Personal Assistant

Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust; Smethwick; On-site; GBP 40,000 - 60,000; Full time

Job summary

A regional healthcare provider in the UK is seeking a Personal Assistant to deliver comprehensive secretarial and administrative support. The successful candidate will manage correspondence, coordinate meetings, and ensure compliance with policies while upholding a commitment to confidentiality. This role requires excellent communication and organizational skills, alongside the ability to prioritize effectively. The organization is dedicated to fostering a supportive and flexible work environment where values of respect and compassion guide daily operations.

Qualifications

• Excellent organizational and time management skills.
• Ability to handle confidential information with discretion.
• Strong communication skills, both verbal and written.

Responsibilities

• Provide comprehensive secretarial and administrative support to the Directorate.
• Coordinate meetings and events while managing correspondence.
• Act as the first point of contact for enquiries and stakeholders.

Job description

Role Overview

The Personal Assistant provides comprehensive secretarial and administrative support to the Women's and Child Health Directorate. This role ensures the smooth operation of the directorate by managing correspondence, scheduling meetings, maintaining diaries, and handling confidential information.

Key Responsibilities

• Coordinate meetings and events, prepare reports and minutes, manage recruitment documentation, maintain filing systems, and support financial processes such as trust fund monitoring.
• Act as the first point of contact for enquiries, liaise with internal and external stakeholders, uphold confidentiality and compliance with Trust policies on health and safety, safeguarding, and infection control.
• Provide a full and comprehensive PA/secretarial and administrative service to the Division/department, including typing of correspondence, reports, letters, memos, minutes and other documents as required, from shorthand, audio, visual notes and verbal instructions, including confidential sensitive reports (e.g. health ill dismissal and disciplinary reports).
• Maintain awareness of current issues ensuring key personnel receive appropriate and timely communication.
• Develop a sound knowledge of the structure of the division in order to distribute information correctly and communicate effectively.
• Manage own workload using initiative to plan time effectively and prioritise all incoming work on a daily basis including responding quickly, appropriately and communicating clearly in relation to urgent / important issues.
• Co‑coordinate both relevant meetings/functions on behalf of senior management, including sourcing and securing appropriate venues, preparing and circulating agendas and relevant enclosures from information received.
• Maintain accurate diaries, bring forward and email management systems either electronically or manually as required by the division/department.
• Attend meetings and take, produce and circulate accurate complex minutes as appropriate and following up outstanding issues.

Values and Culture

Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust (SWB) serves Birmingham and the Black Country - one of the country's most culturally diverse areas. It's a friendly and welcoming place - a place where you can belong, and a place where you can grow. We care for our patients, we care about our population, and we care about our people. Our values – Ambition, Respect and Compassion – are at the heart of who we are. They guide us every step of the way; how we work with each other, and how we look after our patients and their families; how we respect and value the rich diversity of our team and our community. Our Trust has always aspired to be more than a hospital, more than a healthcare provider. Our purpose is to "Improve the Life Chances and Health Outcomes of our Population." It is what inspires, drives, and unites us every day. It’s what makes us unique. We want working at SWB to feel like more than just a job. We want our Trust to be a place where you can feel you belong. A place where you feel happy, safe, and rewarded. A place where you can develop your career in whatever way you choose. When we say we’re 'with you all the way' we want you to know that we mean it. Visit the SWB website to find out more about our ambitions and people plans.

Collaboration and Flexibility

The four partner Trusts of the Black Country Provider Collaborative (Dudley Group NHS FT, Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust, Sandwell & West Birmingham NHS Trust, and Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust) are actively working in partnership to deliver a collective vision focused on providing "better, faster and safer care to the population of the Black Country and beyond". To support this vision, we are (where appropriate and safe to do so) actively looking at new models of care which:

• Better protect elective / planned care service delivery across the system by organising on a 'hot and cold' arrangement
• Consider the optimal use of resources through consolidation and specialisation, and
• Seek to reduce unwarranted variance, level up / standardise care through a 'Networked Service Solution' approach across the four sites

Against this context, although this post is hosted by Sandwell & West Birmingham NHS Trust, there may be an expectation to work flexibly across the four partner Trusts to better meet patient and service needs. As a major employer in the Black Country and West Birmingham region we are committed to supporting all employees to achieve a healthy work life balance. We want the Black Country and West Birmingham region to be the best place to work and as such will consider all requests to work flexibly taking into account personal and individual circumstances alongside the needs of the service. We encourage all prospective applicants to discuss their individual circumstances with the Recruiting Manager as part of the on-boarding process. Healthcare services have a significant impact on the environment. We are committed to embedding sustainable practices. We expect all colleagues to support the delivery of our Green Strategic Plan and to drive positive changes in their department by joining our Green Impact programme.