Bereavement Officer

Lewisham and Greenwich; Royal Borough of Greenwich; Sur place; GBP 23 000 - 29 000; Plein temps

Résumé du poste

Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust is seeking a Bereavement Officer to join our team in a complex hospital environment, supporting bereaved families and coordinating with clinical and administrative staff. You will help process documentation, maintain records, and ensure timely communications with GPs and health services.

The role involves working closely with the Bereavement Supervisor and Medical Examiner Officers, providing education to staff, and contributing to service development while

Qualifications

• Educated to NVQ level 2 with additional experience equivalent to NVQ 3.
• Good level of computer literacy.
• Knowledge of databases and spreadsheets.

Responsabilités

• Assist in the day-to-day running of the office and provide guidance to users.
• Liaise with medical staff regarding the Medical Certificate of Cause of Death (MCCD).
• Maintain accurate records of patient deaths and notify relevant health care agencies promptly.
• Send notification letters to the deceased's GP on the day certificates are completed.
• Collaborate with Safeguarding, Infection control and Mortality Review committees to provide information.

Connaissances

Admin skills

Communication

Computer literacy

Interpersonal skills

Formation

NVQ level 2

NVQ level 3 equivalence

Outils

Databases

Spreadsheets

Description du poste

Step into a place where exceptional care, patients, culture, and careers come together.

Explore our current vacancies and take your first step toward making a real difference.

Join us. Make a difference. Be part of Team LGT.

Main area Bereavement Grade Band 3 Contract Permanent Hours Full time - 37.5 hours per week (Monday to Friday) Job ref 197-KH8826

Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust, (LGT), is a community-focused provider of local and acute care, delivering high-quality services to over one million people living across the London boroughs of Lewisham, Greenwich, and Bexley. We provide whole-life care and are here to support our communities to live healthier lives as well as taking care of them when they need us the most.

Employing almost 7,500 colleagues, affectionately known as Team LGT, we provide services at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich, University Hospital Lewisham, and at over a dozen community settings in Lewisham. We also provide some services at Queen Mary’s Hospital in Sidcup.

We have recently launched our new vision and values to mark the LGT10 – the tenth anniversary of our Trust forming in 2013. Our trust vision is to be exceptional. In the quality of our patient care; our support for colleagues; and in the difference we make through our partnerships and in our communities.

Our hospitals and community sites provide a wide range of inpatient and outpatient services, as well as emergency and planned care. The Trust is rated as “good” or “outstanding” in over three-quarters of the services inspected by the Care Quality Commission.

Every year our work includes performing 10,000 procedures in our theatres; bringing seven and a half thousand new lives into the world; carrying out 570,000 visits to patients in their homes or communities and providing emergency care for more than 300,000 patients arriving in our busy Urgent and Emergency Departments.

LGT is a centre for the education and training of medical students enrolled with King’s College London’s GKT School of Medical Education. We are a training centre for nurses, midwives and allied health professionals. We are pioneering new roles that will support the changing needs of our patients and are one of the largest employers of physician associates in the country.

We are committed to working with our partners to deliver the best outcomes for our local communities. This means playing an active role in the South East London Integrated Care System (ICS), and in formal partnerships including the South East London Acute Provider Collaborative, provider partnerships with our local mental health trusts and borough-based boards of the ICS in Bexley, Greenwich and Lewisham.

Job overview

We are seeking a Bereavement Officer to join our team at LGT. In this role you will be working in a complex and demanding environment of the hospital that offers support to bereaved families.

Your responsibilities will include supporting enquiries from the bereaved Next Of Kin, medical staff and various administrative staff within and outside of the Trust. You will be providing support and guidance to people who are going through one of the hardest and most stressful times of their lives .

The post holder will assist the Bereavement Supervisor in providing a sensitive yet planned systematic approach to the procedures and the formalities that must be completed following the death of a patient.

The post holder will assist in the day-to-day running of the service, working collaboratively with the Medical Examiner Officers (MEOs).

Main duties of the job

• Assist in the day-to-day running of the office and provide guidance to those using the service.
• Liaise with medical staff regarding the completion of the Medical Certificate of Cause of Death (MCCD), in accordance with agreed procedures.
• Maintain accurate and concise records of patient’s death and to ensure that all relevant health care agencies receive accurate and prompt notification of the patient’s death.
• Ensure notification of death letters are sent to the deceased’s GP on the day the certificates are completed.
• Ensure that all wards and critical care areas have adequate information and resources for the newly bereaved.
• Assist in the facilitation of documentation for Public Health Funerals, with the local councils, where there is no next of kin.
• Under the direction of the bereavement lead, support service development projects and assist with providing education to Trust staff about the bereavement service, in accordance with established procedures.
• To work collaboratively with other Trust departments including Safeguarding, Infection control and the Mortality Review committee to ensure timely access to required information is provided
• Maintain an awareness of the diverse needs of the deceased and the bereaved to ensure equality to any group defined by sex, race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender reassignment or disability.

Working for our organisation

Our people are our greatest asset. When we feel supported and happy at work, this positivity reaches those very people we are here for, the patients. Engaged employees perform at their best and our Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) initiatives contribute to cultivate a culture of engagement. We have four staff networks, a corporate EDI Team and a suite of programmes and events which aim to insert the 5 aspirations:

• Improving representation at senior levels of staff with disabilities, from black, Asian, and ethnic minorities background, identify as LGBTQ+ and women, through improved recruitment and leadership development
• Widening access (anchor institution) and employability
• Improving the experience of staff with disability
• Improving the EDI literacy and confidence of trust staff through training and development
• Making equalities mainstream

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Process paperwork for donation of organs where the deceased is known to have expressed a wish for the same. Inform school of anatomy bequests of bodies.

Refers cases when a patient has died without next of kin to the local council.

To maintain accurate records of department activity daily.

To work collaboratively with all departments and other external agencies to ensure arrangements for those with faith requirements take place in a timely way.

Maintain an awareness of the diverse needs of the deceased and the bereaved to ensure equality to any group defined by sex, race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender reassignment or disability.

Person specification

Qualifications

• Educated to NVQ level 2 plus additional experience equating to NVQ 3
• Good level of computer literacy.
• Knowledge of databases and spreadsheets

Experience

• Previous experience in an admin role
• Experience of working with patients, families and staff, forming good relationships.
• Experience of working with people in sensitive and emotional situations.
• Extensive experience of working within a busy office environment.

Knowledge

• Ability to communicate effectively with a range of internal/external stakeholders
• Understanding of bereavement
• Knowledge of the special requirements of various faith groups and respect for equality and diversity of issues around formalities following a death.
• General knowledge of clinical/medical terminology

Personal Qualities

• Reliable and adaptable to change; quick to learn; able to work on own initiative and as part of a team
• Able to work to tight deadlines and within available resources
• Able to work outside normal working hours on occasion, if necessary, to meet the needs of the department.
• Able to apply tact and sensitivity to establish trust and confidence.
• Able to work on any hospital site
• Excellent attention to detail and good organisational skills

As a local employer and anchor institution we work closely with our community to recruit locally and we welcome applications from the widest variety of people to ensure our workforce are reflective of the local communities which we serve. We encourage all suitable candidates to apply including if you are Black, Asian or other ethnic minorities, live with a disability (visible or not) or are LGBT+. We have a number of active staff networks including Disability, LGBT+, Multicultural Inclusion and Women’s staff networks to bring staff together and celebrate diversity across our whole workforce.

Please note: Information provided during recruitment and pre‑employment checks must be accurate. Misrepresentation may be investigated as fraud and could lead to withdrawal from the process, professional sanctions, or criminal action.

Please note: that sponsorship under the Skilled Worker route is subject to Trust allocation and UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) approval.

Use of AI in recruitment: We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support the initial review of applications against the essential criteria for this role. Where AI is used, it will support rather than replace human decision-making, and applications will remain subject to appropriate human review.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.