PALS Officer

Chesterfield Royal Hospital; Chesterfield; On-site; GBP 26,000 - 27,000; Full time

Job summary

Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in Chesterfield is recruiting a Patient Advice and Liaison (PALS) Officer to join the Patient Experience and Complaints Team in a temporary role of up to six months. This full‑time post may consider job share for the right candidate.

You will handle enquiries from patients and the public, log concerns, liaise with staff, and help resolve issues within Trust policies. GCSE English and Maths, excellent communication and good IT skills are essential.

Qualifications

• GCSE English and Maths or equivalent, plus IT and organisational skills.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
• Experience handling public enquiries and complaints is desirable.

Responsibilities

• Act as a compassionate point of contact for patients and service users.
• Log and triage enquiries to ensure timely resolution in line with Trust policy.
• Provide information and signposting to patients, relatives and staff.
• Support the Complaints Coordinator with data and reporting.

Skills

Communication

Customer care

Interpersonal skills

Telephone manner

Teamwork

Problem solving

Education

GCSE English

GCSE Maths

Microsoft Office training

Administration Training

Tools

Complaints management systems

Patient Administration Systems

Outlook/Excel

Job description

CRH offers a wide range of exciting and rewarding opportunities for people who are passionate about providing exceptional patient care.With more than 350 different careers on offer there is a job for you no matter what your interests, skills, or qualifications.

Site Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust Town Chesterfield Salary £25,760 - £27,476 per annum Salary period Yearly Closing 01/10/2026 23:59

Job overview

An exciting opportunity has arisen for an enthusiastic, resourceful and self-motivated Patient Advice and Liaison (PALS) Officer to join our Patient Experience and Complaints Team in a temporary role for a maximum of 6 months. This is a full time role, although job share will be considered for the right candidates.

Working as part of the Quality Governance Team, you will be responsible for ensuring an impartial, personal and effective PALS service is provided to patients, service users, relatives, carers, and Trust staff.

Main duties of the job

The PALS team provides an accessible and responsive service offering support and signposting for patients, relatives and members of the public who wish to raise queries or concerns about their care.

In this challenging post, you will work with patients, relatives and staff to ensure that complaints are resolved and improvement is embedded.

You will be educated to GCSE standard (or equivalent) in English Language & Maths with excellent communication, customer care, IT and organisational skills alongside outstanding interpersonal skills, a good telephone manner and the ability to work as part of a large multidisciplinary team.

You will have a good understanding of the NHS and experience of working with the public, including resolving issues and problems. Experience of working with complaints management systems is desirable.

We recognise that some situations you may be involved with are sensitive, complex and demanding, and we offer a supportive team environment within which you can expect supervision and personal development.

Interviews will be held in person at Chesterfield Royal Hospital.

Please be aware that we reserve the right to close the vacancy early should a high number of applications be received.

We recognise that AI tools can support application writing; however, candidates are asked to keep their use to a minimum as AI-generated content may result in generic answers that do not accurately represent your abilities.

Working for our organisation

CRH offers a wide range of exciting and rewarding opportunities for people who are passionate about providing exceptional patient care.

Our People Planshows how and why Chesterfield Royal Hospital is a great place to work. Our plan sets out our current position and outlines our priorities and the improvement actions that will help us achieve our
strategic aim of supporting and developing our
colleagues.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Key Result Areas

• To act as a compassionate point of contact for patients and other users of Trust services.
• To operate a frontline, patient facing service, taking details of complaints and raising these with relevant staff, to ensure they are dealt with in accordance with Trust Policy.
• To listen and respond to the concerns of service users relating to their experience of the Trust, explaining the options available for resolution and clarifying the outcomes sought.
• To obtain detailed information from service users, paying due care and attention to the sensitivity of their concerns, and to undertake investigation and follow-up action on their behalf.
• To ensure that issues raised with the PALS are responded to promptly and in accordance with timescales set out in Trust Policy.
• To use the Trust’s Risk Management System to record details of enquiries from service users.
• To liaise with divisions to ensure a timely and appropriate resolution is provided for complainants.
• To attend meetings as appropriate to the role.
• To undertake regular data quality checks on own work, so that the service can produce robust and detailed reports.
• To undertake data analysis and reporting as appropriate to the role, including in relation to overdue responses.
• To support divisions to review and track complaints as appropriate, including providing tracker reports.
• To support patients, carers and families access specialist advocacy, other voluntary or support services, including interpreting, as appropriate.
• To support the Complaints Coordinator with continuous improvement, including review of processes and tasks.
• To support the Assistance and Complaints Team to deliver education and training to key induction and education modules within the Trust.
• To actively promote the service to contribute to a learning culture and improve patient experience and safety.
• To support the Trust’s peer review process for complaints.
• To take comments from service users, ensure that they are acknowledged and recorded appropriately, and relayed to the relevant staff, service or division.
• To ensure that leaflets and other sources of information regarding sources of advice and support are available across the Trust.
• To ensure that issues which may involve a safeguarding concern or potential Police involvement are communicated to the Complaints Team Leader and Quality Lead for Patient Experience and Complaints and/or Quality Delivery Manager/Head of Quality Governance.
• To act as an ambassador for the Trust, maintaining a professional and calm demeanour.

Person specification

Qualifications and Training

• Educated to GCSE standard (or equivalent) in English Language
• Educated to GCSE standard (or equivalent) in Maths
• Microsoft Office training
• Administration Training

Experience

• Working with the public, including resolving issues and problems
• Experience of working in customer care
• Experience of communicating in sensitive situations
• Experience of working in an office environment
• Experience of working in a fast-paced environment
• Experience of working in a team
• Microsoft Office experience, including Outlook, Word and Excel
• Experience within a healthcare environment
• Experience of using complaints management / record systems
• Experience of using databases
• Experience of using Patient Administration Systems
• Experience of using Microsoft Teams

Skills and Knowledge

• Good understanding of the NHS
• Strong interpersonal and active listening skills
• Ability to work as part of a team as well as using own initiative
• Sensitivity towards the needs of others
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Excellent telephone manner
• Ability to communicate with staff at all levels
• Ability to communicate with patients/public from all backgrounds
• Ability to pass on information in a clear and diplomatic way
• Through, with attention to detail
• Problem-solving skills
• Ability to deal with a variety of tasks simultaneously
• Able to prioritise workload and consistently meet deadlines
• Understands equality, diversity and inclusion
• Understanding of the NHS Complaints Procedure and NHS Complaints Regulations (2009)
• Negotiation and mediation skills
• Awareness / understanding of consent processes

Personal Attributes

• Polite
• Patient and calm under pressure
• Reliable/trustworthy
• Resilient
• Non-judgemental approach
• Professional appearance
• Flexible to support the needs of the service

Proud to CARE Values

• Compassion
• Ambition
• Respect
• Encouragement
• Proud to CARE

Flexible Working

If you're looking for flexible or predictable working arrangements, please speak to us about how we might be able to accommodate this. If it works for our service and patients, we will do our best to make it work for you.

Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is committed to ensuring the safety of all our staff and patients therefore encourages and supports staff to be vaccinated against COVID19 as this remains the best line of defence against the virus.

UK Points-based immigration system

Applications from job seekers who require sponsorship to work in the United Kingdom (UK) are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. Please note that from 1 January 2021, to work in the UK all candidates who are not UK or Republic of Ireland (RoI) nationals require sponsorship unless you have permission to work via another route. Non UK / RoI candidates wishing to apply can self-assess the likelihood of obtaining a Certificate of Sponsorship here Work in the UK - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) .

It is vital that you provide full and accurate details of your current immigration status on the application form. Overseas applicants applying for entry clearance into the UK must present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided in continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

If you are applying for a vacancy in health or adult social care, you may be eligible to apply for the Health and Care Worker visa instead, which is cheaper to apply for and you do not need to pay the annual immigration health surcharge.

This role is part of the integrated health and social care community across Derbyshire, where there are many opportunities to work across different locations and providers developing new and different skills. Whilst this role is initially based in Chesterfield there may be future opportunities to be based at different locations within the health and social care community which we may talk to you about in the future.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

The postholder will have access to vulnerable people in the course of their normal duties and as such this post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Opening hours:8.30am-5pm, Monday-Friday