Job description
We are looking for someone to join our hard-working team who has a passion for customer service and making a difference to the lives of children and their families. We need a team-player with skills in administration, communication and organisation.
The School Admissions Team allocates places for school-age children at all of the 267 state-funded mainstream schools in Cornwall – infant, junior, primary and secondary schools. We do this for the normal admissions round (the new intake to schools) and for ‘in-year’ applications – for places during the school year. We process over 16,000 applications each year.
We are in contact with parents and carers, schools, other local authorities and colleagues in Cornwall Council on a daily basis. We work closely with the Education Welfare Service and Statutory Special Educational Needs Service and have important links with the Transport Coordination Service and Free School Meals Team. We play a crucial role in identifying children missing education. Safeguarding children, data protection and excellent customer service are key to the work we do.
Day-to-day an Admissions Support Officer deals with enquiries from customers including parents, carers, schools and Cornwall Council colleagues. The main function of the role is processing school place applications which involves gathering and analysing information, liaising with schools and communicating with parents and carers. You will be regularly using Outlook, Excel, Teams and our Education Management System. The applications and enquiries we deal with are very varied.
The role suits someone who is goal-driven. We have statutory deadlines to meet and our own targets to achieve excellent customer service. Above all, we work to ensure that the time children are out of school is kept to a minimum.
Team members work from home but keep in regular contact using Microsoft Teams throughout the working day. We meet in our Truro office occasionally and there is the option to work in the office or another office local to you if that is your preference. We can consider flexible working requests and are able to accommodate team members who need to work around childcare or other family commitments.
For an informal discussion about the role, please contact Sarah Lewis, Pupil Placement Manager, on [email protected].
This is a public/customer-facing role, where the statutory English language requirement for public sector workers applies.
Please view the role profile here, your application will need to demonstrate how you meet the required criteria. Please ensure you answer all of the pre-screening questions in full, within the application form. Guidance on how to complete your application can be found here – The application process. Please be advised that for this role we are accepting uploaded CVs to support your online application.
Fairness and inclusion are at the heart of our vision for Cornwall. In order to best serve our communities, we are striving to achieve a diverse workforce that is inclusive of all backgrounds, cultures and identities; e.g. race, disability, sex, gender, age, religion and sexual orientation. We are an equal opportunities and Disability Confident employer, and we will assess applicants on their merits.
Cornwall Council is committed to safeguarding and following safer recruitment principles to help make sure our staff and volunteers are suitable to work with children, young people and adults at risk. It’s a vital part of creating a safe and positive environment and making a commitment to keeping all service users safe from harm.
This position will be subject to a criminal record disclosure check.
More information about working for Cornwall Council is available here.
We are happy to talk about flexible working options.