Apprentice - Business & Administration - Bridgemarsh Residential Home

To read more about our business area, please visit: Adult Social Care

We have an exciting opportunity for a Business Administrator Apprentice to join our team at Bridgemarsh Residential home. Are you looking to become a crucial part of a friendly, welcoming, and high achieving team? This could be the opportunity you are looking for! 

Benefits: 

• Healthy work life balance; flexible and hybrid working options.
• Wide range of learning and development opportunities.
• IT equipment and home-working equipment supplied.
• 26 days annual leave + bank holidays + choice to buy extra.
• Generous Local Government Salary related pension scheme.
• Access to hundreds of discounts and benefits through Essex Rewards.
• Access to our health and wellbeing support platform with LifeWorks.
• Disability Confident Leader: we are committed to interview all disabled applicants who choose to apply under our Job Interview Scheme if they meet the minimum requirements of the job.
• Up to 4 days per annum volunteering leave.
• National Apprenticeship Wage for the first 12 months of your Apprenticeship After 12 months of service, your salary will increase to the National Living Wage (currently £22,072 per annum as of 01 April 2024).
• A Business Administrator Level 3 qualification via Adult Community Learning (ACL). 

Whilst undertaking an apprenticeship within Essex County Council, you can expect to be supported from your first day. You’ll be invited to attend a specific onboarding event, have access to exclusive training material via My Learning platform, enrolled in the apprenticeship channel alongside colleagues on similar paths, invited to frequent gatherings, and offered peer-to-peer guidance. Additionally, you will have the chance to showcase your apprenticeship experience to external audiences. Apprenticeships are a valued career pathway to achieving your ambitions within Essex County Council, whilst gaining a qualification. 

Our Level 3 apprenticeship is an advanced apprenticeship – it is the equivalent to two A Levels or T Level. These apprenticeships are a fantastic steppingstone into your preferred career. You’ll work under the guidance of experienced professionals to develop a solid foundation in you chosen profession, while also contributing to the overall goals and objectives of the Essex County Council. 

There is every opportunity to progress to further roles and training within Essex County Council. You will have the chance to put forward your ideas, grow your skillset and collaborate with an innovative team in a collaborative environment.

What our apprentices say: 

“I really enjoyed my apprenticeship with ECC, I loved that the majority of the apprenticeship is on the job learning and minimal classroom work. The opportunities for career development have been much wider than I originally thought, and the apprenticeship is such a great way to start your career and get your foot in the door with your local council/ government.” 

“I love the apprenticeship process as you’re getting paid as you learn. I have been able to make good connections with other employees and really good relationships throughout my journey so far. It’s a great starting point to anyone who hasn’t got a clear idea of what work they would like to pursue. Also, the apprenticeship allowed me to try multiple different types of jobs when opportunities came up, so I was able to see what I liked, and I was good at.” 

The Role 

ECC Adult Social Care, has an effective model that includes four key principles: - prevention; early intervention; enablement and safeguarding. This will enable people, their families, and carers to be able to access information and tools to live healthily and independently. Providing an opportunity to respond pro-actively to growing service demand in a sustainable way, within the financial constraints of the Council. 

The Business Administrator will focus on providing clerical, administrative and financial support to the residential services. Delivering high quality and responsive administrative systems to ensure that the service has effective financial management and Health and Safety monitoring. In addition, the role maximises the use of other systems to facilitate good quality data collection. 

About you 

• Educated to RQF Level 3 (A level) or equivalent by experience with a willingness to achieve the award within 24 months of starting the role.
• Evidence of self-development in particular professional area.
• Experience of delivering business support including translating data and dealing with external enquiries, within a social care setting.
• Strong communication skills and an ability to develop a rapport and engage with diverse groups of individuals, particularly challenging family situations.
• Experience of developing strong working relationships with partners, other agencies, and the local community, to achieve joint objectives and offer a supportive framework for vulnerable adults.
• Experience of working within Financial Monitoring Regulations and financial management systems.
• Knowledge of a range of computer-based systems including MS Excel, Outlook, and Word. 

Essential Requirements for the role:

• Functional Skills Level 1 in Maths and English (or equivalent), which is a Grade D/E or 2/3 to begin the apprenticeship.
• Ability to reach a Level 2 Functional Skills in both Maths & English by the End Point Assessment (EPA), if you do not already have this.
• Have the right to work and study in England.
• Have been ordinarily resident in the UK or EEA for three years before the apprenticeship start date. 

Please note that we must be provided with your GCSE certificate at the final stage of the recruitment process. If you have international equivalent qualifications a NARIC Statement of Comparability must be provided. If you do not already hold one you can purchase online – you can find more information here Statement of Comparability (enic.org.uk). 

What will you be doing? 

• Working as part of the residential short break service a key element of this role is planning the bookings for stays at the service as well as transport for individuals, liaising with families/ carers as well as other professionals.
• Responsible for delivering effective administrative support to ensure able to maintain the effective running of the residential home and working to deadlines.
• Provides statistical information to ensure regular management reporting on staff information, such as, sickness; annual leave; overtime and service user information is available to ensure accurate financial charging.
• Responsible for ensuring all relevant financial procedures, including Amenity Accounts, are in place to enable the safe and appropriate handling and banking of all monies, both cash and cheques.
• Responsible for regular updating of relevant systems to ensure accuracy and highlighting awareness of office processes to new staff.
• Responsible for dealing appropriately with members of the public, service users and their carers, ensuring complaints are dealt with effectively, in line with agreed policies and procedures.
• Delivering an efficient operation of the reception area by prioritising calls and providing a good service to visitors to ensure creating a good first impression. 

Why Essex?

As one of the largest and most dynamic UK local authorities, Essex offers a stimulating public service environment. Covering over 1,420 square miles and serving 1.8 million residents, we’re committed to transformational change and delivering better quality at lower cost. Recognised in the top three of the latest IMPOWER index for productivity, we ensure everyone matters in Everyone's Essex. With flexible working options and a focus on innovation, whether you are looking to develop your career or contribute to the local community, Essex is the ideal place for you.

In February 2025, Greater Essex was accepted onto the Government’s devolution priority programme, which will see local authorities in Essex work towards establishing a Mayoral Combined County Authority by May 2026. You can read more about devolution and local government reorganisation (LGR) on our careers site.

Essex County Council is proud to be a Disability Confident Leader. We’re committed to interview all disabled applicants who choose to apply under our Job Interview Scheme if they meet the minimum requirements of the job. Please speak to our Recruiters if you require any reasonable adjustments during the process. We’re also committed to interview all veterans and care leavers, who meet the minimum requirements of the role for which they are applying.

Once you’ve secured your role within Essex County Council you will receive many great employee benefits, including support for unpaid carers and flexible working arrangements to accommodate their needs.

At Essex County Council, we value integrity and ethical behaviour. We kindly ask that you embrace our code of conduct and the Nolan principles, including throughout the recruitment process. Your commitment to these standards helps us maintain a positive and respectful workplace for everyone.

As part of employment with Essex County Council (ECC) should your role require a DBS check you will be required to register with the DBS update service. The DBS update service ensures all registered DBS certificates are kept up to date and allows authorised parties to view the status of your certificate. This is an annual subscription, and you will be responsible for ensuring this is maintained. For further information on the DBS update service please go to https://www.gov.uk/dbs-update-service

Essex County Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults, and expects all employees and volunteers to share this commitment.

If you would like to be kept up to date on other relevant opportunities, blogs, news, events and industry related news at Essex County Council, please join The Essex Talent Community

If you have queries on this role or require anything further, please email daniel.warner@essex.gov.uk

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn. Further details can be found on our careers page.

Downloads

Pay and Reward | Our Ways of Working  | About Us  | Organisation Behaviours