Job summary
We are looking for a highly skilled and experienced Secretary / Administrator to join our team at Forest House on a fixed term contract for 12 months. Forest House is an acute inpatient and day- patient psychiatric unit for young people between 13 - 18 years of age.
At Forest House we provide care to young people and their families/carers who experience a variety of mental health difficulties, who may require more intense treatment which cannot be provided in their own home. There are 16 beds at Forest House and these are for female, male and non-binary gender young people.
You will lead in the provision of a comprehensive, professional, effective secretarial and administrative service to the team. As the first point of contact, you must possess mature judgement and maintain a calm, friendly and efficient manner when dealing with those you encounter, this will include but not limited to service users, their relatives, colleagues and visitors.
You would be expected to work independently using initiative and apply a high degree of confidentiality to all the work whilst undertaking non-routine duties without direct supervision, working within broad procedural guidelines.
Please note all staff should comply with the Trust's Anti-Discriminatory Statement, Employee Charter, Trust Policies and Procedures, Code of Conduct and Equality & Diversity.
Main duties of the job
Duties of the post (but not limited to):
- Answering calls, taking messages and handling correspondence
- Accurate data entry / quality
- Maintaining diaries and arranging appointments
- Minute Taking and letter typing
- General administrative tasks (copying, scanning, printing, ordering equipment and supplies etc)
- Supporting with annual leave requests
Skills required for the role:
- Pay attention to detail
- Work well independently and with others
- Remain calm in stressful situations
- Accept criticism and work well under pressure
- Excellent verbal communication and customer skills
- Numerate, computer-literate and energetic self-starters
About us
Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (HPFT) is an outstanding organisation with ambitions to match. We are one of just five mental health trusts to achieve an overall rating of 'Outstanding' from theCare Quality Commission, and our aim is to be the leading provider of mental health and specialist learning disability services in the country.
Our family of over 3500 members of staff provide health and social care for over 400,000 people with mental ill health, physical ill health and learning disabilities across Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire, and Norfolk, delivering these services within the community and several inpatient settings. We also deliver a range of nationally commissioned specialist services including Tier 4 services for children and young people, perinatal services, plus medium and low secure learning disabilities services.
The care we provide makes a fantastic difference to the lives of our service users, their families and carers - everything is underpinned by choice, independence and equality, with our Trust values embedded throughout:
Our Trust values are:
Welcoming. Kind. Positive. Respectful. Professional.
These values are at the core of who we are, everything we do, and how we do it!
Job description
Job responsibilities
- Responsible for ensuring all correspondence is accurately and appropriately presented using current methodologies and medical terminology used by the team
- Proficient in the full range of secretarial work practices, relevant software and Microsoft office programmes and specialised functional terms.
- Support the Team Leader in the day to day management of the electronic roster.
- Use a range of communication skills to develop effective relationships with managers, teams and colleagues; facilitating effective and timely communication.
- Exchange confidential, sensitive information with staff, service users and carers, in person or on the telephone. The unpredictability of service users means that persuasive, re-assuring, empathic, counselling skills are required at all times.
- Effectively communicate with people who may have difficulty understanding, and at times to give disappointing information tocolleagues, partners from other agencies and service users. Such as cancelling appointments timely distribution of minutes taken, chase actions, outputs and outcomes from all.
For a more detailed description of the role, please see attached JD and PS.
Job description
Job responsibilities
- Responsible for ensuring all correspondence is accurately and appropriately presented using current methodologies and medical terminology used by the team
- Proficient in the full range of secretarial work practices, relevant software and Microsoft office programmes and specialised functional terms.
- Support the Team Leader in the day to day management of the electronic roster.
- Use a range of communication skills to develop effective relationships with managers, teams and colleagues; facilitating effective and timely communication.
- Exchange confidential, sensitive information with staff, service users and carers, in person or on the telephone. The unpredictability of service users means that persuasive, re-assuring, empathic, counselling skills are required at all times.
- Effectively communicate with people who may have difficulty understanding, and at times to give disappointing information tocolleagues, partners from other agencies and service users. Such as cancelling appointments timely distribution of minutes taken, chase actions, outputs and outcomes from all.
For a more detailed description of the role, please see attached JD and PS.
Person Specification
Education
Essential
- RSA III/NVQ 3 or equivalent.
- Intermediate level in a range of software packages; Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
- Advanced to Intermediate experience of Microsoft Outlook and Internet research skills.
- Excellent written and spoken use of the English language.
- ECDL qualification
- Advanced secretarial skills such as audio typing, letter writing and other communication.
Desirable
- Pitman qualification in speedwriting, shorthand, touch typing
- Experience in a secretarial/ team administrator environment/role.
- Experience in a mental health environment or NHS.
- Knowledge of terms used by Mental Health in their day to day working.
Experience
Essential
- Evidence of the ability to organise and plan complex events, such as training sessions, committees and groups.
- Experience with managing more than one person's diary and conflicting schedule.
- The ability to organise and prioritise own workload within any specified guidelines where guidance is not readily available, but at set intervals.
- Proficient in diary management coordinating appointments to ensure best use of the team's time.
- Experience of transcribing formal minutes of meetings.
- Experience of adapting to change and managing work in a changing environment.
- Evidence of ability to be flexible and show initiative, sensitivity and enthusiasm to work.
Person Specification
Education
Essential
- RSA III/NVQ 3 or equivalent.
- Intermediate level in a range of software packages; Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
- Advanced to Intermediate experience of Microsoft Outlook and Internet research skills.
- Excellent written and spoken use of the English language.
- ECDL qualification
- Advanced secretarial skills such as audio typing, letter writing and other communication.
Desirable
- Pitman qualification in speedwriting, shorthand, touch typing
- Experience in a secretarial/ team administrator environment/role.
- Experience in a mental health environment or NHS.
- Knowledge of terms used by Mental Health in their day to day working.
Experience
Essential
- Evidence of the ability to organise and plan complex events, such as training sessions, committees and groups.
- Experience with managing more than one person's diary and conflicting schedule.
- The ability to organise and prioritise own workload within any specified guidelines where guidance is not readily available, but at set intervals.
- Proficient in diary management coordinating appointments to ensure best use of the team's time.
- Experience of transcribing formal minutes of meetings.
- Experience of adapting to change and managing work in a changing environment.
- Evidence of ability to be flexible and show initiative, sensitivity and enthusiasm to work.
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.
