Coroner’s Service Support Assistant

Coroner Service Support Assistant Location – Chelmsford Full-Time, Temporary 6 Month Contract 37 Hours per Week Salary - £13.49 PAYE / £17.275 Umbrella Closing Date:
Monday 5th October 2026

Please note this is a temporary opportunity for 6 months. You will be required to work from Seax House, Chelmsford, daily during Probation for training and development purposes and thereafter 2 to 3 days per week with Line Manager agreement.

Essex Coroners Service supports 4 full-time Coroners in statutory duties as independent judiciary investigating the unnatural deaths across Essex, including Southend and Thurrock. The service has 5,500 referrals per year and holds over 1,000 inquests a year.

The Coroners’ Service Support Assistant works as part of a small, busy team providing administrative support to the HM Coroner. The role supports all aspects of the service including logging new cases, initial contact with families, acting as jury bailiff, preparing treasure cases right through to Disclaimer or Treasure Inquest, maintaining court schedules and much more. The admin team work closely with Coroner Officers, managers and HM Coroners to support the modernisation of the service.

‘This Role requires dealing daily with bereaved families at a very difficult time, and so excellent customer care skills are essential as well being very organised with up-to-date IT skills are ‘Essential’. This Team is also responsible for championing customer needs.’

• Responsible for using specialist, procedural and organisational knowledge to filter incoming contact; dealing with the communication directly or referring it to the appropriate officer in a timely manner and ensuring senior staff are informed of urgent/important developments.
• Responsible for using initiative and taking independent actions in order to deal with queries/complaints.
• Responsible for providing high quality, accurate and efficient support to a team of coroner officers, much of which will be of a confidential nature, and to organise and quality check own work.
• Responsible for carrying out file administration, arranging and managing juries for Coroners inquests as instructed.
• Responsible for demonstrating effective communication and engagement with all service users and customers (internal and external).
• Responsible for maintaining and developing accurate confidential records and filing, both manual and electronic to ensure efficient and effective storage and retrieval of information.
• Working collaboratively with the wider Coroners Service team to support the development of high professional standards, a commitment to service excellence and continuous improvement.
• Supporting the modernisation of the Coroner’s Service, delivery of efficient processes and collection of performance data.
• Specific individual and shared targets and objectives are defined annually within the performance management framework.

• Educated to GCSE level (including Maths and English)/NVQ Administration Level 2 or equivalent by experience.
• Excellent working knowledge of Microsoft Office applications, including Word, Outlook, PowerPoint, and Excel.
• Excellent IT and Keyboard Skills.
• Experience of effective working as a team member and ability to liaise with a wide variety of people.
• Experience of dealing with telephone enquiries.
• Proven effective communication and interpersonal skills.
• Ability to prioritise effectively.
• Ability to present information in an accurate, orderly, and disciplined manner.

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