Patient Experience and Complaints Manager

The Owl Centre Ltd; Pontypool; Hybrid; GBP 42,000 - 56,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid & Home working

25 days annual leave

Job summary

The Owl Centre Ltd in Pontypool seeks a Patient Experience and Complaints Manager to lead our complaints and patient experience service. You will work with patients to resolve concerns, ensuring their voices are heard and insights inform service improvements.

You will oversee governance, data, and reporting while protecting confidentiality and regulatory compliance. You will collaborate with teams across the organisation to deliver person-centred interventions, train staff, and drive continuous

Qualifications

• Degree-level qualification in Healthcare Management, Business Administration, Health Studies, Law, or Social Science, or equivalent experience.
• Extensive experience in regulated health or social care settings, navigating complaints processes.

Responsibilities

• Lead complaints and patient experience function as Complaints Manager, ensuring compliant, patient-centred service.
• Identify issues from patient feedback and coordinate fixes with internal teams to enhance experience.

Skills

Communication

Presentation skills

Training delivery

Stakeholder management

Education

Degree in Healthcare/Health-related field

Job description

Patient Experience and Complaints Manager

Pontypool

As the Patient Experience and Complaints Manager , you will play a vital, compassionate role in supporting the day-to-day running of our complaints and patient experience service. You will work closely with our patients to quickly and gently resolve their concerns, ensuring their voices are truly heard and that we use their feedback to improve the care we provide . You will work closely with the client journey team and colleagues across The Owl , making sure every enquiry is handled in a person-centred way that meets our patients' needs. While always keeping our patients at the heart of the service, you will help us maintain a safe, high-quality environment by ensuring we meet all essential statutory requirements. You will also support our wider teams by sharing meaningful insights and data, helping everyone to continuously enhance the services that support our community. Above all, you will be a dedicated advocate for our patients, confidently highlighting and escalating any concerns to protect their wellbeing and ensure they always feel supported.

What will I be doing?

Strategic LeadershipandGovernance

• Lead and developThe Owl’scomplaints and patient experience function by acting as our designated Complaints Manager and keeping all policies carefully updated, ensuring we always provide a legally compliant, safe service that truly supports our community.
• Identifyissues with patientexperienceand feedback to internal teams (such as the Change or Engineering teams)to review, create, and implement fixes to enhance the patient experience.
• Manage a varied and complex caseload of patient enquiries by triagingconcernsfor investigation, helping us to resolve issues either quickly at the frontline or through thorough, fair, and evidence-basedpractice.
• Craft high-quality written responses bymaintainingclear, transparent communication with patients and their families, keeping them informed of progress and next steps so they feel respected, heard, and supported throughout the entire process, in line with our SLA’s.
• Facilitate supportive meetings between patients, theircarers,and ourcolleaguesby offering a safe space for open discussion, allowing us to collaboratively address dissatisfaction and find meaningful, person-centred resolutions.
• Empower our internal teams by designing and delivering engaging training programmes and coaching sessions, building their confidence to compassionately resolve issues at the earliestopportunityand fostering a genuine culture of continuous service recovery.
• Collaborate closely with colleagues and service managers across the organisation by creatingtargetedaction plans based on investigation outcomes, ensuring that any lessons learned are actively embedded into our everyday practices to improve the overall patient journey.
• Oversee the careful management of complaint records using our IT systems (such as NEST) by accurately tracking all actions, outcomes, and timescales, ensuring wemaintainstrictpatient confidentiality and meet all GDPR and Data Protection Act requirements.
• Produce insightful performance reports and dashboards for ourExecutive Team, the Board, and external bodies by analysing complaint trends, providing our senior leadership with the vital data they need to drive long-term, positive service improvements.
• Protect our most vulnerable individuals by proactivelyidentifyingwhen complaints raise safeguarding, clinical safety, or legal concerns, escalating these promptly through the right channels so that we always uphold our duty of candour and keep our patients safe.
• Maintain effective, professional relationships with external bodies such as theCare Quality Commission (CQC),Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO), ICAS, and legal representatives by coordinating transparent reviews and carefully managing any necessary pauses in the process, ensuring we meet all regulatory obligations seamlessly.

You’resomeone who has:

• A relevant degree-level qualification (in a subject such as Healthcare Management, Business Administration, Health Studies, Law, or Social Science), or an equivalent level of rich, practical experience gained through hands-on work in a similar role.
• Extensive, practical experience working within a regulated health or social care setting, bringing a thorough and working knowledge of how to carefully navigate complaints processes specifically within these environments.
• A track recordof thoughtful and versatile communication,demonstratingyour ability to write clear, accessible information for seniorstakeholders, alongside practical experience in designing and delivering engaging presentations and training sessions to a wide variety of audiences.
• A calm and objective approach to high-pressure situations, showing an ability tomaintainyour professional warmth and clarity when navigating emotionally complex or challenging conversations.
• A genuine dedication to continuous learning and service improvement,evidencedby your past commitment to actively taking on board feedback and implementing gentle, effective changes to enhance the care patients receive.

You’re someone who is:

• Empathetic and constructively focusedinthe face of conflict, able to managehighly sensitive, complex issues by bringing a calming, professional presence to difficult conversations and gently guiding patients, families, andour colleaguestowards collaborative resolutions.
• Highly organised and self-directed, capable of independently planning your own work and prioritising a demanding, varied caseload to ensure that every patient receives a thoughtful,timely, and high-quality outcome.
• A strategic and culturally driven leader, able to takeThe Owl’swider vision for the patient experience and translate it into practical, everyday steps that positively influence how senior leaders andourfrontline teamsprovide support.
• Agreatcommunicator,who combinesanalyticalskillswith ex cellent report-writingto turn complaint data into clear, meaningful themes thatourExecutive Team can easily use to improve our services.
• Grounded in regulatory knowledge,demonstratinga thorough understanding of NHS and CQC complaint standards, alongside strict dataprotectionand confidentiality legislation, ensuring you always guide the team safely, ethically, and compliantly.
• Experienced in thorough, fair case management, bringing acompellingbackground in patient experience or investigations where you can clearlydemonstrateyour ability to actively listen, gather evidence impartially, and advocate for a restorative, person-centred approach.

What you'll get:

Being part a purpose led organisation, with strong values at the heart of everything we do.

Working alongside our exceptional clinical leadership team and colleagues.

The opportunity to do amazing work with our charity 'Waiting Well'

50% off assessments, making Autism & ADHD assessments more accessible for you and your family.

Great leave benefits package includes 25 days of annual leave, increasing by 1 day after only 1 year service up to a maximum of 30 days, your birthday off, and a 'you do you' day to spend on yourself.

Hybrid & Home working offering the perfect blend of flexibility and in-person collaboration!

Growth opportunities, as we grow our teams.

Protected time to connect with colleagues.

You’re someone who connects with our values:

We are one team

We are reliable

We are creative

We are passionate

Don’t be put off if you cannot tick all the boxes. We know that candidates can be put off applying if you don’t feel you are a 100% there, but we would still love to hear from you! We get that a diverse workforce makes a great workforce, this is the reason we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive culture where our people can turn up, be themselves & thrive.

We want you to be as relaxed as possible during our selection journey which may require an adjustment to our process. We encourage you to be open about what you need so we can adapt and allow you to thrive.

Closing Date: 18th September

Interviews: W/C 28th September

We may close this vacancy earlier than the advertised closing date if we receive a high volume of suitable applications. To avoid disappointment, we encourage you to submit your application as soon as possible.

A note on AI usage

We recognise that using Artificial intelligence (AI) tools in applications is becoming increasingly common. We welcome anything that creates a more inclusive recruitment process and supports candidates from all backgrounds to thrive.

If you do choose to use AI, we gently ask that you ensure all the skills, qualifications, and employment history you list are an accurate reflection of you and your background. The application stage is our first impression of you, so we really want to see your personality and voice shine through!

If you're invited to interview, we'll use the conversation to explore your background, experiences and motivations in more detail. Whether you've used AI to help shape your application or not, what matters most is that the content is an honest reflection of you and that you're able to speak confidently about your experience in person.