supporting your community in local government administration

 

Introduction

Administrative assistants employed by local councils provide clerical support for senior staff and managers.  Many council departments are open to the public and receive lots of enquiries, so the job can involve a lot of contact with a range of people. Many senior staff spend quite a bit of time out of the office, visiting clients or making site visits, so administrative assistants are expected to work on their own initiative for large parts of the day and deal with enquiries in managers’ absence.

Administrative assistants work for all types of councils and across a variety of departments.

Work Environment

Administrative assistants work in council offices.  Hours of work are normally 37 per week, sometimes with opportunities for paid overtime. Opportunities to work on a part-time or jobshare basis are very common.

Daily Activities

Local government administrative assistants’ roles vary depending on the departments, in which they work.  They might provide clerical support for a particular department, for example, adult and children’s services, planning, housing, finance, HR and so on.  Alternatively, they might be employed in a central business support unit carrying out administrative duties for a range of council departments.

There is a variety of administrative tasks that might form part of an administrative assistant’s job:

• opening, sorting and distributing post;
• checking and responding to emails and telephone messages;
• answering the telephone and redirecting calls to the appropriate people;
• filing and photocopying;
• entering information into computer systems;
• typing and sending out routine letters;
• dealing with petty cash;
• ordering office supplies;
• producing statistics;
• arranging meetings and taking minutes;
• organising conferences;
• keeping track of managers’ diaries and putting in appointments.

Skills & Interests

Local government administrative assistants need:

• a good telephone manner and ability to communicate well with different people; 
• to be methodical and well organised;
• good attention to detail;
• to have good ICT skills;
• to be good teamworkers;
• to be able to prioritise work and meet deadlines.

Entry Requirements

These vary according to the job.

Local councils often ask for a minimum of four GCSEs/S grades at C/3 or above, including English and maths. Equivalent qualifications such as S/NVQs or Intermediate GNVQ/GSVQ Level ll in Business, or relevant experience, are usually acceptable alternatives.

Keyboard skills plus OCR (RSA) or similar qualifications in word processing may also be required.

A BTEC/SQA national certificate or diploma in business and finance or in public administration may be an advantage when applying for some posts.

Support to complete an Apprenticeship in Business Administration might be available once working for the council.

Estimated salary range

Local government administrative assistants are paid at different salary levels according to the grade of job and level of responsibility. Salaries are usually in the range £13,500 - £19,900.

Please note that salary information is a guide only and there may be local agreements in place. For further information about salaries for particular positions, please contact your local council directly.

Future prospects & opportunities

All councils employ administrative assistants. There are prospects of promotion to jobs such as administration or business manager and opportunities to transfer to work in other departments.

Related Occupations

Follow this link to view a list of all related occuptions in Supporting Your Community.

Further Information & Services

You can get information on any clerical or administrative job from relevant departments at your local council.

Institute of Chartered Secretaries & Administrators www.icsa.org.uk

Council for Administration www.cfa.uk.com

Council for Administration careers website www.breakinto.biz

You may find further information about this area of work in your local Connexions service/careers office/school careers library - under AC.

What should I do next?

Look for current local government Administrative Assistant vacancies in the following places:

• LGjobs.com - our official recruitment website for local government.
• Weekly, bi-weekly or monthly jobs bulletins produced by local councils themselves, available from libraries, community centres, town halls/main civic buildings and central council personnel departments.
• Local council websites.
• Local newspapers
• National newspapers - The Guardian is particularly well known for its public sector job advertisements on a Wednesday.

Find out about the council and get some work experience if possible by:

• Making the most of work experience placements arranged through your school, college or university.
• Contacting councils close to your home to find out about the work experience opportunities they offer.
• Talking to someone who does the job you are interested in - ring your local council to see if someone can spare some time.
• Making an appointment to see a careers adviser for more specific information about jobs and training.