Assistant Administrative Services Manager

Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust; Oswestry; On-site; GBP 40,000 - 60,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading orthopaedic hospital in Oswestry seeks an Assistant Service Manager to oversee the Medical Secretarial team. This role involves day-to-day management, leadership responsibilities, and ensuring high standards of customer service. Applicants must hold a degree or equivalent experience and have strong interpersonal and leadership skills. The successful candidate will handle recruitment, training, and team management in line with hospital policies, contributing to a collaborative and effective work environment.

Benefits

Professional development opportunities

Access to state-of-the-art facilities

Strong links with local universities

Qualifications

• Experience managing a team within a healthcare setting.
• Ability to prioritize and manage multiple tasks.
• Strong interpersonal skills to handle sensitive situations.

Responsibilities

• Manage the day-to-day activities of the Medical Secretaries.
• Provide leadership to the Medical Secretariat.
• Oversee recruitment and training of staff.

Skills

Leadership

Communication

Problem-solving

Education

Degree level qualification

Job description

Assistant Service Manager – Role

We are seeking to recruit an Assistant Service Manager to join our team within the Secretarial Team. The candidate will be responsible for the management of the Orthopaedic Secretaries. The Assistant Administrative Services Manager will be first line of contact and support to the Medical Secretarial Team. The post holder will be responsible in a largely unsupervised capacity for the day to day management of the Medical Secretaries to effectively lead, supervise, co‑ordinate and direct the activities of the secretaries who work within the clinical teams to ensure a high class service is provided to our clinical colleagues, Consultants, Specialist nurses and their teams. The post holder will be required to exercise independent judgement seeking guidance rarely, managing work rather than supervised acting independently only deferring to Administrative Services Manager as necessary. The post holder will be expected to cross cover with another Assistant Administrative Services Manager and share responsibilities across all areas. The post holder will deputise for the Administrative Services Manager.

The post holder will provide robust and successful leadership to guide and steer the Medical Secretariat within the Access Department to achieve agreed targets and objectives, whilst ensuring all Trust Policies and procedures are adhered to. The post holder will uphold current high levels of Customer Service across the Team ensuring the Trust Values and behaviours are upheld. Use independent judgement/initiative to continuously evaluate and identify issues and develop solutions to encompass changes in working practices and implement those improvements to achieve acceptable standards. The ability to deal with frequent interruptions/unpredictable working patterns whilst maintaining a high level of concentration. Schedule meetings and conferences, distribute agendas and relevant documentation prior to the meeting, arrange necessary venue requirements. Transcribe, circulate minutes and ensure completion of any actions in timely manner. Regularly visit all Team Areas 'Walkabouts' to check on staff wellbeing and update Team on any new/changes in current practices. To be responsible for ensuring appropriate staffing levels on a day to day basis within the Medical Secretarial remit to meet the needs of the Service. To effectively record and monitor sickness levels of staff within the team, ensuring appropriate paperwork is undertaken and forwarded to relevant departments. To conduct Return to Work interviews following all periods of sickness absence, managing any breaches of the thresholds and with guidance, taking staff through the relevant management stages. The post holder will approve, record and monitor annual leave for the Medical Secretarial Team, ensuring all areas are appropriately staffed for continuation of delivery of patient pathway within target and local KPI's covered. The post holder will deal with complaints from patients, relatives and Trust staff including complex enquiries giving non clinical advice as appropriate. To deal with these complaints and only if necessary pass on unresolved issues to the Administrative Services Manager, in line with the Trust policies and standards. Liaise with other Professionals and Departments if appropriate. To use initiative in resolving issues that arise in the Medical Secretarial Team without seeking advice or in the absence of the Administrative Services Manager/Speciality based Performance Manager. These are often of a highly sensitive nature requiring good listening skills and tactfulness. Work closely with People Services and Administrative Services Manager with regard to any changes in information/posts/staffing. Using acquired independent judgement/interpersonal/communication skills evaluate the need for/organise staff referral to Team Prevent when necessary which routinely involves discussion around delicate personal, emotional and private issues. Authorised signatory against the Medical Secretarial budget. Responsible for the purchasing approval/maintenance of essential office equipment to ensure workable stock levels of stationery are maintained. Monitor, agree and sign off overtime/additional hours forms forwarding to Pay Services. To check and approve Medical Secretary expenses in line with the Policy. Monitor monthly nominal roll regarding correct/up-to-date establishment of staff and take any necessary remedial action via ESR team/Finance Link.

The post holder will be responsible for the recruitment of Medical Secretaries, creating post approvals, producing advertisements for posts, shortlisting and interviewing through the TRACs Recruitment system. Ensure all new staff have a training manual and mentor assigned. To check training dashboards ensuring staff are up to date with all training. To undertake medical secretarial staff appraisals/personal development planning in accordance with Trust policy. To support the Administrative Services Manager with admin workforce reviews as necessary. Work with the Administrative Services Manager to ensure good communication within the Medical Secretarial section and wider Access Team to ensure that all staff have a clear understanding of the objectives and performance of the Department. Regularly meet with individual secretarial teams to provide updates within the Service. To listen and respond to any issues raised by the individual teams, perform actions and disseminate to wider team as appropriate. Investigate, distribute lessons learnt and action taken regarding Datixs. Record all Datixs related to the Team. Regular check big hand digital dictation system for overdue dictation alerts and report typing time line weekly identifying areas that need support to meet the standard 10 day typing time line. To monitor and ensure the weekly validation of PTL's (Patient Target Lists) avoiding delays with patient pathway. The post holder will monitor and ensure patient diagnostic waiting lists are updated, accurate and regularly liaise with the Validation Team as part of RTT performance. The post holder will monitor data quality, ensuring information is accurate and appropriate for patient information. Ensure all Advice and Guidance requests are managed to meet Trust CQUIN. Ensure the Medical Secretary List available on the intranet is up to date. To receive report on removal of documents each month and action accordingly. To distribute bimonthly e-communicate sheet for the Team. To ensure there is an adequate supply of Med3 forms for the Trust and order as required, distributing to departments obtaining a signature and logging the amount of Med3 books given. Writing, reviewing, amending, implementing, auditing Standard Operating Procedures and Processes for all Medical Secretarial functions as required and assessing impact on other areas of the Trust.

Important

Important Your application form must include a complete record of your employment history. Please explain any gaps in your employment/education history and reasons for these gaps. The Trust maintains the right to withdraw an employment offer or terminate employment if it is later found that an application for employment contained false, mis‑leading or inaccurate information. For the avoidance of doubt this would include omissions of previous periods of employment or reasons given for gaps in employment. Please be aware that we reserve the right to close this job advert early where sufficient applications have been received.

Qualifications

Applicants will hold degree level qualification, or be able to demonstrate that level of knowledge and experience through training and experience.

Pay & Benefits

• Pay banding subject to Agenda for Change evaluation
• Under current Home Office Immigration Rules, this role does not meet the UK Visas and Immigration criteria and the position is not therefore eligible for skilled worker sponsorship. Applications from candidates that require skilled worker sponsorship will NOT be shortlisted.

About RJAH Trust

The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic NHS Trust (RJAH) is one of the leading orthopaedic hospitals in the country, with some of the highest levels of staff and patient satisfaction, as well as a strong reputation for research and innovation. In the National Staff Survey, 74% of our staff would recommend the Trust as a place to work and 92% would recommend the hospital to a friend or relative for treatment. Joining RJAH is more than just a job - we want our people to have the best opportunities to thrive in their role. We have a range of fantastic staff benefits on offer to everyone who joins RJAH and you'll have access to outstanding professional development opportunities and state‑of‑the‑art facilities - including our recently‑opened £6 million Headley Court Veterans' Orthopaedic Centre (the first unit of its kind in the UK). RJAH has strong links with a range of universities including Staffordshire, Keele, Glyndwr, Chester and Birmingham. The hospital is located on a site outside Oswestry in Oswestry, just off the A5. The nearest train station is in Gobowen, approximately two miles from the hospital. The station is part of the Chester to Birmingham line. We are based in North Shropshire, close to the border with North and Mid Wales. It is one of the most attractive parts of the country, with a rich historic culture and excellent transport links. It offers outstanding opportunities for anyone who enjoys an outdoor lifestyle or is looking to raise a family.

Here at The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, we are very proud of our reputation for providing outstanding care to our patients. In the National Staff Survey, 74% of our staff would recommend the Trust as a place to work and 92% would recommend the hospital to a friend or relative for treatment. Our continued success is accomplished through the skills and expertise of our staff, which is underpinned by our values: Professional, Excellence, Respect, Friendly, Inclusive and Caring.

EEO Statement

We are committed to ensuring disabled workers aren't disadvantaged when applying for and doing their jobs and offer an interview to all applicants with a disability who meet the minimum criteria for the advertised post. Reasonable adjustments under the Equality Act 2010 will be considered upon request. Midlands and Lancashire Commissioning Support Unit (MLCSU) process recruitment on behalf of Robert Jones Agnes Hunt. Further information on how your personal data is managed can be found on the supporting Privacy Notice. Your application will be made in Trac, the MLCSU's preferred third party recruitment system. All subsequent information regarding your application will be generated from apps.trac.jobs and also available in your candidate account. If you are offered a job, information will also be transferred into the national NHS Electronic Staff Records system. In submitting an application form to Trac, you are giving your consent for parts of your application data to be transferred to the NHS Electronic Staff Record (ESR) and other secure, internal NHS Workforce systems. This is to support and manage your recruitment and employment within your employing organisation. You also authorise the RJAH Hospital NHS Foundation Trust to confirm any previous NHS service details via the Electronic Staff Record IAT process should you be appointed to the post.