Switchboard Team Leader

Midlands and Lancashire Commissioning Support Unit; Sefton; On-site; GBP 30,000 - 40,000; Full time

Job summary

A regional healthcare provider in the UK is seeking a Switchboard Team Leader to manage telecommunications services at Southport Hospital. This role involves overseeing a team and ensuring effective communication, particularly in emergency situations. Candidates should have experience in large scale call centers, excellent communication skills, and supervisory management qualifications. The position requires leadership, compliance with quality standards, and effective service delivery.

Qualifications

• Large scale organisation switchboard / call centre experience.
• Understanding of the Care Quality Commission role.

Responsibilities

• Organise and develop Telecommunications Services.
• Promote excellent public relations.
• Provide advice to service users.
• Ensure efficient management of Telecommunication services.
• Observe legal requirements.

Skills

Excellent Communication Skills

Ability to motivate a Team

Customer Focused service

Basic Computer Skills

Understanding of other services

Education

NVQ Level 2 Supervisory Management or equivalent

NVQ Level 2 Customer Service or equivalent

Job description

Job Overview

A Southport Hospital switchboard team leader manages the hospital's primary telecommunications and communication services, overseeing the telephonists who are the first point of contact for calls, ensuring efficient handling of emergency procedures like cardiac arrests, coordinating paging and radio systems, and training staff to maintain continuous, high-quality service.

The role involves leadership to inspire the team, assisting callers with queries, maintaining professional communication with staff and the public, and ensuring all emergency policies are followed correctly.

Main duties of the job

• To organise, develop and improve Telecommunications Services throughout the Trust
• Promote within and on behalf of the Telecommunications Department, excellent public relations with patients, visitors and staff as well as members of the public.
• Provide advice to service users to ensure that they obtain the maximum support from the service.
• Co-ordinate and maintain all activity records and fulfil routine administrative duties.
• Ensure efficient, cost-effective management of all Telecommunication services.
• Ensure compliance with the Trust Quality Strategy

Working for our organisation

Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust serves a population of over 600,000 with a workforce of over 9000 dedicated and skilled staff across 21 sites.

We strongly believe that the communities we serve should all have access to Five Star Patient Care.

Our Services

• Acute Care: Providing emergency and maternity services at Whiston, Southport and Ormskirk hospitals, and medical and surgical specialties across all our sites.
• Primary Care: Providing primary care services at Marshalls Cross Medical Centre situated in St Helens Hospital.
• Community Services: Providing adult community services for St Helens and a wheelchair service in Chorley, South Ribble, and West Lancashire.
• Specialist Regional Services: We provide the Mersey Regional Burns & Plastic Surgery Unit at Whiston Hospital and the Spinal Injuries Unit at Southport Hospital to more than 4 million people across the whole of Merseyside, West Lancashire, Cheshire, Isle of Man and North Wales.

Achievements

• Rated Outstanding by CQC Inspection August 2018
• Top 100 places to work in the NHS (NHS Employers & Health Service Journal)
• National Preceptorship Accreditation (2023) for Nursing & AHP Preceptorship Programme

Detailed Job Description And Main Responsibilities

Operational Management

• Organise and plan own work routine.
• Liaison with relevant suppliers of communication equipment for maintenance purposes.
• Assist with the testing of fall-back equipment and associated procedures.
• Provide advice and guidance on the specialised procedures, Major Incident, Cardiac Arrest, Fire alarms, General Alarms, Bomb Scares.
• Maintain and monitor all on-site Ascom’s, long range pagers and mobile telephony and keep an up-to-date register of all holders.

Staff/ Training

• Dissemination of information to staff e.g. team brief, new work procedures.
• To attend training courses as required and participate in annual refresher sessions in accordance with own Personal Development Review.
• Conduct personal development reviews within own team.
• Conduct informal counselling when required.

Leadership

• Provide effective and motivational leadership to the team.
• Provide guidance and a knowledge base for new and existing staff.
• Involvement in the recruitment, selection and interview process

Quality

• Ensure compliance with Facilities Management standards
• Ensure compliance with the Trust Quality Strategy 2012/15 and operational policies as appropriate
• Ensure effective delivery of services to service users and customers.

Risk

• Ensure all staff observe legal requirements
• Responsible for the safe use of all equipment
• Carry out Risk assessments, Manual Handling Assessments and COSHH assessments.

Finance/ Planning and Organisation

• To ensure economical use of all the Trust resources
• Maintain and monitor stock levels to meet the demands of the service
• Arrange cover when staff shortages occur within the constraints of the budget as required

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria

• NVQ Level 2 Supervisory Management or equivalent experience
• NVQ Level 2 Customer Service or equivalent experience

Desirable criteria

• ECOL or equivalent
• Foundation in Health and Safety

Knowledge & Experience

Essential criteria

• Large scale organisation switchboard / call centre experience
• Basic Computer Skills
• Principles of Risk Management

Desirable criteria

• Understanding of the Care Quality Commission role

Skills

Essential criteria

• Excellent Communication Skills
• Provision of a Customer Focused service
• Ability to motivate a Team
• Ability to instruct less qualified staff/ promote life Iong learning in the workplace
• Understanding of other services and our impact on them
• Ability to lead change

Other

Essential criteria

• Office based across sites
• Varied deadlines and adhoc pressures
• Ability to work under pressure
• 24/7 rota in operation
• Weekend and Bank Holiday Working
• Cross site cover