Archives and Local Studies Officer WCC620144

Job Details:

Salary range: £33,291 - £42,861 pro-rata, per annum (actual salary £16,645.50 - £21,430.50 per annum)
Work location: Archives Centre, 10 St. Ann's Street, London, SW1P 2DE
Hours per week: 18
Contract type: Permanent 
Vetting requirements:  Basic DBS Check
Closing date: 16 March 2025
Interview date: 10 or 14 April 2025

About Us:

THE EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF CAROL’S LIFE-CHANGING JOURNEY 

As the educational arm of Westminster City Council, Westminster Adult Education Service (WAES) is a world of extraordinary stories. From Childcare & Early Years Education to ESOL, and from Accounting and Digital to the Creative Arts and more, WAES’s courses offer unparalleled opportunities to grow, develop and acquire new skills. People like Carol work to help everyone in our diverse communities to achieve their potential and transform their lives.

Carol left a music industry career back in the 80s, to volunteer in a local nursery. It changed her life.  Now she’s managing a team to help create life-changing opportunities for children and families across Westminster and beyond. She’s never looked back. She loves working in, and for the benefit of, her local community. 
 
From volunteering to getting a job in a nursery, to studying and becoming a Childcare Development lecturer, to joining Westminster City Council back in 1989, Carol has always seized every chance to keep learning and progressing. And now, she encourages her team to do the same. She puts her heart into enabling people’s development. That’s why Carol and Westminster are so well suited. We’re all about nurturing people too. 
 
Carol’s immensely proud of her team, many of whom joined as learners. They have qualified and progressed. And they’ve achieved an Outstanding Ofsted grading together. She’s also proud that WAES can give opportunities to local people with potential. 

Just as enthused and ambitious now as she was 35 years ago, there are still goals Carol wants to achieve for her team, for learners, children and families. With Westminster, she’s in exactly the right place to keep doing that. To find out more about our work visit waes.ac.uk

The Role:

As Archives and Local Studies Officer, you can make your own powerful contribution to enriching the experience of people in Westminster’s diverse communities. You will do this by equipping them with powerful skills and knowledge. You’ll join a friendly team in the Westminster Archives collection, which spans over 800 years of history – from rare books, to photos and prints, to historic maps and plans, to newspapers and manuscripts, as well as modern audio and audio-visual materials. It’s a fascinating place to work, where everyone can read, learn and connect – and you’ll be at the heart of it. 

You’ll enjoy a great deal of variety, with the chance to work on interesting projects, including outreach, cataloguing and volunteer management. The core of your role will be helping researchers, library users, volunteers and other visitors access and make use of our resources and services, in an exciting and engaging way. Welcoming customers to the Archive, you’ll empower them to get the best from everything we have to offer. This will including helping to nurture lifelong learning, so that people can fulfil their potential. 

Please refer to the Job Description for more information.

About You:

The ability to connect and communicate with people is important, so we’d prefer you to have experience in a customer-focused role. Alongside an interest in history, you’ll demonstrate a passion for reading – and great enthusiasm for inspiring others to read for pleasure and learning. You’re comfortable using technology including various online applications and platforms, and always open to new ways of working. In this role, you’ll need to balance your day-to-day duties with longer term project work, so good organisational skills and a flexible approach will be key to your success. 

Please note, this part-time role involves working 18 hours per week, usually on two weekdays, with at least one shift between 9:00am-7:00pm. In every four month period, you’ll work around six Saturday shifts from 9:30am-5:00pm. 

We reserve the right to extend or close this vacancy early without warning subject to the volume of suitable applicants. 

Westminster City Council is committed to supporting Care Leavers into the workplace. Care Leavers seeking their first job and who wish to be considered under our scheme, will automatically be invited to interview should they meet the essential criteria for the role. 

What We Offer:

Westminster is an amazing place. We are home to more than 200,000 residents from all backgrounds, over 50,000 vibrant and vital businesses and three-quarters-of-a-million people work in Westminster. Westminster City Council’s strategy is to work towards a Fairer Westminster. A Fairer Westminster is one in which our communities are at the heart of our decision-making and help to determine the city’s future. By working directly with our communities and other partners, we can build a more inclusive city that celebrates our diverse communities, and where residents, workers and visitors from all backgrounds will feel welcome and safe.   
 
At Westminster City Council, we pride ourselves on being an inclusive workplace and employer of choice. We encourage and welcome applications from people from all backgrounds and aim to have a workforce that, at all levels, represents the communities we serve. We champion equality, diversity, inclusion and wellbeing and aim to create a workplace where everyone feels valued, has a sense of belonging and is empowered to be their best, that is the Westminster Way. To find out more about how we do this visit  https://www.westminster.gov.uk/health-and-social-care/public-health-strategy-policies-and-reports/equality-duties  
 
As a forward-thinking Council we appreciate that people work in different ways, therefore our staff benefit from working a range of flexible working patterns as well as Agile working.  
 
The Council is a Disability Confident Employer. If you have declared a disability in your application, we guarantee an interview if you meet the essential criteria of the job. If you are invited for interview, you will be asked if you need any reasonable adjustments in order to attend, and we will make these wherever possible.