Receptionist

Great Oaks Hospice; Coleford; On-site; GBP 25,000; Part time

Job summary

A community healthcare service in Coleford seeks a compassionate Receptionist to provide first contact for visitors and support the hospice staff. Responsibilities include managing phone communications, offering administrative support, and ensuring a welcoming environment for patients and families. Ideal candidates will have strong communication skills, administrative experience, and the ability to handle sensitive situations. The position offers a pro-rata salary starting at £24,761 annually.

Qualifications

• Experience working in an administrative role.
• Experience of working with volunteers.
• A basic understanding of hospice and palliative care.

Responsibilities

• Be the first line of contact for all visitors.
• Provide administration support to all staff.
• Welcome staff, patients, and visitors professionally.
• Manage incoming telephone calls and messages.
• Maintain confidentiality and sensitivity.

Skills

Good communication skills

IT literacy

Ability to respond to people in distress

Flexible approach

Education

GCSE level or equivalent including English and Maths

Tools

Microsoft Office

Job description

Great Oaks Hospice is a voluntary organisation that seeks to provide a range of End-of-Life Care services, free of charge, for adults in the community living with a life shortening illness and to offer support to their families, carers and friends. The role of the Receptionist is:

• To be the first line of contact for all visitors to the Great Oaks site and all enquiries via phone and email etc.
• To provide prompt and discrete administration support to all staff at the Hospice

Main duties of the job

Within the hospice to:

• Follow policies and guidelines as per Staff Employees Handbook
• Recognise and report limitations of own professional competence/experience
• Recognise the need and undertake any training identified via Line Management and/or annual appraisal
• Be aware of risk to self and others under Health and Safety Regulations
• Verbally report any accident or untoward incident as soon as possible followed by written report
• Respect peoples personal choices for lifestyle and living arrangements

About us

Great Oaks Hospice is a proud and successful provider of professional end of life care services in the community. We are a registered charity, and our services are offered free of charge for adults in the community living with a life shortening illness and their families, carers and friends. We employ a range of qualified and unqualified staff across nursing and therapy groups and are supported by medical colleagues from Gloucester Royal and our local GP community.

We enjoy a close relationship with our local health and care service providers including with NHS Gloucestershire Integrated Care Board who directly commission many of our services.

We are passionate about ensuring exceptional clinical services and do this through our strong clinical leadership at every level. We want our staff and our users to have the best experience of Great Oaks and we recognise everyone individually and value and harness the unique strengths and skills they bring.

Job responsibilities

Main Responsibilities:

• To welcome staff, patients and visitors in a friendly and professional manner, dealing with enquiries/individual needs appropriately
• To act as first point of contact for anyone accessing Great Oaks Hospice showing care and compassion and directing to the appropriate department
• To ensure all incoming telephone calls and contacts are managed appropriately maintaining a calm and professional approach, taking accurate messages and passing these on in a timely manner
• To check and deal promptly with any messages left outside of office hours
• To have awareness of patients in the waiting area at all times ensuring professional conduct is adhered to
• To provide prompt and discrete administration support to all teams within the Hospice as required
• To assist the Admin and Facilities Manager with general administration duties as required
• Ensuring all visitors sign in and out of the building to adhere to health, safety and fire procedures and allocate all contractors with a visitors badge
• To maintain the tidiness of the office and general reception/waiting areas
• To maintain and manage the stock of stationary supplies for the Hospice
• To distribute incoming post and deliveries coordinating as appropriate ensuring items are passed on to the correct department in a timely manner
• To frank and post all outgoing mail for all departments within the hospice
• To monitor the clerical email address, responding to queries where appropriate and directing other enquiries to the appropriate department
• To assist with booking internal rooms for meetings and groups
• To deal with all aspects of event bookings for the fundraising team including updating the relevant spreadsheet
• To be part of the team working with the Giving Manager to input donor data into the CRM system
• To be flexible and cover for other reception team members as needed during periods of annual leave and sickness Monday Friday
• To maintain absolute confidentiality and discretion at all times and respect and be sensitive to the particularly personal needs of our users
• To be responsible for locking up the building ensuring security procedures are in place
• Be adaptable and flexible in approach to workload, prioritising tasks effectively
• To work as part of a team or on an individual basis.
• Be flexible and undertake other similar duties as assigned by the Administration Manager and CEO

Qualifications

• Educated to GCSE level or equivalent including English and Maths

Experience

• Experience working in an administrative role
• Experience of working with volunteers
• A basic understanding of the work of the hospice and palliative care in general

Personal Skills and Attributes

• Good communication skills both verbal and written including the ability to deal with sensitive situations
• Confident, motivatesd and positive with the ability to work alone
• Ability to compile and maintain accurate records
• IT literate, able to use a range of Microsoft packages
• Ensuring a high professional standard of service and positive experience for all visitors
• Ability to respond to people in distress, in person and over the telephone
• An absolute understanding of and respect for confidentiality and discretion
• Flexible in approach and willing to adapt to a changing environment
• Ability to work on own initiative and as part of a team
• Able to work flexibly and willing to potentially work occasional evenings and weekends if required

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.

£24,761 a yearFTE paid pro-rata to part time hours