Business and Communications Officer - Maternity cover up to 12 months

Role Purpose 

Maternity Cover in the Education Improvement Team in Education and Skills.  We are a small team leading on improving education in all its aspects across 98 schools, an FE college and 3 universities in BCP. We work together across the statutory responsibilities for education and specialise in some key areas;  

• Direct advice and support to educational leaders. school governors and their teams
• Careers and Enterprise Improvement working with all secondary schools and SEND schools with secondary phase CYP
• Reporting on statutory assessments and moderation
• Projects that improve life chances for young people including events in the community and large scale ones such as the Careers and Apprenticeship Show (CAS) and we are also the home of the supported internships for young people with SEND over 18 in the BCP Civic

Our team is made up of 3 school advisers, 3 Enterprise Co-ordinators, a post 14 project leader, one statutory work facing BSO and this role, a Business and Communications Officer. This role works very closely with the whole team but is line managed by the Head of Service for the EIT.  

Main Responsibilities 

• planning the work of the team and maintaining it’s communications platforms with the Head of Service and team members
• supporting key customer facing communications and maintenance of communications
• managing, organising and delivering a range of events including conferences and exhibitions
• diary management of Head of Service and some aspects of the team
• first line of contact for many members of our network
• support development of content and ensure team have what they need for posting events on Skillgate and other BCP platforms
• maintaining the flow of content on the Edublog

The Ideal Candidate 

• a can do, creative team approach; we encourage new ideas and ways of working
• familiarity with the key business support apps and tools including Microsoft Word, Excel, Teams and Outlook
• enthusiasm for taking part in and helping deliver events
• willingness to learn new things and to improve what we do 

• wanting to make a difference for children and young people and to improve how we communicate with CYP and all who work with them

Essential knowledge and experience  

• Experience of providing advanced and technical administrative support in an organisation
• Experience of providing PA support
• Sound knowledge of services within the service unit and awareness of other services across the council/partners/agencies/etc.
• Good understanding of corporate financial systems including budget monitoring
• Educated to degree level or equivalent
• Knowledge of working with educational providers 
• Strong ICT and e-communication skills including databases and website development, and publishing software 
• Good understanding of modern office systems and procedures, including electronic communication  
• An understanding of professional confidentiality within practice 
• Good understanding of data protection and the freedom of information act  

 
            Desirable knowledge and experience  
 

• Experience of organising events including conferences  
• Experience of using social media platforms and developing an online presence  
• Experience of creating newsletters using appropriate software
• Experience of working with young people

Personal Qualities and Attributes  

• Commitment to delivering a high level of service 
• Excellent interpersonal skills 

• Ability to communicate well, both verbally and in writing  
• Negotiating and assertiveness Skills 
• Ability to work in a pressurised environment, with conflicting deadlines and maintain a calm, confident and professional manner 
• Ability to work unsupervised and on own initiative  
• Ability to work as part of a team  
• Committed to supporting equality and diversity  
• Ability to take a flexible and creative approach 
• Confident with ability to build up effective relationships 
• Ability to work across functional BCP Council boundaries

Must be able to travel, using public or other forms of transport where they are viable, or by holding a valid UK driving licence with access to own or pool car.  
 

Contact details: Julia Coleman Julia.coleman@bcpcouncil.gov.uk please do feel free to contact Julia to discuss.  

We are a really friendly team who learn and work together. We operate a hybrid working system which means that we are sometimes in the field e.g. at events particularly in term time and we work out of BCP Civic and the Dolphin Centre in Poole. We meet online and face to face, and never have a team meeting before 10am if we are travelling.  We are flexible in our work and leave taking, but during term time we check with each other before booking.  We invest in team training and development and will support you with your career goals and family life too.  We are offering this job for up to 12 months as we would like the successful person to be able to work with our colleague when she returns from maternity leave. 

Interviews will take place on 5 September 2024 at BCP Council Civic Centre