Nicole Armstrong

Criminal Justice – 13/03/2017- Current

• Meet strict deadlines with the Courts, ensuring I am aware of the different legislations associated with the Courts and Parole Board.
• Prioritised workload to ensure timely submission of reports, formatting and saving CJSWR/RLO/Breach/CPO/Completion reports for Court.
• I have excellent communication skills and am able to liaise with a variety of professionals associated with the Justice team including Court Officials/ Offenders/Police Scotland/Restorative Justice and other services involved with Justice Services.
• I arrange review meetings & collated all necessary information prior to sending out to the invitees.
• I organise meeting spaces and remote working arranged meetings via Microsoft Teams
• I format and type Justice Social Work Reports, Restriction of Liberty Orders, Breach, Community Payback Orders and Completion reports for Court.
• Completed minutes for Community Payback Orders and Parole/Non-Parole meetings while ensuring data protection and confidentiality through effective liaison with Police Scotland and other partners regarding high-risk sex offenders.
• Updated the Sex Offender Database daily in compliance with strict protocols.

Finance Section – 01/10/2020-27/07/2023

• Complete reconciliations of the money we have as a Locality and the money we hold for service users we have guardianship over.
• Checked bank accounts for accuracy and updated spreadsheets to reflect service users' balances.
• Dealt with the Finance mailbox and addressed each email promptly and appropriately.
• All invoices received into this mailbox were checked each day ensuring they had not already been paid using eFinancials. If they have not been paid, I would start the process by putting them on Pecos then after these had been approved, I would then receipt and batch and send to HQ for payment.
• I dealt with queries from other Services and Companies and would advise them when payment would be made re invoices.
• On a weekly basis, I would do Home Support Worker’s mileage from Management to put onto the spreadsheet to be sent to HQ for payment. I would ensure each worker had up to date insurance documents before passing on. I also dealt with all mileage queries from Home Support Worker’s ensuring they were kept up to date and were well informed.
• On a monthly basis, I would complete the Kinship Care spreadsheet ensuring this was up to date with any rates being changed and any additional payments being added on to then be sent to HQ for payment to the Carer's.
• I co-worked Finance and Criminal Justice for a period of time showing that I can effectively and efficiently prioritise and distribute my own workload and that of staff within both teams according to our strengths and weaknesses in order to meet deadlines. I provided support to both of my Finance and Criminal Justice supervisors and would delegate tasks to the team in their absence ensuring I evenly distribute the tasks on a daily basis and providing indirect peer supervision.

Reception/Switchboard – 12/12/2016 - 10/03/2017

• While working front of office I worked with a variety of people of different age, sex and culture. I engaged with callers/visitors face to face daily to understand their needs and take appropriate action.
• Clarified important messages for the public, effectively taking and distributing messages while providing quality customer service.
• Cascaded information to all employees for whom I was responsible and prioritised information across the administrative team.
• I always answered the telephone in a courteous manner and actively listened, ensuring I spoke clearly and concisely. I responded to challenging customers/complaints in calm and effective manner.

Community Care – 30/12/2013 – 09/12/2016

• Performed typing, filing, and photocopying tasks to support office operations.
• Managed incoming and outgoing mail by sorting and distributing to appropriate personnel.
• Recorded and relayed telephone messages for fieldwork staff to maintain effective communication.
• Collated Occupational Therapy packs and prepared them for use.
• I attended Adult Support & Protection and Reviews as minute taker and ensured these were typed up and sent out within legislation timescales.
• Collated all relevant paperwork and prepared it for audit purposes regarding open Community Care cases.
• Forwarded Social Work Emergency Service alerts to the appropriate sections for prompt action.
• I managed the paperwork for nominations for Placement Authorisation Group (PAG) – including applying to HQ for funding, liaising with Social Worker’s re relevant paperwork to start care home contracts.
• I processed Care Home contracts - Calculating client contribution, maintaining database, sending out contracts to care home and family and updating swis.
• I dealt with permanent care home enquiries including dealing with the family and discussing finances. This could challenging at times however I would deal with this is a calm and effective manner ensuring the client/family member was listened to.
• I liaised with Care Home’s regarding residents deceased/discharges to update spreadsheets and send to HQ for their records.

Completed SVQ 2 and progressed to SVQ 3 in Corporate Services, taking on additional roles and responsibilities.

• Facilitated the distribution of new mobile phones to Councillors.
• I would ensure I spoke to each Councillor and talked them through how to set up their new phones.
• Collated spreadsheet to schedule timeslots for Councillors and facilitated phone setup discussions.

This role consisted of learning the basics of an admin role such as printing/photocopying, sending letters/faxes, assisting with the outgoing/incoming mail as well ensuring I had time to complete my SVQ.

I completed my European Computer Driving Licence and attended different courses to help with my progression within my SVQ.

Developed telephone skills to interact effectively with diverse individuals while assisting in Corporate Services, particularly during Citizenship ceremonies for new British Citizens.