Complaints Officer Truro, England
Job description
An exciting opportunity has arisen to join the existing Patient and Family Experience Team as a Complaints Officer. In this role, you will contribute to the vision of the wider Patient Experience Team in coordinating and managing a range of complaints in a professional and values based manner, responding promptly, effectively and efficiently to resolve concerns and complaints raised by patients, relatives and service users. You will be responsible for your own caseload and will also be involved in other ongoing improvement projects and work supported by the wider Patient Experience Team.
You will be a dynamic individual, who likes rising to challenges but able to think calmly and rationally under pressure, with the ability to make reasoned decisions and escalate appropriately. You will demonstrate exceptional and sensitive customer service skills, have excellent verbal and written communication skills, particularly in dealing with difficult or challenging situations or individuals, and will have significant experience of working in a patient, public or customer facing role.
This role sits within the Patient and Family Experience Team, reporting to the Director of Integrated Governance.
This is a fulltime post working 37.5 hours per week, Monday to Friday, 0830 – 1630hrs, and hybrid remote with an expectation of being on-site at least one day a week.
The post holder will have excellent communication skills, verbally and written, and will be able to prioritise and communicate information to support resolution of concerns and complaints and the working of the team.
Key working relationships:
- Chief Nursing Officer / Deputy Chief Executive
- Director of Integrated Governance
- Clinical Governance Teams
- Care Group Triumvirate/Governance Leads
- Chaplaincy
- Patient Services
- Volunteer Services
- External Agencies e.g. Healthwatch, SEAP, PHSO
- Commissioners especially those whose remit relates to Patient Experience and Patient and Public Involvement.
Regular exposure to distressing or emotional circumstances due to the nature of issues and concerns being raised.
Dealing with an unpredictable workload which needs to be managed effectively in line with deadlines set locally and nationally and identifying when escalation to the management team is required.
Contact with distressed and angry service users, relatives and carers and being able to de-escalate potentially challenging situations. There is the potential for regular exposure to verbal aggression due to the nature of correspondence.
Sustainability is integral to the Trust achieving the NHS Net Zero target. All staff are therefore actively encouraged and supported to implement new ways of working within their field of expertise.
Providing service users, relatives and carers with consistent, accurate and relevant information regarding the Trust and other organisations, correctly signposting, quickly and effectively, and acting as a first point of contact for all types of feedback some of which may be of a complex, sensitive or contentious nature.
Handling face-to-face verbal feedback, telephone calls, e-mails, letters, and responding appropriately and within agreed timelines.
Be responsible for managing a varied caseload of enquiries and complaints independently and without direct supervision, including comprehensive diary management, appropriate prioritisation of existing casework and escalation to the management team regarding approaching timelines.
Responding to often anxious and distressed service users, relatives and carers, providing impartial advice on NHS and Trust policy and procedure, and information about the formal complaints process where appropriate. Providing assistance to all parties to achieve effective, speedy local resolution.
Resolving concerns and complaints quickly and informally where possible and being able to de-escalate potentially challenging situations.
Recognising situations of concern, such as aggression, incidents, potential safeguarding concerns or matters impacting on the reputation of the Trust, and acting appropriately, and knowing when and how to escalate appropriately. Identifying issues that relate to other organisations and correctly signposting, quickly and effectively.
Liaising with identified Care Group/Governance staff to provide a seamless service to service users, relatives and carers in the resolution of concerns, and checking progress of any investigation and providing assistance if necessary.
Attending Local Resolution Meetings (LRM’s) to support Trust staff or service users in resolving their complaint.
Documenting accurate and contemporaneous details of concerns of service users, relatives and carers and keeping a record of outcomes of interventions. Maintain high standards of quality in all verbal and written communications, with both internal and external users of the service
Ensure complete, accurate and up to date records are kept of all enquiries, using the Datix database, which meet the requirements of the Local Authority Social Services and NHS Complaints Regulations (2009).
Facilitating meetings and discussions with service users, relatives and carers for the purpose of solving concerns. Providing notes and records of such meetings where appropriate.
Responsibility to extract the key information for investigation on receipt of complaints and feedback, and for reviewing and proof reading all formal written complaint responses in order to meet the Trust’s quality objectives, including contributing to a reduction in the number of complainants who tell us they are dissatisfied with our responses.
Responsibility to collate, proof read quality assure responses to ensure they meet the Trust’s standards; confidently able to analyse and challenge the information provided where necessary.
Provide cover when colleagues are absent from the office, either on annual leave or through sickness to ensure that all enquirers receive a timely response. This will include dealing with other caseworker’s existing cases or logging new cases and acknowledging new enquiries coming into the service when there are no administrators available.
Contribute and input to the department’s reporting quotas and provide clear summaries of issues on request.
Positively promoting the profile of the Patient and Family Experience Team, raising awareness of its functions across the organisation and enhancing interactions.
Extracting data from the Datix database to contribute to reports or in response to internal requests for information made by other Trust services.
Inputting any patient experience data as required to support the wider team.
Building and maintaining good relationships with all clinical and non-clinical staff in all departments.
Assisting the supervision/development of the Patient Experience Administrators
