Role Summary & Benefits

Policy and Administrative Assistant
£26,824-£28,142 per year
37 hours per week – applications to work on a part-time basis will be welcome
Central Taunton

Do you want to work in a unique organisation whilst contributing to the future success of the South West, supporting the 29 local authorities in membership of South West Councils?
This job is for you if you love variety, are flexible and up for some challenges – juggling skills might help! You will be joining a proactive team of professionals committed to supporting local authorities and other public and not-for-profit organisations. It is the ideal opportunity to both play to your skills and develop new ones. It will provide a stepping-stone on your career path in local government, the wider public or not for profit sector, event management or PA and Executive Assistant work.
Our office base is in Taunton, Somerset. Given the broad range of responsibilities of this role, the expectation is that this post will spend the majority of their time in the office. However, we offer some flexibility through hybrid working.

What skills do you need?

We are looking for candidates who can demonstrate:
• Good self-organisational and work planning skills, including the ability to prioritise to ensure work delivered on time and to agreed standards.
• Flexibility and willingness to learn new skills.
• Good interpersonal skills, including communication, approachability, judgement and patience.
• A high level of attention to detail.
• Experience of taking notes and minutes or the willingness to develop this competency.
• Ability to undertake research, analysis and provide policy briefings.
• Excellent team working skills, contributing positively to the team.
• Excellent customer service skills, showing awareness of the level of service expected towards customers and dealing with them in a positive and polite manner.
• Ability to demonstrate personal commitment, enthusiasm and achievement of high-quality standards.

About South West Councils

SW Councils is a small team of 30 supporting the work of all 29 local authorities across the South West and 100+ Associate members (such as police, fire & rescue services, national parks, schools and parish and town councils). We support local authorities in information sharing and lobbying on behalf of the South West to try and get a better deal for the region. We also support learning and development activity and provide specialist HR advice. Working at SW Councils is full of variety but also with the opportunity to focus on specific work areas.

A job with us as provides flexibility, fair pay, an excellent pension scheme, generous holiday allowance, job satisfaction, training and supports career development.

Who can apply?

South West Councils values a diverse workforce and is supportive of the needs of all applicants and employees’

What are the additional benefits?
• Access to the Local Government Pension Scheme.
• Flexible working, including a flexi-time scheme.
• Opportunities for professional development.

For an informal conversation about the role and potential working arrangements, please call Graeme Young, Business and Member Services Manager, on 01823 270101 or mailto:jobs@swcouncils.gov.uk

All applications must be made using the official application form. CVs will not be accepted.

The closing date for applications is 12 noon on Wednesday 4 March 2026.

Interviews will take place on Thursday 12 and Friday 13 March.

For SW Jobs ad only (to go above the list of application documents):

The application pack documents can be accessed by clicking the button below. Please note that if you are applying for this role you need to submit document 5 (Application Form) and document 6 (Application Monitoring Form).

Key Responsibilities

1. Assist with the planning, organisation and administration of meetings and events, including collating and distributing agendas, taking notes /minutes, and monitoring progress on follow up actions.
2. To assist the SW Councils team in undertaking research, data collection or survey work and produce first drafts of briefing notes.
3. To support the maintenance of accurate records and information systems. This includes use of the customer relationship management system (CRM) and information systems set up to support the South West Strategic Migration Partnership, Coaching Pool and Apprenticeship End-Point Assessment.
4. To support effective communication of the work of the organisation in a consistent and appropriate manner, including helping to put together the newsletters and social media activity.
5. Use the Microsoft Office Suite to manipulate data, produce reports, graphs, charts tables, letters, documents, notes and presentations.
6. Support the delivery of all of the corporately agreed objectives of South West Councils as set out in the Business Plan and undertake any other duties that are required in support of the work of South West Councils.