Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Communication

·       Establish and develop effective relationships with external system suppliers

·       Close liaison with other members of the Data Engineering team, and active contribution to the successful running of the department will be expected from the post holder.

·       Confidently and effectively communicate with users of the Trusts’ Information Systems, spanning staff at all levels of the organisation.

·       Being able to articulate complex technical information in a way that is appropriate to users with different levels of computer literacy and technical capability.

Service Delivery and Improvement

·       Analyse and investigate system errors and unplanned downtime for root causes, making recommendations on remedial actions and implementing required changes to prevent recurrence.

·       Translate user requirements into actionable development proposals, making recommendations as to best approach to achieve the desired outcome and negotiating timescales.

·       Able to operate typically unsupervised on a day-to-day basis, prioritise own workload within given timescales in partnership with customer deadlines and operational needs, seeking direction from the Data Engineering Manager and/or Head of IT Data Management.

·       Able to work methodically and logically on own initiative with minimum supervision.

·       Maintain departmental standard operating procedures, making changes to reflect newly developed applications and reporting solutions.

·       Fully exploit opportunities to streamline existing processes by making recommendations for change through advances in programming and database technologies.

·       Keep up to date with newly issued DCB directives, determining required changes to existing systems to ensure full compliance with their requirements.

·       Observe personal duty of care for all issued equipment.

·       To contribute towards the design and development of specialised custom-built information collection and reporting systems as part of the Applications Development function, that deliver effective solutions to Trust business needs and facilitate the provision of services to patients.  This may include:

o   Gathering and documenting user requirements. Seeking approval from the data Engineering Manager and/or Head of IT Data Management before initiating development work.

o   Designing small solutions to address specific business needs.

o   Developing applications either wholly for smaller projects, or as part of the larger team for more significant pieces of work.

o   Monitoring system performance and highlighting issues.

o   Implementing database changes, ensuring referential integrity is maintained.

·       To plan own workload, taking direction and priorities from the Data Engineering Manager

·       To be actively involved in the testing of new developments.

·       To ensure all documentation relating to application development is maintained.

·       Participate in the management of the Trust’s Data Warehouses and Management Information Tools, to enable provision of all statutory returns on patient information by the Information Services team; maintain accurate documentation regarding the data structures, routines and files used by the Data Warehouses and Tools.

·       To be actively involved in the testing of upgrades for the Trust’s Information systems, participating in the actual upgrade process where appropriate.

·       Maintain the reference data contained within the Trust’s information systems so that it conforms to NHS data dictionary standards.

·       Produce submissions of Commissioning Data Sets (CDS) to be made to the Secondary Uses Services (SUS) and Maternity Services Data Set (MSDS) to the Exeter portal in line with the timescales specified by the Operating Framework to support the Commissioning process.

·       Collaborate with the Commissioning and Finance departments to ensure provision of accurate, timely information to support the monitoring of Service Level Agreements, Service Line Reporting/Patient Level Costing and Reference Costs submissions.

·       Maintain an up-to-date knowledge and understanding of the Data Dictionary, NHS information requirements and IT developments as they apply to Trust systems.

·       Develop and maintain a solid understanding of the Information Systems used across the Trust, their data models and structures, interdependencies and interfaces so as to facilitate work to develop new and more complex reporting capabilities.