PALS Officer

NHS; Nottingham; On-site; GBP 26,000 - 27,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexi time

Training & development

Job summary

Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust is recruiting a PALS officer to support patients, relatives and carers, responding to enquiries and signposting to services. The role requires excellent written and spoken communication, empathy and the ability to manage a busy caseload.

You will work primarily at Queen's Medical Centre, with some duties at City Hospital, within a supportive Patient Experience & Engagement team. Salary is on the Band 3 scale with flexi-time options and full-time hours.

Qualifications

• Experience in working in a front facing customer service environment
• Previous NHS complaints or PALS experience
• Able to provide information to end users, tailoring information to facilitate understanding

Responsibilities

• Act as initial point of contact for patients requesting information or raising concerns
• Provide a confidential service for people who wish to discuss aspects of their care
• Respond to concerns and act as a facilitator to provide advice and direction
• Ensure all correspondence or patient contact is acknowledged within national guidance
• Refer patients to appropriate services and signpost to relevant wards or departments
• Maintain accurate documentation and records on Trust systems

Skills

Customer service

Excellent communication

Empathy and compassion

Tools

MS Outlook

MS Word

MS Excel

Job description

Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) is the biggest employer in Nottingham with over 19,000 staff

Main area Director - Nursing & Midwifery Grade Band 3 Contract Permanent Hours Full time - 37.5 hours per week (8.30am to 4.30pm Monday to Friday) Job ref 164-8069406

Site Queen's Medical Centre Town Nottingham Salary £25,760 - £27,476 per annum Salary period Yearly Closing 15/11/2026 23:59

Job overview

Are you looking for a job where you can support patients, staff and service users and use your exceptional customer care experience and communication skills? If so this may be the position for you.

The Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) at Nottingham University Hospital is looking to recruit a PALS officer. You will form part of the small, friendly and dedicated team to support patients, relatives and carers raising concerns and enquiries. Within this role you will often be the first point of contact; ideally placed to direct or signpost to relevant wards, departments or services.

The demands of the job are varied and require a strong communicator. You would be dealing with a range of service users who may at times be upset or challenging. If you can show compassion, empathy and sensitivity this role would be ideally suited to you.

If you can multi-task and have the ability to engage, listen and respond to queries within a fast-paced environment we would like to hear from you.

This role would suit someone with excellent typing skills, a very high standard of written communication as you need to record details on our Trust database systems and write emails, speaking to service users in person and by telephone.

We can offer you support and training if you can offer us a caring, compassionate manner and a willingness to work with our staff and service users.

Main duties of the job

In addition to the brief list above you must familiarise yourself with the full job description and person specification attached to this advert prior to applying.

Able to manage a caseload of PALS concerns and enquiries; multitasking in a busy environment.

Able to act with compassion and display empathy in sometimes challenging situations and difficult conversations.

Excellent typing ability and knowledge of Microsoft systems (outlook, word and Excel).

Able to manage face to face, walk in enquiries, telephone calls and emails, working in a fast paced environment.

Confident in liaising with Trust colleagues to aid resolution of concerns and enquiries.

A good working knowledge of Trust systems and processes.

Working for our organisation

You will be working with a very friendly team who pride ourselves in not only providing excellent service to patient, relatives and carers, we are incredibly supportive of each other.

You would be primarily based at QMC but may be required to work at the City Hospital.

Hours of work are 8.30 to 4.30 Monday to Friday. We have a flexi time system in place which allows for some flexible working, whilst maintaining our service.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Please refer to the job description and person specification attached to the advert for the full details of the vacancy.

To act as an initial point of contact for patient requesting information or raising concerns within the Trust.

Provide a confidential service for people who wish to discuss aspects of their care or treatment.

Respond to matters of concern which patients/carers may wish to raise and to act as a facilitator, providing advice, support and direction, ensuring that issues are resolved as quickly and efficiently as possible.

To act as a facilitator in relation to the concerns of patients, their carers and families and to negotiate immediate solutions or resolution of issues as speedily as possible.

To respond appropriately to the emotionally demanding aspects of dealing with patients/carers in distress, or with any unpredictable aggressive behaviour displayed by patients/carers/relatives unhappy about some aspect of their care or trust service.

To ensure all correspondence or patient contact is acknowledged within the national guidance and patients or their advocates are kept informed on developments in their case.

To provide information about Trust services and advice or guidance to complainants, respondents and Trust services on the NHS complaints procedure

To provide help to patients, carers and families in accessing Trust services, local and specialist advocacy services, or other voluntary services including interpreting services as appropriate.

To refer health record requests or similar appropriate issues to the Data Management Team.

To ensure patients are referred to external or special advocacy services either where requested to do so or where this is appropriate.

Ensure that comprehensive documentation is completed and filed securely for all clients where issues of concern have been raised or when referring a client on to other professionals.

To refer service users to the complaints process in line with national and local policy, ensuring that complaints are sent to the complaints team on receipt.

To build and maintain good relationships with clinical and non-clinical staff across directorates, departments and with external organisations to gain public and professional confidence.

To build and maintain good relationships with key stakeholders, service user groups and the local community.

Ensure the internal and external distribution of Patient Information as required.

Ensure Patient Information stock control processes including keeping the information centre stocked with books, booklets, leaflets, audio and visual productions.

To ensure that activity relating to the 4C’s is recorded onto the DATIX database.

To prepare reports identifying trends and lessons learnt to support improvements to service delivery.

Assist in the internal distribution of Patient Information as required.

Participate in the evaluation and monitoring of the Service.

Informal visits or calls in regard to this position are very welcome. We would very much like to hear from you if you have customer service experience. We believe you can offer us the type of skills and person we are seeking to fill this position.

Person specification

Training and qualifications

• ECDL

Experience

• Experience in working in a front facing customer service environment
• Previous NHS complaints or PALS experience

Communication and relationship

• Able to provide information to end users, tailoring the provision of information to facilitate understanding. Able to act as a facilitator in order to achieve a desired outcome. Able to be highly empathetic towards the concerns of patients and carers. Able to receive highly sensitive information and action it whilst taking account of confidentiality issues.

Analytical skills

• Able to receive and manage sensitive information and decide the most appropriate course of action.

Planning & organisational

• Able to priorities tasks and ensure timeframes are met

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Come and join our wonderful team at NUH. We are big believers in diversity and welcome new ideas to help develop our team in order to deliver world class healthcare to the vast patient populations we serve. With endless personal development opportunities available, at the NUH we will endeavour to turn your job into a career!

We particularly welcome applications from people who identify as Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic, or Disabled, as we are striving to be better represented at NUH.

Applicants are kindly requested to refrain from using AI at any stage during the recruitment process.

Closing Dates: Please submit your application form as soon as possible to avoid disappointment; we reserve the right to close vacancies prior to the published closing date if we receive a sufficient number of completed application forms.

Communication: All communication related to your application will be via the email address you have provided. Please ensure you check your email account including your junk email regularly.

Easy read application: If you have a disability and find online job applications difficult, you can use an easy read application form instead.

NUH are now able to offer application completion support and interview preparation support. Please follow the link to book onto our sessions: Support for NUH Job Applications

If you are aged 16 or 17 and applying for a role that is more than 20 hours a week, please be aware that you will be asked to commence an Apprenticeship within the Trust alongside your role, as long as there is a suitable apprenticeship standard available. This is in line with the current guidance in England that whilst young people under the age of 18 can leave school (on the last Friday in June) they must then do one of the following:

• Stay in full-time education, for example at a college
• Start an Apprenticeship
• Spend 20 hours of more a week working or volunteering, while in part-time education or training

Salary: The quoted salary will be on a pro rata basis for part time workers.

Disability Confidence: All applicants who have declared a disability and who meet the essential criteria for the post will be shortlisted.

At Risk of redundancy: NHS employees within the East Midlands who are ‘at risk’ of redundancy will be given a preferential interview where they meet the essential criteria of the person specification.

ID and Right to work checks : NUH authenticate ID and right to work documentation including passports and driving licenses through a system called Trust ID. NUH will scan your ID and right to work documentation in to the Trust ID system at your face to face ID appointment. The system will run a check against the key security features within your documentation. The system will provide us with an outcome of your check which will be stored securely on your personal file along with all other pre-employment check documentation.

Consent:

• Transfer of information: If I have previous NHS service - I consent to the transfer of my Electronic Staff Record (ESR) data between this and other NHS Trusts. I also consent to the Occupational Health Department confidentially accessing my occupational health records from my current or previous employer in order to check the status of my vaccinations, immunisations s and screening tests as relevant to the post. I understand this is an automated process and the information will only be used for these purposes prior to me taking up the position at NUH.
• Disclosure and Barring Service: Your post may be subject to a DBS check which incur a cost dependent on the level of check required (£41 for enhanced and £20 for standard). I agree to reimburse Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust the cost of a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check if it is required (by deduction from first month’s pay). Should I decide to withdraw from my job offer, I agree to reimburse Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust the cost of the DBS check undertaken by cheque or other agreed method.

For more information about our organisation and the career opportunities available, please visit our website and/or follow us on Instagram , Twitter and Facebook

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.

Name Ellie Dring Job title Matron Patient Experience & Engagement Email address [e-mail] Additional information

Ellie Dring

Matron for Patient Experience & Engagement/PALS & Complaints

[e-mail]