Administrative Assistant (Advice and Information)

Contract: 6 months fixed term (with possibility of extension)

About Coram

Coram is committed to improving the lives of the UK’s most vulnerable children and young people. We support children and young people from birth to independence, creating a change that lasts a lifetime. Coram is the UK’s oldest children’s charity founded by Thomas Coram in London helping vulnerable children and young people since 1739. Today, the Coram group helps more than one million children, young people, families and professionals every year by providing access to the skills and opportunities they need to thrive.

About CoramBAAF

CoramBAAF is the UK’s leading membership organisation for professionals working across adoption, fostering and kinship care. We provide information, best practice guidance, advice, training and resources to support our members and influence policy to improve outcomes for children and young people. Our corporate members in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland represent 94% of all local authorities as well as regional adoption agencies, health and social care trusts, independent fostering providers and voluntary adoption agencies, and cover 88% of all children and family social workers. Our 650+ individual and associate members - comprising lawyers, health professionals, educational institutions, therapeutic and family support services, and more - reflect the multidisciplinary nature of our work. Together, our members make up the largest network of organisations and individuals involved with children in their journey through the care system.

About the Advice and Information Team

The team provide high quality professional information, advice and knowledge management services to support the work of CoramBAAF members and colleagues.
Our advice line, which covers all aspect of adoption, fostering, kinship and related areas, is busy and popular with members and prioritises speed and quality of service. A key feature of the advice service is our access to in-house legal and health consultants and policy and practice specialists. Our Outbound Permanence service offers specialist advice supported by legal research and individual consultations to local authorities making arrangements for children to live with relatives and friends overseas. The service also offers regular training events. Our Information Service supports the service with up-to-date research, resources and statistics. It also manages CoramBAAF’s specialist library, the largest collection of adoption and fostering related resources in the UK, and producing the CoramBAAF Digest, a unique monthly current awareness briefing for everyone working in adoption, fostering, kinship and child welfare covering latest developments in legislation, parliamentary activity, policy, consultations, research, statistics and online resources throughout the UK. The Information Service is also an important internal resource, assisting with survey design and data governance, and providing our consultants, trainers and authors with the latest and most accurate information for the guides we publish and the training we offer and for dissemination at external meetings and events

Main role and responsibilities

Organisation and management of information and data
• Entering and logging enquiries accurately in the advice service database.
• Assist with data collation/analysis and reporting on use of the service including follow up queries.
• Contacting service users to ensure required information in referral forms is completed.
• Contacting services user to seek feedback on Outbound cases.
• Organising and managing information in digital filing systems.

Supporting customer service
• Preparing publicity and paperwork for online training events.
• Assisting with training delivery - providing technical support, attendance lists, checking attendees have paid.
• Updating and rebranding written information resources where necessary. Checking/updating contact lists, country guides and standard replies to correct broken links/website changes.
• Managing meetings and appointments (Teams and Zoom) for consultations on adoption cases with local authorities
• Answering phone calls, responding to routine enquiries, taking accurate messages where necessary.

Team working
• Attending and contributing to team and staff meetings, taking minutes/notes as required.
• General administrative duties as necessary across the team.
• Carry out any other duties that may be reasonably requested by line manager or another designated manager.

In addition to the above, the postholder will be expected:
• To recognise and challenge all forms of discrimination and prejudice in the workplace
• To treat everyone with respect, dignity and fairness and to acknowledge and celebrate diversity.
• To maintain an awareness of your own and others’ health and safety and comply with Coram Group Health and Safety policy and procedures.
• To maintain confidentiality of information; it will be necessary to comply with all requirements related to the Data Protection Act/ General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).

We are committed to the safeguarding of children and where appropriate will require the successful applicant to undertake a check from the Disclosure and Barring Service.

Registered Charity No. 312278