I've never not worked, so can't advise about that, but quite often when I've applied for jobs, I've referred to my non-paid-work roles.
For example, the first time I applied for a job which involved managing other team members, I used my experiences as chair of the personnel committee as a school governor to explain how I understood managing people, I had also assessed the performance of the head teacher so I talked about that in my application and also referred to it in the interview (and got the job!).
I've also referred to other committee and voluntary work I've done, it's amazing how you can use that sort of experience, don't rule it out just becase it's not paid work.
I'm sure you have got lots of related experience, if not then concentrate on doing somd voluntary work if you can which coukd be relevant, eg doing some admin for a charity which will show that you are keen to return to an admin role.
I found that being a school governor was really interesting and developed my skills in a way that I hadn't anticipated. It is at least a 4 year commitment though!