Parks Business Support Officer

Overview

The Parks and Country Parks Team ensure our country parks, parks and green spaces across Buckinghamshire are attractive and safe natural spaces for our visitors to enjoy, and wildlife to thrive. As the Business Support Officer, you will play a vital role in the success of the self-financed business model for Buckinghamshire Country Parks.

If you have experience in financial reconciliation and income analysis, creating and managing Excel spreadsheets, alongside excellent customer service and communication skills, and the desire to work within a close-knit, supportive team set within a beautiful country park, this could be the role for you.

About us

Buckinghamshire Council is a relatively new organisation that combines the strengths and expertise of the previous five councils in the county to create positive change for local people, communities, and businesses. We are firmly focused on the future and have made a clear commitment to serve residents better and to provide stronger representation for Buckinghamshire, both locally and nationally. 

In this role you will be working alongside and providing support to a diverse team, including on-site Rangers, a team of specialist Project Officers, Forest school and event leaders, a location filming officer, and the parks management team. The team will support you to get off to a great start with us. A strong focus on work/life balance is harnessed within the team, with flexible working opportunities available.

About the role

This full-time role is based at The Countryside Centre in Black Park, with a dedicated desk within an open-plan office.

In this varied role, some of your key responsibilities will be to:

• Complete financial transactions such as raising and payment of purchase orders, limit orders, invoices, recharges, and journal transactions using the SAP financial system.
• Prepare financial reports and data sets and support debt recovery activities.
• Support the year-end financial process annually.
• Monitor and reconcile financial data through various income streams, including pay and display parking machines (Parkfolio), parking apps (National Parking Platform), and our annual digital permit system (MiPermit).
• Monitor and report on visitor feedback.
• Be the first point of contact for shared mailboxes. Acting as a filter for issues / problems.
• Lead on the operation of the visitor information point and dealing with phone enquiries. Manage Country Parks office mail/deliveries and process stationery and uniform orders for the team.
• Use the In-Tend procurement system to accurately enter data in line with the Councils contract management policies.

• Maintain and support improvements in operational efficiency and quality of service.

Workstyle: Fixed

“I spend most of my time in the same location (The Countryside Centre, Black Park) where my role is performed. Typically, I work within the same location as the rest of my team, and this is because we provide a service from our location and have access to the information we need here.” 

This is a customer-facing role and will primarily be office-based to allow the post holder to deliver their duties effectively. Typically,home working can be facilitated for a maximum of one day a week, subject to service delivery requirements.

 

About you

You will be well organised, self-motivated and able to coordinate and prioritise your own work. You will be proficient in the use of MS Office, with an excellent working knowledge of Excel. Experience in business activities such as purchasing, invoicing, managing income, data monitoring and debt recovery is vital to the role, with experience in using SAP financial software desirable.

You will have excellent communication and people skills, and the ability to build and maintain relationships and engage with on-site stakeholders and visitors. You will be happy to work both independently and as part of a team, offering financial and admin support to colleagues.

Other information

Please see the attached job summary for further information on this role and person specification.

Based in Black Park Country Park, you’ll be surrounded by 500 acres of woodland used by over 750,000 visitors a year, with a new visitor hub area and expanded Go Ape offer. From our stunning Temple Gardens at Langley Park to our peaceful lakes at Black Park, you’ll be surrounded by nature and picture-perfect scenes to enjoy.

This role requires you to work Monday- Friday, with no requirement to work weekends.

This role requires you to hold a full driving licence, have access to your own vehicle for business use.

Take a look at our dedicated career social media pages @bucks_careers to meet our Country Parks team and find out more about life at Buckinghamshire Council.

We reserve the right to close the vacancy once we have received sufficient applications, so please be advised to submit your application as early as possible.

Number of positions available: One

Interview-type / process: In person, The Countryside Centre, Black Park SL3 6DS

If you would like to have an informal conversation with the recruiting manager, please contact: Amanda Mulholland 07921 494566 / [email protected]

This post is covered by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and therefore applicants are required to declare:

• All unspent cautions and/or unspent convictions

For further information on how long it takes for cautions and convictions cautions to become spent, please refer to our guide on the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (updated 2023) | Nacro

We reserve the right to close the vacancy once we have received sufficient applications, so please be advised to submit your application as early as possible.

Our values and culture

We have a set of values, which our employees have chosen, that represent what we are – Proud, Ambitious, Collaborative and Trustworthy.

By joining Buckinghamshire Council, you can expect:

• a fair and inclusive culture
• the chance to really make a difference to those around you
• health and well-being initiatives including an Employee Assistance Programme, Mental Health First Aiders and mindfulness workshops
• a unified voice through our Employee Representative Group
• ongoing support, and the opportunity to develop and progress in your career with us
• opportunities to take part in fun activities such as fundraising and social events

At Buckinghamshire Council, we know that our biggest strength comes from the people that work for us, and that’s why we’re working hard to ensure we continue to be an accessible and inclusive organisation.

From dedicated staff networks overseen by our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Steering Group, to proudly standing as a Disability Confident employer, it’s important to us that all our colleagues feel engaged, listened to, and valued. Our offer of flexible working empowers a productive and happy workforce and allows employees to combine work with other responsibilities and commitments.

We believe our workforce should reflect the diverse communities we service in Buckinghamshire, and are looking for like-minded individuals to join us in promoting equality, fairness, and inclusion for everyone.

About the Business Unit

Our Communities directorate works across the county to deliver a number of the key customer-facing services that our residents, businesses and visitors rely on every day. 

This directorate includes a wide range of services, including:

• collecting and disposing of waste and recycling
• maintaining our roads and Rights of Way network and parking
• ensuring the delivery of school transport, and supporting sustainable travel including public bus services and School Crossing Patrollers
• managing Country Parks
• leisure facilities, museums, theatres and libraries, as well as developing our Cultural Strategy
• Licensing, Environmental Health and Trading Standards
• Cemeteries and Crematoria

The customer is central to how we develop and deliver all of these services, which help promote our rich and vibrant culture and special environment. 

We are looking for enthusiastic, ambitious and committed individuals to join our team and help us to continue to make Buckinghamshire a great place to live, work and visit. This is an exciting time for us as we bring together the services previously run by five separate councils before Buckinghamshire Council was created. Whilst making major changes to contracts affecting residents across Bucks, we continue to focus on delivering great customer service. You will join us on our journey of continuous improvement - whether that’s through developing strategies and ways of working or delivering services on the ground, every person in Communities is a valued member of the team.

We recognise and reward you

Hard work and success deserves recognition. That’s why we pride ourselves on the benefits we give our people. We actively encourage a good work-life balance and promote flexible and agile working arrangements. We provide discounts on various Cafés, restaurants, shops and auto enrolment onto our generous Pension Scheme. In addition to the opportunity to gain membership to Costco, we have discounted gym memberships, travel discounts with Arriva and much more.

https://jobs.buckinghamshire.gov.uk/working-buckinghamshire-council/