Job summary
- Main area
- PALS and complaints
- Grade
- NHS AfC: Band 6
- Contract
- Permanent
- Hours
- Full time - 37.5 hours per week
- Job ref
- 391-NMUH-7072972
- Employer
- Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- North Middlesex University Hospital
- Town
- London
- Salary
- £42,939 - £50,697 per annum inclusive of HCAs
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 12/06/2025 23:59
Employer heading
Senior PALS and Complaints Officer
NHS AfC: Band 6
The North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust is a medium-sized acute and community trust with over 525 beds and over 600 community staff, serving more than 600,000 people living across Enfield and Haringey and the surrounding areas, including Barnet and Waltham Forest.
The hospital has been on its present site for over 100 years and was established as an NHS trust by statute in December 1990. The Trust’s services are provided on the North Middlesex University Hospital site as well as a range of community sites across the London Borough of Enfield, including at partner hospitals. They provide services in collaboration with a range of partners, including local GPs, acute, mental health and other community health service providers across North Central London.
In the year ending 31 March 2022, the Trust reported a turnover of £419.7m and employed almost 4,000 staff. Following the transfer of Enfield Community Services on 1st April 2023, this has increased as we have welcomed over 600 new staff including District Nurses, Community Matrons, Community Physiotherapists, Psychologists and many more across a wide range of adult and children’s community services in Enfield. It is an exciting time to join North Mid as we continue our journey to become an integrated care organisation to deliver high quality, seamless care in our local communities, with a focus on tackling health inequalities.
Job overview
Job Description
Position: Senior PALS and Complaints Officer
Salary/Band: Band 6
Location: North Middlesex University Hospital
Hours: 37.5
Responsible to: PALS & Complaints Manager
Accountable to: Head of Patient Experience
Main duties of the job
Act as an expert and role model providing specialist knowledge and advice to both PALS and Complaints team.
Coordinate the activity of the PALS and Complaints Unit and participate and assist with systematic monitoring of performance and evaluation.
Lead the team and work with the PALS and Complaints Manager to ensure that the ward staff work collaboratively and effectively and possess the relevant skills/knowledge
Share responsibility with the PALS and Complaint manager for maintaining staff records e.g. sickness, appraisal and annual leave
Manage and process a caseload of PALS & complaints and concerns raised by patients, relatives, service users and staff ensuring that relevant processes and guidelines are followed, and that appropriate standards of accuracy and brevity are maintained.
Utilising specialist knowledge of PALS complaints processes, advising and guiding as appropriate with the administration of formal and informal complaints, and the handling of PALS activity subject to business needs.
Working for our organisation
NMUH North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Hospital Trust (NMUH) is one of London’s busiest healthcare providers, providing hospital care and community services for the 350,000 people living in Enfield, Haringey and beyond. Our specialist services include HIV, cardiology, blood disorders, diabetes, fertility, sickle cell and thalassemia. In addition to a full range of cancer diagnosis and treatment services, the Helen Rollason Cancer Support Centre is based on-site and provides services to support cancer patients’ wellbeing. We also provide community services and have a dedicated 0-19 service for children and young people in Enfield so that they can get the best possible start in life. This includes health visitors and school nurses who are delivering the national Healthy Child Programme, which provides a structured framework for the delivery of key interventions to support the health and wellbeing of children and families from 0 to 5 and school aged children from 5-19. The 0-19 service aims to improve pathways and partnerships with services in the hospital and deliver excellent care for the children and families. For more information, please access the following link: https://www.northmid.nhs.uk/
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Act as an expert and role model providing specialist knowledge and advice to both PALS and Complaints team.
Coordinate the activity of the PALS and Complaints Unit and participate and assist with systematic monitoring of performance and evaluation.
Lead the team and work with the PALS and Complaints Manager to ensure that the ward staff work collaboratively and effectively and possess the relevant skills/knowledge
Share responsibility with the PALS and Complaint manager for maintaining staff records e.g. sickness, appraisal and annual leave
Manage and process a caseload of PALS & complaints and concerns raised by patients, relatives, service users and staff ensuring that relevant processes and guidelines are followed, and that appropriate standards of accuracy and brevity are maintained.
Utilising specialist knowledge of PALS complaints processes, advising and guiding as appropriate with the administration of formal and informal complaints, and the handling of PALS activity subject to business needs.
Carry out frequent data audit for data cleansing for reporting purposes. Work closely with the departments to ensure timely response across the Trust.
Person specification
Education and qualifications
Essential criteria
- Educated to diploma/degree level or equivalent experience
- Evidence of continuing development
Desirable criteria
- Postgraduate level qualification
- Advocacy/ Managerial qualification experience and Mental qualification health experience
Skills and abilities
Essential criteria
- Excellent communication skills (written and Verbal) and listening skills
- Excellent interpersonal and networking skills
- Highly developed IT Skills working across a range of Microsoft Office packages and databases (including outlook and Excel)
- Ability to manage own workload to defined deadlines
- Able to work autonomously with and to make independent decisions
- Excellent organisational and self-management skills, and able to lead a small team in the absence of the manager
- Ability to work on own initiative and as a team player Demonstrate motivation and flexibility
- Has Leadership skills - Good organiser with realistic time management skills
- Empathy, ability to deal with distressed patients/relatives
- Good negotiation and conflict resolution skills to manage and de-escalate potentially difficult/contentious situations
- Ability to deal with disagreement/conflict and to mediate when service
- Ability to produce accurate and timely performance reports
Experience
Essential criteria
- Experience of complaints handling and/or patient advice and liaison service or in a customer service setting
- Experience in undertaking peer supervision to guide casework via regular 1:1
- Experience of using a database and making Judgements about the data entered
- Experience of dealing with distressed, angry and unhappy service users
- Experience of working with senior clinicians/service providers and challenging them on behalf of the patient/client where appropriate
- Understanding the relationship between performance and achievement of Trust objectives
- Experience of change management
Other Requirements
Essential criteria
- Experience in advocacy, conciliation, mediation and use of analytical skills.
- Understanding the relationship between performance and achievement of Trust objectives
- Ability to prioritise and work under pressure, utilising safe practice and escalation skills
- Experience and understanding of Audit
Personal qualities
Essential criteria
- Ability to be creative, innovative and Adoptable
- Organised and Motivated
- Positive role model
Values
Essential criteria
- Demonstrable ability to meet Trust values
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
- Trudy De Cordova
- Job title
- Head of Patient Experience and Patient Engagement
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Telephone number
- 0208 887 3716
If you have problems applying, contact
- Address
-
WHT
- Telephone
- If you have any queries, please contact NLPSS Recruitment Helpdesk tel. 020 3758 2060
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