Emergency Medical Advisor (999 Call Handler) - Crawley (Band 3) - 999, Call Handler, NHS, Ambul[...]

South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust; Crawley; On-site; GBP 24,000 - 26,000; Full time

Job summary

Join a forward-thinking organization dedicated to providing high-quality emergency care. As a 999 Emergency Call Handler, you will be the vital first contact for patients in distress, ensuring they receive the appropriate care. This role requires compassion, excellent communication skills, and the ability to work under pressure. You will undergo comprehensive training in a supportive environment, preparing you for the challenges of emergency response. With competitive pay, flexible hours, and a commitment to staff well-being, this is an exciting opportunity to make a real difference in your community.

Benefits

35 days annual leave

Unsocial hours enhancements

Free parking

Flexible working hours

Training and development

Salary Sacrifice schemes

Access to occupational health

Enhanced DBS check

Qualifications

• Educated to GCSE level with Maths, English, and ICT skills.
• Experience in customer service and working with the public.

Responsibilities

• First point of contact for emergency calls, ensuring accurate information.
• Provide advice and reassurance to callers in distressing situations.

Skills

Communication Skills

Empathy

Problem Solving

Typing Skills

Education

GCSE or Functional Skills Level

Level 2 in Customer Service or Health and Social Care

Tools

NHS Pathways System

Computer Systems

Job description

Main area 999, Call Handler, NHS, Ambulance, Contact Centre, Call Centre, Customer Service Grade Band 3 Contract Permanent Hours

• Full time
• Part time

37.5 hours per week (Minimum 23 hours per week) Job ref 278-999CHC-2804-JG

Employer South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust Employer type NHS Site Crawley Emergency Operations Centre Town Crawley Salary £24,071 - £25,674 per annum NHS Agenda for Change Section 2 + NHS Unsocial Hours Salary period Yearly Closing 11/05/2025 23:59

Emergency Medical Advisor (999 Call Handler) - Crawley

Band 3

South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SECAmb) has a vision to ‘support our staff to provide a caring, high quality and efficient urgent and emergency care service to our communities’. We are rated ‘Good’ for care by the Care Quality Commission and while the other areas under their most recent report require improvement, our aim is to continually improve and to reach outstanding across all areas of the Trust.

Our 4,000+ workforce provide services to 4.9m people across Kent, Surrey, Sussex and North East Hampshire. We handle over 1 million calls to 999 and 1 million calls to NHS 111 every year. More information regarding our services and locations can be found on our website.

Job overview

Your NHS needs YOU!

Why apply for this role?

Our 999 Emergency Call Handlers (Emergency Medical Advisors) are people just like you: people who have come to us from all walks of life, from different backgrounds and age groups, people who all have the same things in common.

You are the first person our patients speak to when they call 999 in an emergency.

What makes a great 999 Emergency Call Handler (Emergency Medical
Advisor)?

• Our 999 Emergency Call Handlers are all caring and empathetic
• They all have great communication skills
• They're all happy and able to work flexibly

Main duties of the job

As a SECAmb 999 Emergency Call Handler, you are the first point of contact and are responsible for ensuring the correct information is obtained from the caller, whilst offering advice or re-assurance sometimes under difficult circumstances. You will enter details into a computer system about the patient and their condition which categorises the seriousness of their illness or injury to ensure the patient receives the most appropriate care from us, this may be an emergency ambulance response, a telephone assessment by a clinician, a referral to an alternative care pathway or self care advice.

We will provide full training in a warm, friendly environment in our Emergency Call Centres.

• 9 weeks full time training
• Is full time, even for part time applicants
• Has a ‘must’ attend policy due to you obtaining your Pathways licence. Time off cannot be taken during the training period.
• Comprises of 3 weeks of Monday to Friday classroom training, then observing and mentoring periods within the working environment for a further 6 weeks before you go “live”.
• Is designed to fully support full transition to call handling independently

Working for our organisation

As we are a 24/7 service, this role will involve working a varied shift pattern including earlies, lates, nights and weekends on a rota pattern. These rotas are fixed to ensure a safe provision to our patients. If you have a requirement to work nights ONLY, this can also be catered for.

For a detailed insight in the Call Handler role, please see the information slides attached to this advert.

What we can offer you:

• Competitive salary of £24,071 - £25,674 with the earning potential of up to £30,000 per annum.
• Unsocial hours enhancements - For all hours that you work between 8pm and 6am Monday – Friday and all-day Saturday you will earn a shift bonus which means you will earn approximately £16.62 per hour. For Sundays and Public Holidays, you will earn approximately £20.80 per hour.
• 35 days’ annual leave inclusive of Bank Holidays (pro rata)
• Flexible working hours on a rota pattern
• Free parking
• Staff networks
• Training and development
• Salary Sacrifice schemes for cars or push bikes
• Access to occupational health
• Enhanced DBS check

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The role of an Emergency 999 Call Handler (Emergency Medical Advisor)

When you dial 999, your call goes through to a call handler based in one of our 2 Emergency Operation Call Centres. These staff are trained to use the NHS Pathways system to provide assistance in a variety of situations, from minor illness to life threatening situations. The assistance you will provide will range from offering lifesaving advice whilst an ambulance is on route, to directing callers to other more suitable services.

This role can be demanding, challenging, and ultimately very rewarding however, it's not for everyone. Applicants will need to have a range of skills to be able to deal with often stressful and emotional situations, whilst also demonstrating compassion and empathy to all callers, no matter what the situation.

• Successful applicants demonstrate high levels of personal commitment to facilitate the delivery of a patient-focused service
• We need individuals who have the drive and passion to make a difference to people’s lives, but also the personal resilience to work in a high-pressured environment
• You will need to be able to work well within a team and independently, have fast/accurate typing skills and a good standard of education or equivalent experience
• This role is suited to people who remain calm under pressure, good at problem solving and have excellent interpersonal skills, with an empathetic nature

Further Information

The interview process will consist of 6 Multi Mini Interview's (MMI's) a Call listening element and a tour of the Emergency Operations Centre.

You will be required to complete an online Psychometric Test prior to the assessment day.

All successful applicants will be required to undertake an Enhanced DBS check for adults and children.

Person specification

Qualifications

• Educated to GCSE or Functional Skills level and possesses a fundamental level of Maths, English and ICT skills OR Evidence within previous employment that they have used Maths and English to GCSE level or higher
• Level 2 in Customer Service or Health and Social Care

Experience

• Previous experience working and communicating with the public
• Ability to communicate with a variety of different people and build rapport
• Experience of working in a computer based role - strong IT skills
• Previous experience working in a team or with stakeholders across a range of settings

Please note that the salary range noted on the vacancy is in line with agenda for change (AFC) pay scales. All successful applicants would be placed automatically at the bottom of the banding, unless proven, relevant NHS or equivalent experience can be demonstrated.

Following the revision of current national legislation (Vaccine as a Condition of Deployment), the Trust has reviewed our requirements relating to staff uptake of the SARS-COV-2 (COVID-19) vaccination.

Going forward, for patient facing positions, we strongly recommend that new starters will be appropriately vaccinated unless medically exempt in order to offer greater protection against exposure to the virus for front line staff.

In line with this recommendation, if you are successful in your application for a front line post, we will seek information from you in relation to your vaccine status, including exemption status, as applicable.

Please note, all positions come with a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check relevant to the post. This will either be a basic, standard, or enhanced check depending on the role. The level of check will be outlined in the conditional offer letter sent to successful applicants.

As part of the application process, you will be asked to declare any unspent/unfiltered convictions. If you are shortlisted you will then be sent a self declaration form, which must be completed prior to attending interview. for any queries relating to declarations, please contact the Recruitment Advisor listed on the vacancy.

The Trust is passionately committed to being an inclusive employer - a place where we can all be ourselves and succeed. As an employer we offer a range of family friendly, inclusive employment policies, flexible working arrangements, staff engagement networks, facilities and services to support staff from different backgrounds.

We actively support equality of opportunity for all our staff and welcome applications from individuals regardless of age, any disability, sex, gender reassignment, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief. The Trust is making progress towards its aim of becoming more reflective of the diversity of our community in our workforce and guarantees an interview to candidates with disability who meet the essential criteria specified. We particularly encourage applications from Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic and disabled applicants and those from other under-represented groups.

The Equality Act 2010 protects disabled people - including those with long term health conditions, learning disabilities and hidden disabilities such as dyslexia. If you tell us that you have a disability we can make reasonable adjustments to ensure that any selection processes - including the interview - are fair and equitable.

We are a committed to offering opportunities to individuals with disabilities and offer on-going support, should you be successful, with any adjustments you may need when performing your role.

When completing the application please use your name as it appears on your passport and please ensure you include email addresses and contact numbers for your referees to avoid delay in the recruitment process.

Please note that under our Trust policies, we're unable to employ anyone under the age of 18 years old.

The majority of our roles will include some travel between sites for business purposes. If the vacancy you’re applying for includes work related travel, you will be required to ensure that you hold and have covered the cost of suitable car insurance to support this.

Should you require an application form in an alternative format including large print or braille, please contact [e-mail] stating the vacancy reference number and we will be happy to provide this.

When completing the reference section, please include details to cover the last three years’ history.

Due to the high volume of applications at SECAmb, we regret that we will only be able to contact those applicants who are shortlisted for interview. If you have not heard from us within 10 working days of the closing date, then please assume you have not been shortlisted for interview on this particular occasion.

Please note that we contact all applicants via Trac Jobs and would advise you check your Trac Jobs account regularly.

Please be aware that the Trust reserves the right to close this vacancy early if sufficient applications are received. For this reason we recommend completing your application as early as possible.

Follow our recruitment on Twitter @SECAmbRecruit and check out our Facebook page - SECAmb NHS Recruitment. You can also find us on Linkedin under South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust.

If you are a current SECAmb employee, by applying for this position, if successful you will move to the terms and conditions associated with the post. Any unsocial hours payments will be paid under the Section 2 agreement of agenda for change. Section 2 unsocial hours will need to be claimed via your monthly timesheet. More information regarding section 2 can be found in the Agenda for Change handbook and on theour dedicatedSection 2 page on The Zon e.

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.