Band 5 PALS & Complaints Officer

NHS; Greater London; On-site; GBP 35,000 - 44,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading healthcare trust in Greater London is seeking a PALS & Complaints Officer to enhance patient experience by managing complaints and feedback. The role requires excellent communication and interpersonal skills, along with a commitment to delivering outstanding service. Key responsibilities include resolving complaints timely, facilitating patient engagement initiatives, and generating relevant reports. Competitive salary package of £35,763 to £43,466 per annum offered.

Qualifications

• The candidate must possess excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to manage a caseload of enquiries and complaints.
• Experience in customer service environments and dealing with distressed individuals.

Responsibilities

• Manage a caseload of complaints ensuring timely resolution.
• Facilitate patient engagement initiatives and feedback collection.
• Deliver reports on complaints for allocated divisions.

Skills

Excellent communication skills

Interpersonal skills

Attention to detail

Empathy

Negotiation skills

Education

Educated to diploma/degree level or equivalent experience

Tools

Microsoft Office packages

Job description

The PALS & Complaints Officer plays an integral role in delivering an excellent frontline support service by listening, managing and learning from patient experience to improve quality of services we provide at North Middlesex University Hospital. The post holder will perform a range of specific tasks in relation to the administration and coordination of complaints and other feedback, ensuring policies and procedures are followed in accordance with the relevant legislation and associated guidance. The post holder will also be responsible for delivering the Patient Advice and Liaison Service for the Trust by providing high quality, responsive assistance to the general public and external organisations. This will include listening to experiences and, where possible, resolving concerns immediately and providing a signposting service to members of the public.The PALS & Complaints Officer is also key to driving the improvement agenda within the patient experience function - working actively with Divisions, service areas and wards to co-design services and solutions that meet the expectations of our patients and families. Provide relevant PALS (Patient Advice and Liaison Service) and complaints reports for allocated divisions. Ensure timely and accurate reporting to relevant stakeholders and maintain data integrity and compliance with reporting standards.

Main duties of the job

Complaints, Concerns, Comments and Compliments.

To manage a caseload of enquiries and complaints, ensuring accuratedocumentation that is kept up to date with progressTo carry out duties in line with the policies for Complaints Management and thepolicy for PALS. This will include but is not limited to:Ensuring that complaints and concerns raised by patients, relatives,service users and staff are resolved within the statutory timescales andkey performance indicators for the service.Taking an active role in supporting the investigation process and draftingwritten complaints responses to ensure they are appropriate, thorough andcompliant with Trust policy for Complaints.Communicating with complainants, patients, their relatives andrepresentatives either face to face, by phone, email or letter ensuring thatall communication is accessible, relevant and timely.

Delivery excellent experience for our patients and their relatives and / or carers.

To take an active role in supporting initiatives within service areas that focus onimproving patient experience.To facilitate patient engagement and patient involvement initiatives through collecting feedback through surveys, organising workshops and leading on codesign activities.To assist in identifying areas for improvement, passing on constructive views onhow to develop and improve services.

About us

The Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust is one of the UK's biggest and most innovative trusts. Across Four main hospitals.

NMUH North Middlesex University Hospital (NMUH) is one of the business unit of the Royal Free London NHS Trust and one of London's busiest healthcare providers, providing hospital care and community services for the 350,000 people living in Enfield, Haringey and beyond. Our specialist services include HIV, cardiology, blood disorders, diabetes, fertility, sickle cell and thalassemia. In addition to a full range of cancer diagnosis and treatment services, the Helen Rollason Cancer Support Centre is based on-site and provides services to support cancer patients' wellbeing. We also provide community services and have a dedicated 0-19 service for children and young people in Enfield so that they can get the best possible start in life. This includes health visitors and school nurses who are delivering the national Healthy Child Programme, which provides a structured framework for the delivery of key interventions to support the health and wellbeing of children and families from 0 to 5 and school aged children from 5-19. The 0-19 service aims to improve pathways and partnerships with services in the hospital and deliver excellent care for the children and families. For more information, please access the following link: For more information please follow linkhttps://www.royalfreelondonjobs.co.uk/

Job responsibilities

Please see the attached Job Description and Person specification for more information on the role requirements and duties

Person Specification

Values

• Demonstrable ability to meet Trust values

Education & Qualifications

• Educated to diploma/ degree level or equivalent experience

Skills & Abilities

• Excellent communication skills (written and verbal) and listening skills.
• Excellent interpersonal and networking skills.
• Ability to work autonomously with the skills to make independent decisions.
• Good organiser with exceptional attention to detail and the ability to manage own workload to defined deadlines.
• Highly developed IT skills working across a range of Microsoft Office packages and databases (including Outlook and Excel)
• Empathy, ability to deal with distressed patients/ relatives. Good negotiation and conflict resolution skills to manage and deescalate potentially difficult/ contentious situations
• Skills & Abilities

Experience

• Experience of working in a customer service environment/ role.
• Experience of analysing problems and providing solutions.
• Experience of dealing with distressed angry and unhappy customers/ service users
• Experience of working with professionals from different backgrounds and across a variety of providers to provide outstanding customer care
• Experience

Other Requirements

• A commitment to Continuous Professional Development
• Knowledge and understanding of NHS complaints process
• Knowledge of rules surrounding confidentiality, information governance and the Data Protection Act
• Understanding of the issues surrounding equality of access for all, data protection and confidentiality as well as the role of clinical governance
• Ability to secure co-operation of colleagues at all levels
• Highly motivated and resourceful
• Knowledge of health related terminology and concepts
• Knowledge of patient record systems
• Understanding of various methods of engaging patients, service users or customers to obtain feedback
• A team player who is prepared to go above and beyond to support others
• Knowledge and understanding of Quality Improvement methodologies
• Patience and the ability to remain calm in stressful situations
• Ability to maintain high standards of diplomacy and confidentiality
• Ability to convey complex information to anxious and distressed patients
• Ability to deal appropriately with frustrations of patients, service users and the public which may occasionally be manifested as verbal aggression
• Other requirements

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

£35,763 to £43,466 a yearPer Annum including HCAS