Executive Assistant (temp) - Basildon Borough Council
Basildon Borough Council
Temporary (3 months), Full Time
£17.95 – £19.00 per hour
Location: Basildon Centre, St Martins Square (office attendance 5 days per week)
Closing Date: 23rd February 2025
Job Purpose:
To provide a high level of confidential administrative and planning support directly to the Leader of the Council - through planning and organising the work and ensuring alignment of this work, coordinating diaries and working closely with the Leader to ensure he is updated and his time managed appropriately.
To prioritise the workload using judgement and initiative keeping the Leader informed where appropriate of any decisions made or actions taken in their absence.
The postholder is expected to recognise the high-profile nature of the work and to ensure that all work emanating from these sources is of the highest standard. This includes having a good awareness of local government challenges and the main issues facing the Council and recognising the need to be aware of any particularly sensitive issues and bringing these to the attention of the leader of the Council.
Duties
- Provide effective, proactive, reactive and comprehensive Executive Business Support to the Leader of the Council, including daily Management and co-ordination of activities, appointments and meetings, responding to daily changes in priorities, and political sensitivities.
- To be responsible for managing all casework on behalf of the Leader of the Council including liaison with all internal and external stakeholders.
- Organising meetings and quality assuring documents required for meetings, maintaining a “forward planning” system to progress reports, papers, correspondence and enquiries together with monitoring and chasing actions.
- To be responsible for the planning, organising and facilitation of a number of events, conferences and away days as required.
- To be the contact, on behalf of Leader for all internal and external enquiries. Exercising excellent judgement and political awareness in the role as gate keeper to Leader. Working collaboratively with Corporate Leadership Team and Cabinet Members, ensuring the highest standards of performance and reporting
- Take ownership of all issues that come into the Leader and lead on the preparation of appropriate responses.
- Co-ordinate all meetings, forward plans, and associated paperwork for meetings. Book and service meetings, dispatching papers; minute taking, recording of decisions and following up actions.
- To deal sensitively and confidentially with complaints from a wide variety of people across and outside the Borough and make appropriate arrangements for these to be resolved, this includes the logging and processing of enquiries for Members, MPs and the public for the attention of the Leader and within appropriate policy timelines.
- Relationship management between Leader, ensuring all matters are aligned to the corporate plan objectives and timeline and the implementation of new initiatives as directed by the Chief Executive.
- Be responsible for the production of reports, documents and other relevant business cases as required.
Successful candidates will have excellent IT skills, good organisation skills, ability to work in a sometimes fast paced & pressurised environment and good customer service skills.
Why choose Basildon Council?
Basildon Borough Council is one of the largest local authorities in the East of England region and serves a population of approximately 172,000 people. The town of Basildon is regarded as a key economic hub with the main areas of employment being engineering, research and development, distribution and financial services. Basildon is also the second biggest economy in the Thames Gateway, outside of Canary Wharf.
Working for Basildon Borough Council means making a practical and positive difference to the lives of people living and working in the Borough and provides a fulfilling career.
Each of our employees - whatever job role they are undertaking - can feel motivated by having a unique opportunity to use their skills to make Basildon a better place to live. Whether it is conserving our countryside, by regenerating our Borough, by housing our residents or by collecting the refuse on time.
Note: ECC are advertising this role on behalf of Basildon Council.
Basildon Borough Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and adults, and expects all employees, contractors and volunteers to share its commitment to prevent abuse, harm or exploitation.
The Council applies a robust recruitment vetting process. If you are successful you will need to undergo a Pre-employment Vetting Procedure.
What you should do next
If you are interested in finding out more about this role, we would love to hear from you. Please apply via the Working for Essex website.
If you have queries on this role or require anything further, please email curve.resourcing@Essex.gov.uk