Environmental Health & Licensing Business Support Officer Ref: 55-24

Salary: Grade 10, (£23,152 - £24,916 per annum) subject to Job Evaluation
Hours: Full time, 37 hours per week
Place of Work: Dereham/Remote-enabled
Basis: Permanent

Would you like a job where what you do:

• Provides a high level of job satisfaction?
• Helps ensure our communities are protected and feel safer?
• Makes a real difference to businesses and local community. ?
• Ensures great Team working?

We are seeking an Environmental Health & Licensing Business Support Officer who will provide assistance to our teams and customers. You will process and 'triage' a variety of service requests and applications in our Environmental Health & Licensing Service. You will provide a wide range of support to all the services we provide, which includes, Food Safety, Health & Safety, Environmental Protection, Environmental Crime, Emergency Planning & Business Continuity, Corporate Health & Safety and Anti-social behaviour.

You will:

• Assist the Environmental Health & Licensing service & teams to ensure the effective and efficient delivery of quality services and projects/initiatives.
• Ensure a strong 'back bone' of administrative and technical business support is provided to the teams so that they can deliver high quality services on each and every occasion.
• Provide a specialist support service to all staff within the Environmental Health & Licensing service. To include but not limited to:
• Provision of data bases, Outlook, Word, Excel, Visio, Publisher, and PowerPoint services as requested.
• Specific word processing requirements
• Processing and inputting data on databases and back-office systems (e.g. Tascomi (IDOX)/CRM)
• Updating and maintaining website and public registers
• Triaging of complaints and service requests, providing timely and customer focused outcomes/quality services.  This includes daily customer contact relating to triage work
• Carry out all procurement and invoicing related services for the teams to include but not limited to:
• Raising of purchase orders
• Processing/raising of invoices
• Benchmarking services/prices
• Administrative support for Safety Advisory Group and associated correspondence.
• The taking of payments and issuing of permits, registrations, and licences.
• Checking of documents
• Dealing with customers and partners.

A bit about us:

At Breckland Council we have embraced the Government's agenda to modernise local government. Our approach is to lead change rather than follow it, and to add the best value we can to our communities. We achieve this by developing our employees to their full potential, providing them with the relevant knowledge, equipment and authority to carry out their duties.

Our employees enjoy excellent conditions of service including a local government pension scheme, 25 days holiday increasing with service (plus bank holidays), free car parking and flexible/agile working policies.

About you:

Your personality & attitude are just as important to us as your professional experience. You are a strong team player. People like dealing with you, because you make things easy for them to understand, you focus on and listen to what they say. You are empathetic and will do whatever you can to help, which allows you to quickly establish rapport and build strong relationships.

You exude confidence, remain calm and collected during difficult situations or confrontation, and can effectively de-escalate the situation. 

You will deal sensitively and confidentially with situations that may be challenging but require clear and logical decisions to be made. You keep going no matter how difficult things get, and use setbacks as a springboard for greater success.

You are passionate about providing the best possible service for our residents and take pride in successful outcomes.

OK, I'm interested...but is it really the job for me?

As a Business Support Officer, you will have:

• Experience of working with members of the public, including in challenging and confrontational situations
• Experience of working in a similar role.
• Experience of meeting tight deadlines and targets in a fast-paced work environment

Please see job description and person Specification for a more comprehensive list of duties and qualities needed. 

If you would like to know more about this role, please email gill.taylor@breckland.gov.uk, Senior Business Development Officer or download our job pack for further details.

Equal Opportunities

We are committed to being an Equal Opportunities employer, recognising the benefits of sustaining a workforce which reflects the diversity of the community we serve. We welcome applications from anyone who feels they meet the requirements of our vacancies - these are listed as essential requirements on the person specification.

DBS Requirement

Please be aware that if you are selected for this role there will be a requirement to undertake a DBS check as part of pre-employment checks.

Closing date: 5pm, Monday 6 January 2025

What's it like to work for us?

We are passionate about our people and pride ourselves on being a great place to work, we genuinely care and know that a happy workforce is a productive and motivated one! If you're still not sure, here are some stats from our 2023 staff survey to convince you..

• 94% of our staff said they felt valued
• 99% of staff recommend Breckland as a great place to work
• 90% said they have had opportunities to learn and grow in the last 12 months
• 97% think Breckland provide positive action on health and wellbeing
• 98%  said they felt supported by their Manager

If you STILL need convincing, here's what some of our staff say...

• "Breckland is a fantastic employer, lots of opportunities and support"
• "Having only just started, it is a great place to work, everyone says hello, is smiley and chatty. I like the groups that are on, like carers shed and neurodiversity"
• "We are encouraged to take regular breaks and there are mental health first aiders and a wide range of good promotional aspects of healthy living and wellbeing."
• "In times of need the council offers excellent support."
• "BDC really does seem to care about the wellbeing and happiness of their staff."

At Breckland Council we have embraced the Government's agenda to modernise local government. Our approach is to lead change rather than follow it, and to add the best value we can to our communities. We achieve this by developing our employees to their full potential, providing them with the relevant knowledge, equipment, and authority to carry out their duties.

We are a dynamic and innovative organisation that is always testing and learning as we seek to continually improve. We have never stood still in response to the emergence of new opportunities, changing customer demands, and ongoing funding challenges. We have exciting plans for how to deliver the best possible services to our residents and businesses.

Breckland as a district is a special place nestled in the heart of rural Norfolk, spanning over 500 square miles of beautiful countryside and forest, with five Market Towns and over 140,000 residents. We care, we listen, and we support people and businesses within our district. We have big ideas and we are innovative in our approach, coming up with ways to meet the needs of the local communities that we serve. Through our actions, we want to make things better.

But we know that we can't do it alone. We are a collaborative organisation and we work together with others to make a greater impact. We are also an organisation where our employees can grow and develop and are empowered to achieve and succeed. We are proud of our area, and by driving investment and enabling opportunities, we can maximise its full potential. We want to inspire aspiration to live, work, visit, or do business here: we want our district to be one of choice.

We will support and enable growth and change in our thriving, welcoming places where people and businesses choose to be, knowing their ambitions can be not just fulfilled but exceeded. By listening to people, by understanding what they need and by working together, we can shape what we have to offer. By doing so, we can benefit those who are already here and those who choose to come to live, work, visit, or do business.

We offer excellent conditions of service, including:

• A local government pension scheme (14 per cent employer contribution).
• Attractive holiday package (25 days increasing after three years' continuous Local Authority service by one day per year up to the maximum of 28 days, plus bank holidays)
• Free car parking.
• Remote-enabled working arrangements.
• A newly refurbished office. See what it is like working here by watching this short film: 
  

Our commitment to talent development, on the job learning and upskilling, training and professional memberships, will keep your knowledge and skills up to date.

Job summary

Description of duties

Primary Functional Objectives of the Role

Provide a multi skilled support service to all staff within the Environmental Health & Licensing service. To include but not limited to:

• Provision of data bases, word, access, excel, visio and power point services as requested   
• Specific word processing requirements
• EH, Licensing and other departmental information circulars
• Processing and inputting data on databases and back office systems ( e.g. Tascomi/CRM/Goss/ECINs)
• Provide up to date information on the Food Standards Agency Portal for Food Hygiene Rating Scores (FHRS)
• Updating and maintaining website and public registers
• Triaging of complaints and service requests, providing timely and customer focused outcomes/quality services.  This includes daily customer contact relating to triage work
• Carry out a wide range of office-based Licensing functions to include several weekly returns for Members and Breckland Website update
• Carry out all procurement and invoicing related services for the teams to include but not limited to:
• Raising of purchase orders by Finance system or P Card
• Processing/raising of invoices
• Benchmarking services/prices
• Administrative support for Safety Advisory group and associated correspondence.
• The taking of payments and issuing of permits, registrations and licences.

Provide assistance to the Environmental Health & Licensing team on:

• Production of financial reports on the council's finance systems
• Assist with performance management requirements and generating reports and data

General Business Support to all service areas, including but not limited to:

• Complaints monitoring
• Daily postal service (incoming)
• Benchmarking services/prices etc
• Assistance with elements of training requests
• Assist Corporate Health & Safety
• Assist where necessary Emergency Planning
• Work closely with the Senior Business Development Officer

Responsible for ensuring responsibilities in respect of the following areas are met:  including but not limited to:

• Financial enquiries
• Land Charges
• Planning enquires through consultation
• Personal Searches
• Out of hours emails 
• Providing Admin and Customer Support to the Food, Health & Safety, Licensing & Environmental Protection Teams.
• Processing and issuing of licences and all associated support work.
• Support tangible service improvements, so that the Environmental Health & Licensing service is seen as a leading service.
• Proactively and innovatively support income generating activities. This will include promotion, bookings, taking payments, course calendars, issuing on-line course, stock inventories, customer contact , ordering and effective administration of the Councils registered training centre and liaison with the awarding body, booking of exams and the issuing of certificates, front facing customer service and allocation of bookings/work on our database ( Tascomi) in liaison with Team Leaders/Senior Officers.
• Help and support other areas of work within the wider team, as requested by your Line Manager/Senior Management.

Ensure compliance to all policies, procedures, standard operating practices, with recommendations for action and continuous improvement.

The post holder will be responsible for delivering against a number of objectives and aims as agreed with their Line manager/s

This job description is not exhaustive.

The job description outlines the current position and will be subject to review in the light of development within the service, in consultation with the post holder as detailed in your Contract of Employment.

Experience and Knowledge

Essential

• Able to demonstrate experience of working in a busy office or business environment.
• Experience and knowledge of business /service administration in a similar role.
• Experience of working in a fast-paced environment and able to deliver consistent quality results.
• Experience of working in a customer service based environment.
• Specialist working knowledge of a wide range of IT office applications including data input and use of databases
• Understanding & use of financial systems

Desirable

• Local authority experience
• Detailed working/use of EH and /or Licensing ICT packages and processes.

Qualifications

Essential      

• 5 GCSE's Grade A-C including English Language and Mathematics (or equivalent)
• Or equivalent experience of working in a similar role

Desirable

• Additional Relevant Qualifications.

Essential Behaviours:

Collaborative:

• I look for ways to work in partnership with colleagues across services, Members and external partners #oneteam
• I recognise the skills, talent and experience of others and reach out to them for their contribution and input
• I listen supportively to the ideas of others, building on their ideas, while sharing my views and knowledge
• I celebrate success with my colleagues

Ambitious:

• I am a proud ambassador for the Council, taking pride and responsibility for the work we do and encouraging others to do the same
• I have an open mindset, take risks and explore new ways of doing things
• My approach to work is filled with positivity and optimism
• I work hard to build relationships inside and outside my own area of work

Results driven:

• I am flexible, ensuring I provide the best possible service, wherever and whenever is best for the customer
• I am driven to achieve results and show courage and resilience even when things don't go to plan
• I understand our council priorities and how I make a difference.
• I keep to my promises and challenge myself and others to deliver high-quality services
• I make sure I am clear on what I need to achieve, keeping a focus on results and solutions

Empowering:

• I show energy and drive to explore new opportunities and challenge the status quo
• I embrace new technology and look for new ways for our services to become digital not forgetting to be accessible for all
• I take responsibility if things don't go well and learn from it for my own and for the organisation's development
• I look for and act on opportunities where we can generate an income or drive down costs
• I appropriately challenge unacceptable behaviour
• I ask for help and support when needed

Supportive:

• I treat everyone with kindness, dignity and respect, valuing their thoughts, background and experience
• I understand and take care of my own well-being and of that of those around me.
• I treat others as I would want to be treated myself ensuring I am welcoming, friendly and approachable
• I care for my colleagues, taking an interest in them, showing support for their personal identities and what's important to them
• I trust colleagues to do their job knowing this may not always be visible in a traditional 9-5 work pattern
• I give time to colleagues who need help or support, even when the pressure is on

Health & Safety (exposure to risk)

• Complex and varied work area. Need to manage to tight deadlines and look after welfare ( workplace stress)
• Some front facing customer contact. Could face angry/verbally aggressive/ verbally abusive customers ( phone/email).
• Majority of task is spent at work station/sedentary- VDU/ Work Related Upper Limb and Posture issue
• Exposure to some personal and sensitive data and records which could affect mental well being.

Breckland Council's Terms and Conditions are in accordance with the National Joint Council for Local Government Services Administrative, Professional, Technical & Clerical Services (APT&C). These are collective agreements negotiated between the council and APT&C. The exception are those conditions affecting salary, which are subject to a locally negotiated salary structure.

Other Terms and Conditions may be implemented following collective agreements negotiated and agreed with the Trade Union recognised by Breckland Council for collective local bargaining purposes. The Principal conditions are set out below:

If you would like to know more about this role, please email gill.taylor@breckland.gov.uk, Senior Business Development Officer or download our job pack for further details.

Closing date -5pm, Monday, 6 January 2025

Apply online
Equal Opportunities

We are committed to being an Equal Opportunities employer, recognising the benefits of sustaining a workforce which reflects the diversity of the community we serve. We welcome applications from anyone who feels they meet the requirements of our vacancies - these are listed as essential requirements on the person specification (within the Recruitment Pack).