Directorate Support Officer

Main Purpose of the job:

Provide modern, customer-focused, efficient and effective administrative and clerical support to directorates, including project support where required.

To deliver a wide range of both routine and more complex administrative tasks in order to support the effective and efficient delivery of services within directorates.

This role will focus on providing administrative and casework support for requests received under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, Environmental Information Regulations 2004 and related information rights legislation. The post holder will log, monitor, coordinate and help progress requests to ensure responses are issued accurately, lawfully and within statutory timescales. The role will support good information governance practice across the organisation by maintaining records, assisting services with request handling, and providing clear advice on process and deadlines.

Future need may dictate that you will be required to support other Directorates at a later date.

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Summary of Responsibilities and Personal Duties include:

• Receive, acknowledge, log, track and respond to Freedom of Information, Environmental Information and related information rights requests using the council?s case management systems.


• Monitor deadlines and progress, chase responses from service areas to ensure statutory response times are met.


• Act as a first point of contact for routine enquiries about information requests, explaining process requirements and deadlines clearly to internal and external stakeholders.


• Liaise with departments across the organisation to identify relevant records, gather draft responses and supporting information, and ensure requests are allocated appropriately.


• Assist in preparing response packs, including collating information, formatting responses, checking attachments, and escalating issues where information is incomplete, sensitive or overdue.


• Support the application of exemptions and exceptions by preparing background information for review by senior officers and ensuring redactions are handled in line with agreed procedures.


• Maintain accurate and up-to-date records of requests, correspondence, outcomes, internal reviews and complaints.


• Produce routine reports on caseloads, response performance, overdue cases and trends for managers and governance leads.


• Support the maintenance of publication scheme materials, disclosure logs and other transparency information where required.


• Contribute to the continuous improvement of request handling processes, templates, guidance notes and team procedures.


• Provide practical administrative support for internal reviews, complaints to the Information Commissioner, and related audit or compliance activity.


• Handle all information securely and confidentially, in line with data protection requirements, records management standards and council policies.


• Undertake other administrative or information governance duties appropriate to the grade of the post.


• Provide proactive business administrative support across various directorates as required.

Ability to work effectively under supervision, delivering allocated tasks and work priorities within a changing environment to meet deadlines on a day to-day basis.Able to maintain discretion with dealing with sensitive and/ or confidential information.Ability to work on own initiative where appropriate, but identify when it is necessary to seek advice or refer any non-routine or more complex issues and queries to a senior officer.Ability to work collaboratively with colleagues across different services and to follow up effectively where responses are delayed or incomplete.

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