Dietetics Team Secretary/Administrator

NHS; Torquay; On-site; GBP 22,000 - 28,000; Full time

Job summary

A healthcare foundation in Torquay seeks a Dietetics Team Secretary/Administrator. The role involves managing patient appointments, supporting the clinical team, and handling administrative duties efficiently. Candidates should have excellent communication skills, relevant qualifications, and experience in healthcare administration. This position offers opportunities for career development and a supportive work environment.

Benefits

Childcare at day nursery

Generous holiday entitlement

Career development opportunities

Employee support services

Qualifications

• Proven secretarial and administrative experience.
• Good communication skills verbally and in writing.
• Experience with NHS administrative systems.

Responsibilities

• Manage patient appointments and communications.
• Support team members with administrative tasks.
• Handle confidential information with discretion.

Skills

Communication skills

IT skills

Organizational skills

Ability to work within a team

Ability to prioritize workload

Education

GCSEs Grade A-C including Maths and English

NVQ Level 3 in business administration or equivalent

Typing qualification to RSA stage II/OCR II or equivalent

ECDL or equivalent

Tools

Microsoft Office

Job description

Dietetics Team Secretary/Administrator

The closing date is 08 December 2025

Do you have excellent administrative skills? Would you like to work with and support a dynamic clinical team and provide excellent customer care to clients accessing our Nutrition & Dietetic Services?

You will work closely with and support a part time administrator and liaise regularly with our dietetic support workers.

Your job will include a variety of tasks, including registering patients, booking clinic appointments for a number of dietetic clinics, typing letters, managing the main telephone and email, handling and distributing referrals into the team, liaising with other departments and supporting all the teams within the department when necessary. You will also support the Head of Service and Team Leads by processing staff sickness and annual leave records as well as bank staff administration.

We are moving to a new electronic patient record in 2026, so an ability to embrace new technology and electronic systems is a required attribute.

Main duties of the job

To work closely with all members of the nutrition and dietetics team, and other employees of the Trust, providing efficient and high quality administrative support. To liaise and communicate with patients, carers, healthcare workers and other external agencies, demonstrating courtesy and respect at all times.

About us

Why Work With Us

Torbay Hospital provides acute care for the local community and has several community hospitals, and is a hot‑spot for those who are considering living by the sea or within half an hour of Dartmoor National Park and an hour to Exmoor National Park. Meanwhile, Plymouth and Exeter are also both within a short drive to enjoy the culture, maritime history and shopping experiences.

The wider Dietetic Team of 40 people (over 26 wte registered staff) covers services to Acute, Community, Paediatric, Diabetes, Weight Management and Cancer Services.

The team is flexible and promotes a healthy work/home life balance. Therefore, your package with us includes a lot more than just your pay.

Listed are a few of the additional benefits that are available to you as an employee:

• Childcare at our day nursery
• Generous Holiday Entitlement, starting at 27 days a year (for full time workers) plus bank/public holidays
• Staff Discounts
• Career development and training opportunities
• Employee Support - Staff have access to a 24‑hour helpline

Our people are caring, committed, inclusive and focussed on quality. We focus on solutions and people's strengths. We encourage outside the box thinking and embrace innovation and change wherever it can drive improvement.

If you share our values and vision and are passionate about working with people on what matters to them, you could be a real asset to Team Torbay and South Devon.

Job responsibilities

Communication and working relationships: Ensure patients are treated with courtesy, dignity and respect Communicate effectively verbally face to face, over the telephone, via email, electronic patient record and in writing with: Internal Dietitians and Dietetic Support Workers, Other team administrators, Other internal teams including ward staff, specialist nurses, medical secretaries, catering staff, Social care teams, External Patients and their families/caregivers, Members of the general public GP practices, Healthcare professionals from other Trusts, Nutrition company coordinators and reps.

Analytical and judgement: Ability to recognise and escalate any concerns about a parent or carer to clinical staff.

Planning and organisation: To plan, organise and prioritise own workload proficiently and effectively. To co‑ordinate dietetic outpatient clinics, ensuring that they are efficiently organised and the number of patients seen is optimised, using PAS/ICS system (to be superseded by EPIC). This includes booking of appointments and issuing appointment letters and sending other information required. With the support of the Administration Assistant ensure that all clinical and non‑clinical correspondence and reports are typed (using audio typing equipment), within local targets.

With the support of the Administration Assistant to undertake a variety of office duties, including filing, typing, dealing with telephone messages and monitoring office message book, opening and distributing post, enveloping letters, photocopying, printing documents and booklets, arranging collection and delivery of notes for storage, moving and lifting of patient notes to ensure efficient and effective support to the department. Together with the Dietetic Support Workers to maintain and update the department website, and provide colour photocopying and production of department diet sheets and written information for the team. To be responsible for printing and distribution of Friends and Family forms for clinicians to use at all outpatient clinics.

Physical skills: Manual dexterity for typing, Able to transport medical records, Able to move stationery items.

Patient and client care: To handle routine and non‑routine enquiries in an efficient manner and ensure appropriate follow‑through, using initiative to deal with all enquiries either verbally or in writing, or via secure email. Demonstrate empathy with clients, carers and families, and colleagues, ensuring that effective communication is achieved, particularly where barriers to understanding exist, and form productive relationships with others who may be under stress and/or have challenging communication difficulties.

Policy and service development: To identify areas for service improvement and support implementation. To follow and update Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for all aspects of the role.

Finance, equipment and other resources: To be responsible for ordering and maintaining stock of stationery items through the online procurement system (UNIT4) ensuring timely and economic supplies.

People management and training: To support the Administration Assistant in their role and ensure compliance with Standard Operating Procedures. To ensure mandatory training is kept up to date. To attend training for any new IT systems as required.

Information technology and administrative duties: To ensure that arrangements regarding annual leave for staff and cover arrangements are circulated appropriately and that clinical activities are amended accordingly, in liaison with the clinician. To assist in creating annual leave sheets for staff, as well as calculating and checking annual leave entitlements for team members. To input and verify on ESR, Temporary and Allocate (Bank Staff) any departmental staff absence, sickness, annual leave and study leave. To record authorised additional hours worked, on the relevant database, ensuring that procedures are followed and completed. To manage department diaries and appointments including meetings with outside nutrition company representatives. To use the relevant IT systems to register patients, make appointments, transfer medical records, create clinical letters, as required.

Freedom to act: Ensure patients are put at the heart of the service, provide and receive sensitive information and be able to respond to patients, carers and other service users (who may at times be distressed) tactfully and empathetically. Escalate unresolved matters appropriately to the Service Lead / Team Leader.

Person Specification

Qualifications and Training

• GCSEs Grade A-C including Maths and English
• NVQ Level 3 in a business admin‑related subject or equivalent Level 3 qualification
• Typing qualification to RSA stage II/OCR II or equivalent level of speed and accuracy (min 40 wpm)
• ECDL or equivalent
• Evidence of minute taking

Knowledge and experience

• Proven secretarial and administration experience
• Good communication skills with the ability to communicate effectively with patients, all grades of staff and external contacts, both verbally and in writing
• IT skills including knowledge of Microsoft Office software
• NHS admin and clerical experience
• Knowledge and experience of the Trust patient administrative and information systems

Specific Skills

• Ability to work as part of a team
• Ability to work on own initiative, prioritise own workload and achieve deadlines
• Ability to carry out duties in sometimes stressful and demanding situations
• Ability to maintain confidentiality

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.

Employer name

Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust