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Job Overview
To contribute to the delivery of an outstanding experience for all service users and their families, by supporting the resolution of enquiries, concerns and complaints within agreed timelines, and the Trust’s wider Patient Experience engagement and feedback processes.
Main duties of the job
Key Areas Of The Post Holder Are
- To effectively manage complaints in accordance with national guidance and local Trust policies and procedures.
- To facilitate speedy and informal resolution of concerns raised by service users, their families and carers through liaison with Trust staff and other agencies.
- To provide information about local services, including voluntary and statutory agencies and to offer guidance and support to those accessing the service, providing links to services where appropriate.
- To support the PALS & Complaints Manager to co-ordinate, administrate and deliver the Complaints Lay Review Panel Meetings.
- To provide high quality guidance and support to divisions on resolving complaints and concerns, supporting staff in complex cases where an independent approach would benefit both the patient and staff. The contacts vary in each case and you will be responsible for responding in a way that the patient understands and that supports their needs.
- To identify trends and themes arising from complaints and escalating to senior managers for consideration.
- To prepare reports for the PALS & Complaints Manager as required. Including the weekly overdue concern and complaint trackers.
- To record, progress and assist in case managing complaints and concerns and to prepare responses in line with the Trust’s preferred style to achieve accurate and timely responses.
- Day-to-day operational line management of Band 4 PALS & Complaints Officer.
Working for our organisation
North Bristol NHS Trust employs over 12,000 staff providing healthcare to the residents of Bristol, South Gloucestershire and North Somerset from our award-winning hospital building at Southmead. We are the regional Major Trauma Centre, and an internationally recognised centre of excellence in a range of services and major specialities. Our vision is that by enabling our teams to be the best that they can be, we will provide exceptional healthcare, personally delivered.
North Bristol NHS Trust values all people as individuals. We aim to be an anti-discriminatory organisation and are committed to building a team that represents a variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and skills. We welcome applicants from all underrepresented groups.
Detailed Job Description And Main Responsibilities
Day to Day, dealing with a caseload of both formal complaints and PALS concerns/enquiries.
Respond to enquiries and concerns by telephone, email and face to face. Investigating issues whilst involving key staff in order to reach a satisfactory resolution.
To work closely with patients/service users, understanding their concerns/complaints, desired outcomes and discussing and agreeing options and timescales for resolution in line with the Parliamentary Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) principles of good complaint handling.
Advise those patients that wish to formally complain of the Trusts complaints process and signpost to and offer independent advocacy services.
To handle complaints, concerns and enquiries in a polite, sympathetic and empathetic way, giving reassurances that all will be handled in confidence.
To case manage concerns and all complaints allocated by the PALS & Complaints Manager, working to national and local protocols, policies and procedures.
Keep confidential records in line with Trust Policy and to assist with monitoring and evaluation of complaints in accordance with the Caldicott recommendations and the Data Protection Act.
Act as a frontline point of contact for patients, carers, service users and key partners including GPs.
Log accurately all contacts and record the actions taken in order to reach a conclusion that is satisfactory to the service user.
To identify those concerns that meet the thresholds of Trusts policies such as safeguarding, serious incidents, duty of candour and to escalate any concerns to the PALS & Complaints Manager
Support the Patient Experience agenda and strategy alongside the wider Nursing and Quality agendas.
Maintain a basic knowledge of Trust policies and procedures and developments.
Build and maintain good relationships with local partners and stakeholders.
Support in the collection of patient experience data, both electronic and paper based
To attend complaints resolution meetings and other meetings as required
To ensure that service users, their relatives and carers have access to information about the complaints process and PALS.
To provide high quality and high level support and advice to divisions in the handling of complaints
To obtain and receive all documentation relating to each complaint from divisions, scrutinizing investigation papers and ensuring all areas of the complaint have been addressed.
To prepare and/or review draft complaint responses ensuring these are of a high quality before progressing to CEO sign off.
To monitor timescales for dealing with complaints, identifying delays and causes for delays, highlighting these to the PALS & Complaints Manager.
To support the PALS & Complaints Manager to coordinate and administrate the Lay Review Panel Meetings.
Day to day operational management of the Band 4 PALS and Complaint Officer.
To deliver PALS/Complaint training to staff as required.
To assist in the delivery of other local training as required.
Additional duties as required/detailed by Patient Experience Manager in relation to supporting the team.
Person specification
Essential
Essential criteria
- Educated to degree level or equivalent in knowledge and experience. Minimum of NVQ Level 3 qualification or equivalent.
- Previous NHS Experience
- Customer Service Experience
- Experience of working in the NHS Complaints Process
If you apply for this vacancy and have not received a communication from North Bristol NHS Trust within three weeks of the closing date, please assume that on this occasion your application has been unsuccessful.
Please note that North Bristol NHS Trust does not reimburse travel expenses relating to interview attendance.
If you feel you meet the requirements of the Disability Act / Two Ticks scheme and require further support/advice, please contact us on tel 0117 414 1151.
North Bristol NHS Trust are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.
The successful applicant(s) will normally commence at the minimum of the scale unless they have previous NHS service at the same band. Progression through the scale is by annual increments.
At North Bristol Trust (NBT), we know diverse and inclusive environments lead to happier and healthier teams and improved patient care and outcomes. We are committed to equality of opportunity, to being fair and inclusive, and to being a place where we all belong. We therefore particularly encourage applications from candidates who are currently underrepresented in NBT’s workforce at Band 8a and above. These include people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds, disabled people and LGBTQIA+ people.
Please note that stringent pre-employment checks are undertaken on all successful applicants prior to commencement in post.
