School Travel Assistant (14746)

Why Work for us: Employee benefits (southampton.gov.uk)

You will be working as part of a small, busy team that provides specialist transport services for vulnerable children and adults to and from school, college, respite, contact and other community bases. You will undertake all administrative duties for the School Travel planning, transport operator procurement, staff recruitment and training, and health and safety management for the effective delivery of safe, suitable and sustainable School Travel arrangements.

You will update the School Travel database and liaise with internal/external stakeholders such as Children’s Services, Health and Safety, Procurement, schools, colleges, parents/carers, and a range of other agencies.

You will play a key administrative role in supporting activities for the operational provision for the School Travel Service.

For this interesting role you will need to have:

• Organisational skills with attention to detail and high levels of concentration to prioritize workload and to provide a high level of service.
• Interpersonal and communication skills to develop and maintain effective working relationships with team members, customers, schools and other agencies in a courteous and helpful way and deal with difficult customers.
• Problem solving and negotiation skills to overcome a variety of difficult situations in a practical and timely manner.
• Planning skills to ensure appropriate arrangements are in place for the short and medium term.
• Energy, enthusiasm and be self motivated
• IT skills – experience of using IT systems e.g. Microsoft Office Suite and databases.
• Participate in an office cover rota which involves working some early (0700) starts and some late (1700) finishes.
• Working pattern: 18.50 hours per week, Wednesday half day approximately 10.00-14.00, Thursday and Friday 7.4 hours per day.  
• It is usual for successful candidates to start at the bottom of the pay grade.

Contact details for informal discussion:

For further information and details regarding the position please contact Mrs Marianne Alford Tel: 02380834793  Email: marianne.alford@southampton.gov.uk

Recruitment contact details:

Email: recruitment@southampton.gov.uk
Tel: 023 8083 4033

Additional information:

• Please note the salary quoted is based on full time hours (37 hours per week)  
• The working hours for this role are 18.5 hours per week (3 days per week, Wednesday to Friday) 
• This is a permanent, job share position.   
• Please note that appointments are usually made at the bottom of the salary scale.

How to apply:

To apply for the position please select the 'Apply for this job' button at the bottom of the page.

The supporting statement section of the application form must be completed, unless there are specific criteria questions for you to evidence against. Applications are shortlisted against the essential and desirable criteria found within the job description for the post. Please refer to the job description when completing your application form and evidence how you meet the required criteria/questions. A CV on its own will not be considered.

Unfortunately we are not able to accept applications that are made through a third party agency. We cannot guarantee that any correspondence sent from third party agencies will be responded to. To ensure your application is received please apply directly through our website.

We are proud to be #DisabilityConfident and support fair recruitment practices. Find out how you can get involved at gov.uk/disability-confident.  No applicant or employee will receive less favourable treatment because of age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, marriage or civil partnership and pregnancy or maternity, unless a Genuine Occupational Requirement (GOR) applies.

Southampton City Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and adults.  It is committed to delivering services to ensure they are happy, safe and have opportunities to reach their goals as responsible members of our community.  We believe it is always unacceptable for a child, young person or adult to experience abuse of any kind, and recognise our responsibility to safeguard and promote their welfare.  We are committed to following safe practices to ensure this and expect all employees, workers and volunteers to share this commitment.  This commitment is reflected in all our recruitment and selection practices.

As a Corporate Parent we are actively aiming to support all our children in care (looked after children) and care leavers. Any applicants who are children in care or care leavers, who meet the essential criteria for the post applied for, will be guaranteed an interview.