Children's Services Administrator – Essex (Hybrid) 12-Month Maternity Cover | 36.25 Hours per Week | Salary: £25,401 - £27,351

We're offering an exciting opportunity for a proactive and experienced Administrator to join our Children's Services team on a 12-month maternity cover contract. This role is ideal for someone who thrives in a dynamic environment, is highly organised, and communicates confidently with a range of stakeholders.

If you enjoy working both independently and collaboratively and are passionate about supporting services that make a difference in children's lives, we'd love to hear from you.

This is a hybrid role, but candidates must be based in Essex, as regular on-site meetings within the Essex remit are required. A full UK driving licence, access to a car, and business-use insurance are essential.

You'll be part of the Essex Child and Family Wellbeing Services (ECFWS) – a partnership between Barnardo's and HCRG, delivering integrated early intervention services for children and families aged 0–19 (up to 25 with SEND).

Some of the Key Responsibilities:

• Coordinate service and subcontractor meetings, including scheduling, preparing agendas, distributing papers, and taking accurate minutes with clear actions (in-person or via Teams).
• Manage and arrange mandatory training for Barnardo's colleagues, ensuring compliance and providing regular updates to service leads.
• Liaise across teams to support quality and competency compliance.
• Lead internal communications within the service.
• Update FEEE2 eligibility and assign caseloads using monthly ECC reports on Systm1.
• Produce regular FEEE2 reports from service user records and ECC data.
• Maintain service assets and resources, including IT equipment, staff contact lists, and training documentation.

What We're Looking For:

• Proven administrative experience, ideally within the charity or healthcare sector.
• Strong organisational and time management skills, with attention to detail and accuracy.
• Experience supporting meetings and taking comprehensive minutes.
• Skilled in managing shared mailboxes and providing general administrative support.
• Ability to work independently and meet deadlines with minimal supervision.
• A proactive and collaborative team player.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office (Teams, Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint).
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.

Before applying, please refer to the Job Description and Additional Information Sheet to support your application.

If this sounds like the right fit for you, we'd love to hear from you!

Please note due to the high volume of applications for some posts, this advert might close before the displayed closing date. We recommend that you apply for this role as soon as possible.

We know that our colleagues go above and beyond in delivering our vital work, driven by their passion and commitment to Barnardo's values.  We also know that we can only realise our ambitions and achieve better outcomes for more children, thanks to the talent, hard work and creativity of our people. 

For all these reasons, we are committed to a new approach to pay and reward, to ensure it is fair, attractive and progressive, which was rolled out in April 2023. This is a positive change for the charity, and a part of our People & Culture Strategy. It will assist us in supporting colleagues to belong, thrive and grow in their colleague journey at Barnardo's and in time will offer clear routes of progression for colleagues in both their career and their pay. 

Whilst the full pay band and salary range is advertised, our approach to starting salaries is to appoint between the minimum to mid-point of the pay band – this ensures that pay steps are available to reward our colleagues annually based on their contribution to excellence and alignment to our values and behaviours.  More details on Barnardo's pay framework can be found upon application. 

Workplace Offer: What it means for you

Our hybrid working initiative is based on trust, flexibility and empowerment. We understand our workplace offer means different things to different people, and we encourage those conversations. This may mean working at one of our stores, services, working at home, in the community, at one of our Collaboration Hubs or depending on the role any combination of these. Please read through the advert carefully to understand the remits of hybrid working that will be specific to the role.

• Barnardo's believe in creating equality of opportunity in the workplace and supporting people to manage their work-life balance; we are therefore open to offering flexible working arrangements.
• Annual Leave entitlement for full-time colleagues is 26 days per annum, increasing to 27 days per annum, after 3 years Barnardo's service, 29 days per annum, after 5 years Barnardo's service and 30 days per annum, after 7 years Barnardo's service. Those working less than full time are entitled to the same level of holiday pro rata
• The ability to buy up to another 5 days annual leave via our HolidayPlus scheme
• A host of family friendly leave options including company Maternity Paternity and Adoption pay; together with all family additional leave options
• Service related sick pay from day 1
• Access to a Group Personal Pension with a matched 4% or 6% contribution from Barnardo's. Ability to pay via salary sacrifice to garner both tax and NI savings on your own contribution
• Death in service cover of 4x annual earnings for all staff contributing to our Group Personal Pension
• Cycle2work scheme
• Interest free season ticket loans
• Discounts and cashback from at high street shops including major supermarkets, cinemas, gyms, leisure/theme parks, holidays and much more via our Benefit Portal
• 20% discount at Barnardo's stores
• Opportunity to purchase a health cash plan to claim towards dental, glasses, therapy etc
• Free access to round the clock employee assistance program for advice and support
• Access to Barnardo's Learning and Development offer

*T&C's apply based on contract

We are committed to being an inclusive employer and cultivating a culture where everyone can belong and thrive through inclusion and connectivity. We want our workforce to be reflective of the communities we work with, and for equality, diversity and inclusion to be embedded in everything we do. We are a Disability Confident Leader, are progressing our ambition to be an anti-racist organisation with Anti-Racism Commitments and actions in place and have networks for colleagues who are disabled, LGBT+, Black and Minoritised Ethnic and Women. We particularly encourage applications from Black and Minoritised Ethnic and/or disabled candidates who are currently underrepresented in our workforce. For disabled applicants, we offer reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process.

• Reference number:22029
• Job Title:Children's Services Administrator
• Location:Workplace offer: Hybrid working, Barnardo's hub/office or home address
• Contract type:Fixed term
• End date:12 months
• Hours:36.25
• Salary:£25,401 - £27,351 ( plus office at Home Allowance £312 per annum)
• Closing Date:16 November 2025
• Interview Date:TBC