Senior Crematorium Administrator/Usher in Walthamstow

Organisation: London Borough of Waltham Forest

Salary: SO2 £40,182 - £42,060

Contract Type: Full time Permanent

Working hours per week: 36

Application Deadline: 13/08/2026

Proposed Interview Date(s): TBC

Reference: 2188

About Us:

Bursting with culture, energy, and opportunity, the London Borough of Waltham Forest is a fantastic and exciting place to work. We are a highly ambitious borough. Driven by culture and the innate creativity of our residents, we have developed new and innovative ways to build our communities. Our Council is relentlessly resident-focused, insight-led, digitally driven and commercially minded; a Council focused on meeting the needs of our existing and future residents.

London Borough of Waltham Forest is one of the Mayor of London’s Good Work Standard employers. This accreditation is proof of our commitment to creating a healthy, fair and inclusive workplace. This includes fair pay and conditions, workplace well-being, skills and progression and diversity and recruitment.

About the role:

Waltham Forest is preparing to open its first dedicated Crematorium Service — a landmark development that will enhance the support we provide to residents at some of the most sensitive and significant moments in their lives. This new service represents an important step forward for the borough, and we are building a team that reflects the compassion, professionalism, and care our community deserves. As part of this launch, we are creating nine new roles across the service. This role will be required to provide high-quality administrative support for the newly established Chingford Crematorium, ensuring the smooth delivery of cremation services and compassionate engagement with bereaved families. The postholder will manage statutory records, coordinate service logistics, and uphold the Council’s standards for dignity, inclusivity, and professionalism. We are a Home Office–licensed sponsor; however, for this specific role we are not able to provide Skilled Worker visa sponsorship. To be considered, you must already hold a form of UK work authorisation that does not require sponsorship.

Key Responsibilities:

• Process and verify statutory documentation in line with legal requirements
• Support the setup of the chapel and congregation hall for services
• Operate and assist with media systems including viewing screens, sound systems, and CCTV
• Work collaboratively with the Bereavement Services team to integrate cremation and burial operations
• Ensure compliance with Council policies, health and safety standards, and ICCM charter principles

Qualifications and Requirements:

• Experience in administrative roles, preferably within bereavement or direct public services
• Knowledge of financial processes, procurement, purchase order raising, processing of payments using digital and online systems, banking processes, recording of financial transactions
• High level of communication and presentation skills and ability to deal with sensitive and emotive customers
• GCSEs or equivalent (required)
• NVQ Level 3 in Business Administration or similar (preferred)
• ICCM training or awareness of cemetery and crematorium charter standards (advantageous)

Terms and conditions:

• Satisfactory employment references and CIFAS identity checks
• Satisfactory declaration of interest
• Satisfactory DBS check
• As a public authority, we must ensure that members of staff in public-facing roles are able to speak fluent English. This means that they must have a command of spoken English, with confidence and accuracy, sufficient for the effective performance of their role. This requirement does not refer to any particular English language qualifications, regional or international accents, dialects, speech impediments or the tone of conversations. It does not require staff to speak only in English.

How to Apply:

Interested candidates are invited to submit their applications online by pressing the ‘Apply’ button below. This includes a supporting statement that outlines to us how your skills and experience make you a good candidate for this vacancy. We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.

Equal Opportunity Employer:

Waltham Forest is a diverse borough where diversity is valued and is integral to both service delivery and employment of its staff. The Council is proud of its rich mix of communities and as the largest employer in the area, it works hard to respond to the changing needs of its population. We use our statutory duties on race, gender and disability equality and best practice in respect of age, faith and sexual orientation to ensure equality of opportunity in the workplace. The Council is committed to meeting its 4 equality objectives:

• Promoting equality of opportunity
• Opposing all forms of discrimination, intolerance and disadvantage
• Ensuring our workforce reflects the diverse communities of Waltham Forest at all levels
• Providing fair, appropriate, accessible and excellent Services to all

Respecting Diversity is a core Council value.

To support the above and reduce the risk of bias in its recruitment activities, the council is operating an anonymous shortlisting process, which hides personal information that can identify individuals until their application has been considered for shortlisting. The council also operates a scheme whereby, for jobs graded up to and including scale SO2, internal candidates are considered first. This includes those candidates who self-identify as having a disability for the purposes of the Disability Confident scheme. For more information, please refer to our recruitment and selection policy.

We are keen to support employees to balance their working life with other commitments. Therefore, wherever possible, we will consider working arrangements that suit an individual's personal circumstances whilst still meeting the needs of the Council. If you would like to discuss the possible flexible working options that might be applicable to this role, please contact the person named below or feel free to discuss this during your interview.

For more information on the benefits of working for the Council, please visit here.

Contact Information:

If you have any questions about this vacancy or the application process, please contact Ian Sheppard, Head Of Parks and Open Spaces at ian.sheppard@walthamforest.gov.uk. If you have any technical issues when trying to apply for this post, please contact our Recruitment Team via email at recruitment@walthamforest.gov.uk. The Council’s preference is for online application. However, if you have a disability and are unable to complete an online application, please email recruitment@walthamforest.gov.uk so we can arrange an alternative application method.

Fraud Awareness Notice: The London Borough of Waltham Forest only advertises vacancies via our official website and approved recruitment platforms (e.g. Jobsgopublic). We will never ask for payment or request sensitive personal or financial information as part of our recruitment process. If you are contacted by a third party claiming to represent the Council, please verify the vacancy via our official careers website before sharing any information. If you have concerns about a job advert or communication, please report it to fraud@walthamforest.gov.uk.