Inclusion Advice Line

• Salary from £25,989- £28,142 per annum.
• 37 Hours a week, Monday to Friday.
• Based in refurbished, modern offices in County Hall, Taunton. We support a hybrid working model with a balance of both home and office working.
• Comprehensive training programme provided, where you will be well supported by your manager and team with regular one to ones and coaching.
• 1 Year fixed term contract.
• If applying as a secondment, please seek approval from your manager first.

We are looking for an Inclusion Advice Line Advisor to join Education and Inclusion Teams here at Somerset Council.

The Inclusion Advice Line (IAL) provides an advice and support function for education setting professionals from Early Years through to Post 16.  The IAL has been incredibly successful in providing early preventative advice and guidance to queries and concerns around SEND in general, but also around identifying and meeting the needs of all children and young people with SEND and other vulnerabilities, including those at risk of exclusion or struggling to attend school. The IAL is a relatively small team, but this is an exciting opportunity to develop the service to allow for greater resilience and faster response times. 

We’re working to improve the lives of children and young people and their families here in Somerset and you’ll be a key part of that. The role is incredibly busy and interesting - your day-to-day work will involve:

• Communicating with internal education professionals, setting professionals and parent carers, via telephone and email
• Providing real-time support and guidance to callers, guiding them towards early help for Children and families and escalating concerns where needed to our specialist teams for call backs
• Liaising with other organisations on duty to problem solve queries

• Weekly huddle meetings which offer support opportunities for problem-solving and feedback, as well as CPD opportunities and meeting different professionals across the Local Authority and Council organisations
• Advising and supporting parent carers about the Education Health Care Plan (EHCP) process

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

• Experience of working with children and young people and an understanding of educational settings and SEND
• Knowledge and understanding of the SEND Code of Practice 0-25 and statutory requirements and process
• Knowledge of the Somerset Graduated Response Tool and early intervention
• Strong communication skills, demonstrating empathy, curiosity, and solution-focussed practice
• A good level of IT competence and confidence

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

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

The role is a full time position (37 hours), on a 1 year fixed term contract, we are based in refurbished, modern offices in County Hall in Taunton although 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.

The Inclusion Advice Line is open 9am-5pm Monday to Friday so you will work those hours. 

The salary for a Customer Service Advisor is Grade 13, ranging from £25,989- £28,142 per annum.

If you would like to find out more about these exciting opportunities before applying, please get in touch with Samantha Cross, Duty Advisor Inclusion Advice Line at samantha.cross@somerset.gov.uk  or 01823 357945.

Interviews are scheduled to take place in person on 16^th January 2026 at County Hall, Taunton.

Please note, we may close this role earlier than the listed date if we find the right candidate.

If you have everything you need, just hit the apply button. We can’t wait to hear from you!

This post requires a criminal background check via the Disclosure procedure.