People Services Advisor

North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust; Carlisle; On-site; GBP 30,000 - 40,000; Full time

Job summary

A regional healthcare organization in Carlisle is seeking a People Services Advisor to support employee relations and assist managers in compliance with policies. The role involves providing coaching, facilitating investigations, and promoting a positive workplace culture. Candidates should possess a degree, experience in HR, and strong interpersonal skills. This position offers career progression within an inclusive and diverse working environment. A commitment to continuous professional development is essential, along with a passion for enhancing the NHS employee experience.

Benefits

27-day holiday scheme rising to 33 after 10 years

NHS Discounts

Salary Sacrifice schemes

Confidential counselling service

Qualifications

• Understanding of the national NHS agenda and the HR contribution to it.
• Knowledge of employment legislation and HR practices.
• Experience dealing with employment relations including disciplinaries and grievances.

Responsibilities

• Support managers with employee relations cases and policy compliance.
• Assist in investigations and provide coaching to managers.
• Develop partnerships between managers, clinicians, and staff.

Skills

Effective interpersonal skills

Excellent written, verbal and interpersonal skills

Analytical and data interpretation skills

Coaching skills

Negotiation and influencing skills

Education

Degree level qualification or equivalent experience

CIPD Level 5 qualification or equivalent experience

Postgraduate Diploma in HRM or equivalent relevant professional qualification

Tools

Microsoft Office applications

Job description

Go back North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust.

People Services Advisor

The closing date is 23 January 2026.

This is an exciting opportunity to take part in People Services Business Partnering for North Cumbria Integrated NHS Foundation Trust - a challenging position, critical in supporting the way we care for staff who experience difficulties at work, whether in respect of their conduct, performance, interpersonal relationships (including bullying and harassment) sickness absence or other concerns.

A core element of the role will be to support managers in complying with policy and best practice, coaching and advising on employee relations cases, and providing advice to managers at all levels, ensuring the implementation of an inclusive and restorative culture in line with our Values.

The post holder will also support and implement ongoing projects, such as for the reduction of sickness absence across the Trust, supporting cultural and sustained change, improved performance and therefore patient care.

Main duties of the job

The People Services Advisor will support the People Services Business Partners in the development of a positive approach to employment relations by building strong and effective partnerships between People Services colleagues, managers, clinicians, staff and their representatives.

They will provide advice, coach and assist managers in investigation processes, working in partnership with managers, including advising on arranging witness meetings and how to take statements, and also coaching to support provision of outcome reports.

Consistent advice and recommendations will be given to managers in relation to the management of a wide ranging employee relations cases and the Advisor will support managers in decision making around potential breaches of the disciplinary policy.

They will have the skills required to analyse situations and make judgements on a range of people issues e.g. initial fact finding investigations, disciplinary & grievance investigations and outcomes.

They will have great planning skills toarrange and coordinate case management meetings, good communication skills to produce effective guidance and tool kits for managers to enable them to understand and follow policies and procedures as well as deliver training.

About us

At NCIC, we have an ambition to deliver outstanding healthcare services to the population of North Cumbria. The Trust is committed to creating a centre of excellence in providing rural and remote healthcare and provides a wide range of community and acute services throughout our county.

Our 5 key principles demonstrate our belief in the delivery of 'safe, high quality care every time':

Being a clinically led organisation

Quality and safety at the heart of our Trust

A positive patient experience every time

A great place to work

Managing our money well

As an organisation we are serious about supporting a diverse workforce that reflects our local community and are very much focused on being an inclusive and compassionate place to work.

Across the North East and North Cumbria we are working together to deliver our ambition to be the greenest region in England by 2030. All staff are expected to support sustainability.

Job responsibilities

Please see attached job description and person specification for further information regarding the role and the essential and desirable criteria required to be met by applicants.

Certificate of Sponsorship

Please note, due to changes implemented by the Government to the UK immigration policy, individuals who require a Health and Care Visa or a Skilled Worker Visa may no longer be eligible for sponsorship where the UKVI salary threshold is not met or if the occupation is not included in the updated Immigration Salary List (ISL). Applicants must check their eligibility to be employed in any role they are interested in applying for, prior to completing an application for employment. Any applicants who do not meet the eligibility criteria will not be progressed. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website.

If you are applying under the Disability Confident Scheme or Armed Forces Covenant and you meet all the essential criteria for a post, you will be guaranteed an interview.

Relocation assistance may be available for successful applicants moving to the region for certain posts. Please see our Policy for eligible vacancies.

Disclosure and Barring Service:

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.

The cost of the DBS must be met by the successful candidate(s) through salary deduction. DBS charges are as follows if applicable to the post:

Standard Check: £21.50 + Administration cost of £5.90 = £27.40. Deducted from salary over a 4 month period or a one‑off payment.

Enhanced Check: £49.50 + administration cost of £5.90 = £55.40. Deducted from salary over a 4 month period or a one‑off payment.

NCIC can offer successful future employees the following benefits:

27‑day holiday scheme rising to 33 after 10 years

NHS Discounts*

Salary Sacrifice schemes including lease cars and Cycle to Work*

Vivup is a free, confidential counselling and information service to assist with personal or work‑related problems

*Subject to eligibility

Please ensure that you document evidence of meeting all the essential criteria in the supporting information.

If sufficient response is received this post could be closed earlier than the specified closing date, please apply as soon as possible to ensure that your application is considered.

Candidates who have been successfully shortlisted for interview will be asked via an email notification to log on to their Trac account to select an interview time. This will usually be within 2 weeks of the closing date.

Person Specification

Qualifications

• Degree level qualification or equivalent experience.
• CIPD Level 5 qualification or equivalent experience
• Working towards CIPD qualification
• (Postgraduate Diploma in HRM) or equivalent relevant professional qualification.

Knowledge and Experience

• An understanding of the national NHS agenda and the Human Resource contribution.
• A knowledge and understanding of employment legislation and employment issues.
• An understanding of the principles of change management and contribution of the HR function to transformational change.
• Demonstrate through CPD, employment law updates and various other training courses an up to date knowledge of HR/Personnel practices & Change Management.
• Has gained HR operational experience of dealing with HR issues across all aspects of employment relations practice including disciplinaries, grievances, harassment complaints, and sickness absence and performance capability.
• Experience of working in a unionised environment
• Developing and maintaining positive partnerships with trade union representatives and senior managers.
• Knowledge of Medical Staffing employment issues.
• Knowledge of all NHS employment terms and conditions.
• Previous Experience of working in an NHS setting

Skills and Aptitudes

• Effective interpersonal skills.
• Excellent written, verbal and interpersonal skills
• Developed negotiation and influencing skills.
• Able to prioritise and to manage own workload to meet deadlines
• Organised with the ability to prioritise conflicting demands and delegate as appropriate.
• Coaching skills.
• Analytical and data interpretation skills.
• Effective IT skills and knowledge of Microsoft applications

Personal Circumstances

• Self‑motivated.
• Commitment to partnership working.
• Commitment to continuing personal/professional development.

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.

North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust