PALS & Complaints Officer | North Bristol NHS Trust

North Bristol NHS; Bristol; On-site; GBP 30,000 - 40,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading healthcare provider in Bristol is seeking a Complaints/PALS Officer. The role involves managing complaints and concerns to ensure a satisfactory resolution for all service users. Candidates should demonstrate empathy, strong communication skills, and experience in handling sensitive information. The position offers a chance to work in a dynamic environment aimed at improving patient experience.

Qualifications

• Experience dealing with complaints and enquiries.
• Ability to manage sensitive information confidentially.
• Strong interpersonal skills.

Responsibilities

• Manage complaints in accordance with guidelines.
• Liaise with patients and caregivers to resolve issues.
• Provide support to staff in complex cases.

Skills

Empathy

Communication

Problem-solving

Job description

To contribute to the delivery of an outstanding experience for all service users and their families, by supporting the resolution of enquiries, PALS concerns and complaints within agreed timescales, and the Trust’s wider Patient Experience engagement and feedback processes.

The key result areas of the post holder are:

• To effectively manage complaints in accordance with national guidance and local Trust policies and procedures.
• To facilitate speedy and informal resolution of enquiries raised by service users, their families and carers through liaison with Trust staff and other agencies.
• To provide information, advice and support to service users, their families and carers raising concerns through PALS. This includes providing information about local services, including voluntary and statutory agencies.
• To provide high quality guidance and support to divisions on resolving complaints and concerns. Supporting staff in complex cases where an independent approach would benefit both the patient and staff.
• To take a person‑centred approach to each case, ensuring internal processes and procedures are applied in a way that the patient understands and supports their needs.
• To identify trends and themes arising from complaints and to escalating this to senior managers for consideration.
• To record, progress and assist in case managing complaints and concerns to achieve accurate and timely responses. Ensuring good communication with the complainant throughout.

North Bristol NHS Trust employs over 12,000 staff providing healthcare to the residents of Bristol, South Gloucestershire and North Somerset from our award‑winning hospital building at Southmead. We are the regional Major Trauma Centre, and an internationally recognised centre of excellence in a range of services and major specialities. Our vision is that by enabling our teams to be the best that they can be, we will provide exceptional healthcare, personally delivered.

North Bristol NHS Trust values all people as individuals. We aim to be an anti‑discriminatory organisation and are committed to building a team that represents a variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and skills. We welcome applicants from all under‑represented groups.

Day‑to‑day tasks include:

• Acting as one of the Complaints/PALS Officers, dealing with a caseload of both formal complaints, PALS concerns and enquiries.
• Responding to patients, their carers or relatives by telephone, email and face‑to‑face, to investigate the issues whilst involving key staff in order to reach a satisfactory resolution.
• Working closely with patients/service users, understanding their concerns/complaints, desired outcomes and discussing and agreeing options and timescales for resolution in line with the Parliamentary Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) principles and NHS Complaint Regulations.
• Advising those patients that wish to formally complain of the Trust’s complaints process and signposting to and offering independent advocacy services.
• Handling complaints enquiries in a polite, sympathetic and empathetic way, giving reassurances that all enquiries will be handled in confidence.
• Case‑managing concerns and all complaints allocated by the Complaints & PALS Manager, working to national and local protocols, policies and procedures.
• Keeping confidential records in line with Trust Policy and assisting with monitoring and evaluation of complaints in accordance with the Caldicott recommendations and the Data Protection Act, and referring all enquiries concerning MPs and the PHSO to a senior manager.
• Acting as a frontline point of contact for patients, carers, service users and key partners including GPs.
• On Radar, logging accurately all contacts and recording actions taken in order to reach a conclusion that is satisfactory to the service user.
• Identifying those concerns that meet the thresholds of other Trust policies such as safeguarding, serious incidents, duty of candour and escalating them to the Complaints & PALS Manager.
• Supporting the Patient Experience agenda and strategy alongside the wider Nursing and Quality agendas.
• Maintaining a basic knowledge of Trust policies and procedures and developments.
• Building and maintaining good relationships with local partners and stakeholders.
• Supporting the collection of patient experience data, both electronic and paper‑based.
• Attending complaints resolution meetings and other meetings as required.
• Ensuring that service users, their relatives and carers have access to information about the complaints process and PALS.
• Providing high quality and high level support and advice to divisions in the handling of complaints.
• Obtaining and receiving all documentation relating to each complaint or PALS concern from divisions, scrutinising the Radar record to ensure complete records and that all issues are addressed.
• Monitoring timescales for dealing with complaints and PALS concerns, identifying delays and causes for delays, and highlighting these to the Complaints & PALS Manager.
• Additional duties as required/detailed by Patient Experience Manager in relation to supporting the team.

This advert closes on Thursday 27 Nov 2025.