Job summary
- Main area
- Patient Experience
- Grade
- 7
- Contract
- Permanent
- Hours
- Full time - 37.5 hours per week (Monday to Friday)
- Job ref
- 388-7147659-A&C
- Employer
- Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- Torbay Hospital
- Town
- Torquay
- Salary
- £46,148 - £52,809 Based on 2024-25 AfC rates
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 14/07/2025 23:59
Employer heading
Patient Experience Manager
7
Job overview
Our Patient Experience Manager will manage the Patient Experience Team and take responsibility for the management of complex complaints and will liaise with the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) and the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO).
They will be an experienced manager and a source of expert practical and theoretical knowledge on complaints regulations and procedure for our Trust, working closely with our Care Group leadership teams to identify and disseminate learning from complaints.
Main duties of the job
• Provide effective leadership to support the development of our Patient Experience Team
• Be the lead source of expertise on complaints regulations and handling for our Trust, ensuring that new regulations or processes are effectively communicated and embedded
• Liaise with Care Group leadership teams to ensure the complaints process is managed effectively, improving and maintaining compliance with response targets
• Review written complaint responses to ensure questions are answered, letters are produced to a high standard, are timely, complete and show sensitivity to the complainant
• Provide quality assurance for action plans produced by the Care Groups to learn from complaints and improve patient experience
• Ensure that lessons are learned from complaints and communicated across the Trust
• Develop and deliver a training programme for our Trust on the management of complaints to ensure the Complaints Standard Framework 2023 is being adhered to and early resolution is encouraged
• Develop and maintain positive and collaborative working relationships with external partners, for example Healthwatch
• Provide leadership for Patient Safety Team
• Ensure processes and procedures are in place to assist service users, relatives and members of the public to express their views easily and accurately about services provided by our Trust, and to access the formal complaints process
Working for our organisation
The Patient Experience Team are a dedicated, caring and friendly team, offering advice and support to patients/clients/service users, their families/carers and the general public. Patient Experience is part of our Trust’s Corporate Services department. Our Patient Experience manager will link with other Corporate Services, e.g. Patient Safety; Litigation to provide assurance for our Trust Board.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
• Model compassionate leadership for all staff within the Patient Experience Team
• Provide effective line management, supporting and developing all direct reports, so that the team can obtain and maintain high standards of customer service, meeting all required national targets with regards to performance
• Accountable for and promoting a just and compassionate culture for effective people management, recruitment and selection, training and development, welfare, deployment, sickness absence, grievance and disciplinary matters
• Develop and promote a culture of equality and diversity, and implement systems and processes which will highlight any unfair discrimination towards those patients who complain or make comments about services
• Provide non-clinical advice and information on a range of issues to staff and services users
• Support families and patients through the complaints process
• Able to engage with clinical and non-clinical staff and influence behaviour to collaboratively achieve positive outcomes
• Develop and maintain robust working relationships with multi-professional staff groups in our Trust and with partners in the local health and social care community
• Work closely with multidisciplinary teams, governance coordinators, clinical teams to promote and facilitate learning from complaints to enhance patient experience
• Scrutinise complaints for issues that may expose our Trust to adverse media publicity and advise the Communications Team to ensure appropriate responses to media enquiries
• Excellent written, oral and presentation skills to allow effective communication with clinical and non-clinical staff across our organisation and in the preparation of governance papers
• Review and remain informed about national and local policy, guidance and NHS legislation relating to complaints and PALS management
• Communicate complex, sensitive and contentious information regarding complaints, including where there are significant barriers to understanding and acceptance, and in a hostile, antagonistic or highly emotive atmosphere
• Ensure that our Trust directors and Chief Executive are fully briefed on any complaint issues that may have a significant effect on the reputation of our organisation
• Use judgement to interpret clinical policies, national guidance and regulatory frameworks, advising our Trust on how these should be interpreted e.g. PHSO Complaints Standards
• Able to assess, sift, analyse and collate complex data in different formats and from different sources covering activity, performance management, quality and financial indicators in order to identify patterns and trends for informed decision-making and planning for improvements
• Uses a variety of data to identify themes and trends from complaints, and other feedback, requiring action
• Lead and develop a Patient Experience educational programme and coordinate strategic expertise across our Trust, achieving organisational strategic objectives and enhancing our organisational reputation
• Development and demonstration of leadership, self-motivation and team–building /team–working skills
• Collate and analyse highly complex data using appropriate data analysis methods to present improvement plans, deep-dive reviews, reports and investigations
• Analyse complaints for emergent themes which may also link to patient safety incident reviews and investigations to provide reports for Feedback and Engagement Group and other groups/committees as required
• Provide advice to clinical teams regarding measures required for improvement and identify possible contributory factors and support the development of solutions for emerging themes
• Plan and organise a broad range of complex activities across the patient experience portfolio ensuring that there is alignment of projects with organisational development and financial agendas
• Ensure that all customer service functions are managed efficiently and effectively adhering to Trust, regulatory and statutory requirements alongside other best practice standards and expectations
Person specification
Person Specification
Essential criteria
- A first level degree or equivalent
- Educated to Masters level, working towards or equivalent experience
- Experienced with NHS complaints management processes and procedures
- Experience of managing service provision and the supervision and management of staff
- Proven organisational skills and ability to work to deadlines under pressure to achieve agreed objectives, being able to respond quickly to urgent requests, and ensuring delivery to timescales required
- Experience of communicating highly sensitive information in a hostile or highly emotive atmosphere
- Evidence of project and improvement skills
Desirable criteria
- PHSO Complaints Management Training
- Investigation Training
- Clinical Experience in Health or Social Care
- Leadership Qualification
- Experience serving on project groups and/or committees and able to develop effective working relationships with people from a variety of agencies as well as internal staff
Employer certification / accreditation badges
Applicant requirements
The postholder will have access to vulnerable people in the course of their normal duties and as such this post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service to check for any previous criminal convictions.
Documents to download
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Faye Sutton
- Job title
- Patient Safety Specialist
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Telephone number
- 07798745891
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