Business Support Officer – AR

Job Details

Business Support Officer

Contract Length: 3 months, with potential extension
Start Date: ASAP
Working Arrangement: Hybrid
Office Attendance: 2–3 days per week on site
Team: Children & Education Transformation Team

About the Role

We are seeking an organised and proactive Business Support Officer to join a Local Authority’s Children & Education Transformation Team on an initial 3-month contract, with potential for extension.

This is an excellent opportunity for an experienced administrator or graduate looking to develop their career and gain valuable experience within a project and transformation environment, with potential progression into a Project Support Officer role.

You will provide flexible business and project support to managers, teams and partners, helping to coordinate priorities, maintain effective administration and support service improvement across Children & Education.

Key Responsibilities

• Provide business and project support to the Children & Education Transformation Team.
• Support project planning, coordination and delivery across multiple workstreams.
• Maintain project documentation, action logs, risk and issue registers, evidence files, progress updates and governance information.
• Arrange and support meetings, including preparing agendas, papers and minutes/notes.
• Record decisions and actions, chase outstanding actions and ensure follow-up activity is completed within agreed deadlines.
• Collate and maintain information from systems, spreadsheets and project records.
• Produce clear reports, briefings, dashboards, presentations and management information for senior officers, boards and stakeholders.
• Provide general business administration, including enquiry handling, mailbox management, diary and meeting coordination, document production and records management.
• Support purchase order and invoice processing and other general office requirements.
• Act as a professional point of contact for internal teams, external partners, suppliers, residents/customers and other stakeholders.
• Handle queries efficiently and escalate sensitive or complex matters appropriately.
• Support compliance, audit and governance requirements by maintaining accurate records and following council policies, procedures and financial regulations.
• Handle information in accordance with data protection and confidentiality requirements.
• Use Microsoft Office, Teams, Excel, databases and relevant project/business systems to maintain accurate information and produce high-quality outputs.
• Support multiple priorities and workstreams within a busy public-sector environment.

About You

We are looking for someone who is:

• Highly organised with excellent attention to detail.
• Able to manage multiple priorities and meet deadlines under pressure.
• Proactive and confident working independently using their own initiative.
• A strong communicator who can build positive relationships with a wide range of stakeholders.
• Comfortable coordinating meetings, actions, information and documentation.
• Adaptable, willing to learn and committed to supporting service improvement.
• Professional, resilient and able to handle sensitive information appropriately.
• Confident using Microsoft Office, particularly Excel, Word, PowerPoint and Teams.
• Able to work collaboratively while managing their own workload effectively.

Experience Required

Candidates should ideally have experience within Children’s Services, Education, Local Government or another public-sector environment.

Relevant backgrounds could include:

• Business Support Officer
• Project Support Officer
• Project Administrator
• Programme Support Officer
• Business Support Administrator
• Senior Administrator
• Project Coordinator

Strong administrative experience is essential, with experience of supporting projects, programmes, service improvement or multiple workstreams highly desirable.

What This Role Offers

This role offers an opportunity to gain hands-on experience supporting Children & Education transformation activity within a Local Authority, while developing valuable project coordination, governance, reporting and stakeholder management skills.

It would particularly suit an experienced administrator looking to move into Project Support, or a graduate looking to build a career within public-sector transformation and project delivery.