OneCall Assistant Coordinator

Job description

Job responsibilities

Job Summary

To act as a key point of contact for the OneCall West Sussex service, ensuring that patients, other members of the public, external stakeholders and colleagues within the Trust receive a courteous and supportive response to a range of queries and requests for information. This will involve the use of excellent verbal and listening skills to ensure accurate referral information is collected.

• To provide business support, referral and all non-call activity management support and specialist administrative services to the Team Lead, Clinical Assessors & Coordinators.
• To ensure that the service is supported operationally, and all non-call activities are managed effectively and in a timely manner through the use of appropriate systems, procedures, and processes.
• To ensure that all non-call activities are answered promptly, handled in line with prioritisation needs safely and with care, compassion, and professional standards of communication. Awareness of the need to manage referral, email & task queues is essential, acting promptly to ensure the needs of referrers and staff are both met. The successful candidate will work alongside a team of Senior Clinical Assessors, Clinical Assessors and Coordinators to ensure this is achieved.

Communication and Working Relationships

• The post holder will work closely with the OneCall Team Lead and the wider team across all three sites. They will need to communicate on a regular basis with the OneCall Team as well as being required to liaise with staff and managers from other Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust Services, external partners such as Acute services, patients, and carers.
• The post holder will have to discuss and communicate sensitive, confidential and complex information about patients and staff.
• The post holder will be able to respond appropriately to challenging behaviour during a telephone call and ensure a positive outcome for any patient involved in these discussions.
• The post holder will have to actively participate in Team Meetings and other appropriate meetings.
• The post holder will develop their own skills ensuring that defined competencies are maintained and provide information to others to help their development.
• The post holder will make changes in their own practice and offer suggestions for improving services as appropriate.
• The post holder will maintain defined quality standards in their own work and encourage others to do so.
• The challenges for this post relate to achieving the key performance indicators for our service and ensuring that high standards of quality, professionalism and care are maintained at all times.

Key Responsibilities

• The post holder will provide administrative support to the OneCall team.
• To ensure all referrals are responded to in a safe and timely manner, to enable the patient to receive appropriate care within the community whenever it is safe to do so or to escalate if needs cannot be met within the community.
• The post holder will receive and respond to all referrals to the OneCall service (written or electronic), establish their appropriateness, assessing for urgency (and if necessary, liaising with the qualified member of staff on duty) and forwarding onto the relevant teams in written and verbal format. This will support the OneCall service to adhere to the Key Performance Indicators for call answering.
• The post holder is required to be flexible and always professional when interacting with others.
• The post holder will be expected to request further information by phone or electronically whilst maintaining confidentiality & high standards of professionalism throughout.
• The post holder does not have any financial responsibilities for the service.

Main Tasks

To be responsible for the processing of completed referrals and all non-call activities to ensure all information is passed promptly and accurately to the relevant service.

• Triaging of patient needs and ensuring the clear and accurate documentation of the assessment.
• To use local pathways and protocols to process these referrals in a timely manner to the appropriate teams.
• Be able to respond to conflict situations whilst remaining calm and professional.
• To provide assistance to the booking and allocation night support workers.
• To respond to all enquires relevant to the role appropriately, effectively and in line with service delivery expectations.
• To facilitate the request of further information as appropriate, always maintaining complete confidentiality
• To liaise directly with other directorates within the Trust, other health service providers, statutory and voluntary agencies and service groups ensuring effective communication and co-operation.
• To facilitate & support the effective and efficient taking of messages, with empathy & professionalism, ensuring community teams receive information at agreed times.
• To support the maintenance of an up-to-date service register of all community services including referral criteria and contact details.
• To input data as required, including the scanning, and uploading of documents.
• To effectively monitor and respond to the needs and requests within generic mailboxes, SystmOne and all other incoming means of non-call information to the service.
• To support the ordering of stationery and equipment as required.
• Respond effectively to any issues that arise during the shift e.g., telephone or IT failure.
• Reports any building or equipment maintenance problems to the Trusts Estates Helpline or escalate to the Senior Clinician on duty.
• To be flexible and always professional when dealing with others.
• The post holder may have tasks or responsibilities delegated to them, appropriate to their level of competence. They may also be expected to delegate tasks or responsibilities to other staff, as appropriate.
• To work collaboratively with OneCall senior management and Team Lead staff to develop practices and processes, ensuring that all service standards are maintained at all times.
• To maintain confidentiality at all times when dealing with personnel, staff and patient issues and sensitive Trust information and to ensure that all coordinator staff do so too, addressing any concerns immediately & appropriately.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• Maths and English grade C or equivalent
• Competent in the use of Microsoft Office including proficiency in Word, Excel, Access, Powerpoint, Outlook

Desirable

• Knowledge of SystmOne or other in-house activity systems
• NVQ Level 3 or equivalent qualification in business administration

Experience

Essential

• Demonstration of essential key skills and attributes

Desirable

• Experience working in a health and social care setting
• Contributing to the development of administrative or office procedures
• Experience of triage
• Working in an office environment where a large and diverse range of callers and visitors are received, acquiring excellent administrative and organisational skills
• Dealing directly with customers, patients and members of the public

Knowledge and skills

Essential

• Computer Literate with advanced skills in using Microsoft Office software to create attractive and well laid-out documents and presentations. Able to use Microsoft Outlook for diary, workload and email management
• Demonstration of ability in a wide range of key skills & attributes
• Demonstrates a calm and constructive approach to dealing with unpredictable situations
• Ability to prioritise, work independently to 'get things done' within tight deadlines

Desirable

• Experience with the use of telephony or call centre experience
• Knowledge of medical/nursing terminology

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Employer details

Employer name

Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust

Address

The Quadrant, Lancing Business Park

Marlborough Road

Lancing, West Sussex

BN15 8UW

Employer's website

https://www.sussexcommunity.nhs.uk/work-with-us/ (Opens in a new tab)