Job summary
- Main area
- Administration
- Grade
- Band 4
- Contract
- Permanent
- Hours
- Part time - 27 hours per week (The service is open until 8pm on Mondays and Thursdays. Late shifts will need to be covered on a rota basis. This is a predominantly work based position with the opportunity to work from home on occassion, this will be dependant on the number of contracted hours.)
- Job ref
- 363-SSLB7205662-A
- Employer
- East London NHS Foundation Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- Gilbert Hitchcock House,
- Town
- Bedford,
- Salary
- £26,530 - £29,114 per annum
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 07/07/2025 23:59
Employer heading
Receptionist and Administrator
Band 4
ELFT has long been recognised as a centre of excellence for mental and health care, innovation and improvement. So it is a very exciting time for you to come and work for us. Our mission is to make a positive difference to people's lives by improving quality of life for all we serve. Our values are: We Care, We Respect, We are Inclusive – so we are looking for people who live and breathe these qualities when supporting service users and carers, and in their relationships with colleagues in the Trust and our partner organisations.
Job overview
Receptionist/Administrator
The service is open until 8pm on Mondays and Thursdays. Late shifts will need to be covered on a rota basis. This is a predominantly work based position with the opportunity to work from home on occasion, this will be dependant on the number of contracted hours.
Office based, working from Gilbert Hitchcock House in Bedford.
We are looking for a dynamic, self-motivated and enthusiastic Receptionist/Administrator to join the Bedfordshire Talking Therapies Team. We encourage and support our staff to be involved in all aspects of improving the service and work hard to ensure the culture of the service is one that enables everyone to fulfill their full potential.
Main duties of the job
The main duties of the role will be to offer reception support at our main base in Gilbert Hitchcock House which will include meeting and greeting patients for their face to face appointments with their therapist. The successful candidate will have a good telephone manner and be able to deal with the high volume of calls that come into the service along with effective management of the administration processes that have been developed to support patients and therapists.
Working for our organisation
Bedfordshire Talking Therapies (BTT) is an NHS funded Talking Therapy service that helps with common mental health problems like low mood and anxiety. We offer a range of different therapies from CBT to Counselling. Therapy is offered; in groups, by telephone, online or face to face.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
- To receive, direct and act as first point of contact for all patients, clients and visitors at our sites within Talking Therapies. Respond as appropriate and professionally to enquiries from staff, therapists and the public in a prompt and efficient manner (e.g. in person, by telephone, by email, by text, letter etc.) including handling non-routine enquires, using own initiative and prioritisation skills. Dealing professionally and sympathetically with patients / family members who are distressed.
- To be responsible for booking, re-scheduling and cancelling Interpreter services for the therapy team.
- To be responsible for booking in patients into their first treatment appointments on behalf of clinical staff and to complete the administration tasks associated with this responsibility (e.g., sending letters).
- Liaise and communicate with other members of the admin team and relevant managers to ensure availability and efficient co-ordination of clinic diaries and appointments.
- Ensure all messages are correctly recorded and promptly passed to relevant team members/other personnel.
- To provide support with processing of Subject Access Requests within the specified time frame.
- Be an efficient user of the service’s electronic patient record system i.e. IAPTus and RiO.
- To maintain efficient administrative systems (e.g. opening, sorting and distributing incoming post/emails, franking and posting of outgoing letters and updating notice- boards with staff & service users information.
- To provide information to both internal and external colleagues, when required, in line with Service Protocol and Trust Policies.
Page 2 of 7 - To be aware of the team’s daily movements, compile daily visitor lists, text message patient appointments details and assist in booking therapy rooms.
- Undertake routine clerical duties including filing, data entry, scanning and photocopying as required.
- To be responsible for care and maintenance of office equipment, ordering and maintaining office stocks and stationery for the Team.
- To work constructively and flexibly as part of the admin team. To collaborate in providing cover across the service as required.
- To provide evening reception cover according to service hours when required in line with the clinical teams working from site.
- Contribute to the development of reception responsibilities and the quality of service provided to all patients, clients and visitors.
- Assist in delivering local induction programmes for new staff to the team (e.g. training staff on reception duties and administrative procedures, as required).
- To ensure the safe keeping of all clients records, maintaining confidentiality, and to maintain electronic and manual systems of activity information, retrieval and data input when required.
- To liaise with Estates and Facilities regarding facilities used by the service including facilitating room bookings via Support Services.
- To provide administrative support to the senior management upon request.
- To support with IT equipment on site and for staff working from home, logging jobs with the IT helpdesk when required, manage the IT equipment inventory stock list, managing access fobs for the sites.
- To take up tasks and responsibilities as delegated by the admin lead as required and appropriate for this Grade/Band.
- To be a First Aider/Fire Warden and Health and Safety Officer for the service and undertake risk assessments for the buildings.
Person specification
Education/ Qualification/ Training
Essential criteria
- • Good standard of written and spoken English.
- • Customer Care or equivalent experience.
- • Evidence of Continued Professional Development.
Experience
Essential criteria
- • Minimum of 3 years administrative experience.
- • Working as part of an NHS administrative team for at least a year.
- • Experience of patient databases.
Knowledge and Skills
Essential criteria
- • Microsoft Office user.
- • Experience of patient databases.
Other
Essential criteria
- • Professional accountability.
- • Reliable, flexible and adaptable.
- • Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to get things done in cooperation with others and as part of a support team.
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
- Tracey Grant
- Job title
- Deputy Operations Manager
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Telephone number
- 07769 519945
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