Patient Liaison and Communications lead

Beacon Medical Group; Plymouth; On-site; GBP 30,000 - 40,000; Full time

Job summary

A healthcare provider in Plymouth is seeking a Patient Liaison and Communication Lead to manage patient communication and complaints, ensuring effective engagement with patients and service quality. The ideal candidate will have a degree, strong communication skills, and experience in conflict resolution. This role is an exciting opportunity to contribute to primary care excellence and patient experience improvement.

Benefits

Opportunities for professional development

Supportive team environment

Qualifications

• Strong experience in handling patient feedback and complaints.
• Able to work collaboratively with diverse groups and stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Manage the complaint resolution process efficiently.
• Develop and manage effective communication with stakeholders.
• Promote services through social media and newsletters.

Skills

Excellent interpersonal skills

Strong communication skills

Conflict resolution

Organizational skills

Education

Educated to degree or equivalent level

Health Promotion qualification/training

Job description

We are seeking a compassionate, organised and proactive individual to join our practice as a Patient Liaison and Communication Lead. You will be responsible for the practice's engagement with our large patient group, creating effective communication and sharing practice updates through newsletters, social media and in-person engagement events including acting as the practice liaison with our Patient Participation Group.

The post holder will be designated complaints lead for the practice and will be responsible for managing and resolving patient complaints efficiently ensuring a high standard of patient care and service quality, contributing to the learning culture across the practice.

You will act as a liaison between patients, clinical staff and management to address concerns and improve patient services and patient experience. You will possess excellent listening and interpersonal skills, including the ability to effectively manage relationships, demonstrate empathy and act impartially and with tact when dealing with complaints and feedback.

The post holder will be responsible for the practice communication with patients including maintaining the practice website, social media platforms and in-person events.

The post holder will need to be confident, friendly and have an excellent rapport with service users and be committed to shaping and delivering excellence in primary care.

Main duties of the job

The post holder will report to the Director of Operations and is responsible for developing and managing effective communication with our internal and external stakeholders. The role will manage patient and family feedback, complaints and compliments, and qualitative feedback from surveys. Be responsive in the review of patient feedback, capturing and analysing patient feedback and identifying areas for improvement striving for excellence in clinical care and patient satisfaction. Playing an active role in the organisation's improvement and learning culture, developing improvement plans with service leads. The post holder will work closely with colleagues, service users, carers, the general public and other partners to ensure messages including health promotion, health and wellbeing services and service changes are proactively promoted internally and externally, and key stakeholders remain engaged. Marketing our services through social media, the group's website, in the surgery and face to face, forging constructive two-way relationships with patient groups and other local organisations including facilitating the local patient groups.

Please ensure that your application is entirely your own original work. Applications found to be generated by artificial intelligence (AI) will not be considered.

Interviews will be held w/c 27/10/25 with a presentation to prepare prior to the interview. This question will be asked with interview invitations.

About us

Beacon Medical Group Practice is a single practice, Primary Care Network (PCN), providing care to 43,000 patients across Plympton and the South Hams. We are a team of Partners, Salaried GPs, Paramedics, Clinical Pharmacists, Pharmacy Technicians, Practice and specialist Nurses, HCAs, Phlebotomists, First Contact Physios, Social Prescribers, Advanced Clinical Practitioners, Clinical Practitioners and Administrative support staff. Our mission is to give all our patients the right care, at the right time, in the right place. We are a forward thinking partnership always looking for opportunities to improve services for our patients. We have a good reputation for delivering good healthcare, leading at scale and innovating primary care services. This is a really exciting time to be joining us as we diversify our teams, our partnership and services.

If you join our team; you will receive support, opportunities to grow in your role, training, and work with colleagues who care about you.

Job responsibilities

To be an effective, accessible, and confidential support to service users and carers offering advice, support, and rapid resolution to clinical or other through liaison with appropriate Partners, managers, staff, service users and carers.

To gather and respond to comments and compliments and manage the complaint resolution process to agreed guidelines and in line with National Policy.

Regularly liaise and if necessary, jointly work more complex cases with Healthwatch and other advocacy groups.

Build and maintain good relationships with clinical and non-clinical staff across the group to facilitate the complaints process and resolve problems, providing guidance to support other team members with complaint investigation.

Provide quarterly complaints reports and learning opportunities, suggesting improvements where appropriate to the Board and Managers.

Communicate effectively and sensitively in difficult or emotive situations, and sometimes political environments, with complainants, their families, advocates and staff

Manage the complaint resolution process from initial concern to outcome, providing accessible support to the individual throughout the complaints process, through one-to-one meetings, telephone conversations and in written form ensuring their needs are best met with reference to the Equality Act

Empower individuals to communicate their issues, providing access in a variety of formats and delivering responses in appropriate formats including in clear English in line with easy read responses.

Identify themes and trends that emerge through patient feedback such as online consultation, You and Your General Practice, Friends and Family and other surveys to support and influence future service direction and improve quality services.

Monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of the complaints process and suggest improvements.

Maintain an accurate and comprehensive complaints log and learning log, ensuring that the organisation has a clear structured RAG rating system for review of complaints. Sharing information through operational meetings and facilitating a learning culture across the practice to constantly support the improvement of services delivered.

Respond to external requests for complaints data from NHS England and the Commissioners regarding complaints within the specified time period.

Handle complex and sensitive data, always ensuring adherence to the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), the Access to Health Records Act, and relevant compliance with Care Quality Commission (CQC) complaints standards.

To undertake other duties appropriate to the grading of the post as required.

Must be able to work flexible hours.

External Communication:

This post will establish a network of contacts and relationships as part of their engagement and communications role.

Act as the main focal point for the local patient participation group (PPG) and other community groups linked to the practice.

Support practice patient participation groups, liaising monthly with the relevant chair on practice issues and attending and supporting meetings when requested. Update the virtual PPG quarterly.

Provide a quarterly overview to the PPG of general trends around patient feedback.

Lead in the production of marketing materials, including leaflets, posters and newsletters in keeping with Beacon's brand to promote specific services for a range of stakeholders

Ensure Beacon meets statutory and regulatory requirements, including Patient Information Standards

Ensuring the reputation of Beacon is protected and promoted through events and publicity materials

Be responsible for managing the development and content of Beacon's website and social media channels, ensuring they are lively, engaging, informative and appropriately targeted at the broad range of stakeholders

Oversee the management and planning of Beacon's social media accounts to raise awareness of local activities, campaigns and services, including private services

Develop a proactive approach to gathering good news stories and case studies, and converting these into news stories to be used internally and externally to promote the work of the organisation

Deliver media monitoring, as well as tracking reach of website, social media messages and respond accordingly.

To work with the Patient Communications Assistant to develop public-facing health campaigns and information activities linked to local, regional or national initiatives to maximise patient reach and practice income, e.g. flu awareness, carer services

To develop content on the Beacon website that helps patients and carers to engage in more self-care and shared decision making

To prepare regular patient newsletters

Internal Communications:

Working with the HR officer to deliver the internal communications plan.

Manage the Beacon Newsletter for staff. On a monthly basis in collaboration with the Junior Content Producer Apprentice.

Introduce and manage the new staff intranet.

Supporting the organisation and promotion of internal events, to include conferences, roadshows, presentations

Promoting organisational values and the Beacon and NHS brand to staff

Health and Safety:

Ensure all members of staff comply with the Group's health and safety policy

Carry out risk assessments to comply with current Health and Safety legislation

Ensure any health and safety concerns are reported to the Operations Manager

To be aware of and adhere to applicable practice rules, regulations, legislation and procedures, national legislation (Health and Safety, COSHH, Data Protection).

Equality and Diversity:

The post-holder will support the equality, diversity and rights of patients, carers and colleagues

Act in a way that recognises the importance of people's rights, interpreting them in a way that is consistent with group processes and policies and current legislation

Respecting the privacy, dignity, needs and beliefs of patients, carers and colleagues

Behaving in a manner that is welcoming, non-judgemental and respects the individuals circumstances, feelings, priorities and rights

The details contained in this job description are not exhaustive and may change as the post develops.

Governance:

Identify and record risks and issues, developing contingency plans with service and contract leads

Ensure the PCN is compliant with health and safety policies and procedures to reflect current best practice

Ensure that the PCN board and Clinical director adhere to the governance structure as set out in the network agreement

Confidentiality:

To maintain confidentiality of information acquired in the course of undertaking duties for the practice.

The details contained in this job description are not exhaustive and may change as the post develops.

Person Specification

Experience

• Able to demonstrate recent experience of working in the health, social care or voluntary sector
• Experience of investigating and responding to complaints and provide solutions
• Ability to analyse complex complaint and patient feedback and evidence findings
• Experience of resolving conflict relating to complaints and concerns
• Strong communication skills, written and verbal.
• Experience of working with and communicating with vulnerable people
• Experience of delivering creative and imaginative approaches to working with diverse audiences and subjects
• Experience of collaborative working, facilitating relationships and partnerships
• Considerable experience of delivering an excellent service to customers in a pressurised environment
• Good knowledge of community engagement and/or health sector
• Evidence of working with social media and websites in delivering media to patients and interested stakeholders
• Experience of working in Primary Care
• Experience of working with volunteers
• Experience of developing health promotion materials
• Experience of providing training/teaching, including facilitation of groups in a training or workshop environment.
• Experience of line management, HR procedures and conducting 1:1 and appraisals.

Qualifications

• A good standard of education to include written English at GCSE grade C (5) or above or equivalent.
• Evidence of continued professional development
• Qualification, or equivalent relevant experience in complaints or customer care
• Educated to degree or equivalent level
• Health Promotion qualification/training or courses undertaken.

Skills

• Highly developed negotiating and influencing skills, overcoming barriers to understanding and acceptance and reaching agreements.
• Excellent organisation, communication, and interpersonal skills, including empathetic/sensitive to others
• Strong IT Skills, including word processing and database
• Excellent communication skills including ability to listen, to discuss and to inform clearly; ability to record in writing both clearly and accurately; ability to produce reports with accuracy
• Ability to work under pressure and with a flexible attitude to work
• Able to take an overview, prioritise effectively
• Ability to relate to people and build effective working relationships within and across teams
• Able to manage conflict.
• Knowledge of website content management and social media systems
• Able to scan and assimilate information relating to health and social care in order to provide effective campaigns and social media coverage for patients and interested parties
• Experience of working in a public sector complaints liaison or communications role
• Demonstrable use of online communication systems such as WordPress, Google Analytics and social media systems
• Knowledge of local service delivery structures and systems
• Able to demonstrate empathy with both complainant perspectives and staff perspectives and to reach and communicate objective judgement.

Other

• Willingness to be flexible and able to work some unsociable hours including evening and weekend work.
• Has the ability to travel between practice sites for cross site working
• The candidate must demonstrate an understanding of our values.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.