Job summary
Are you passionate about improving patient experiences, ensuring peoples voices are heard, and helping to drive positive change across health and care services?
Join our Quality Team as a Patient Experience Officer, supporting patients, families, carers and stakeholders across Birmingham and Solihull and the Black Country. Turn feedback into service improvements.
In a fast-paced, collaborative team, support patient experience and complaints, providing timely, person-centred advice and signposting in line with national and local requirements.
Triage and coordinate enquiries and complaints, maintain records, track deadlines and support reporting. Work with NHS providers, system partners, advocacy services and internal teams to resolve concerns and share learning.
Analyse information and themes, contribute to audits and service reviews, and support policy and process development to improve patient experience and organisational learning.
Communicate confidently with patients, relatives, professionals, advocates and senior stakeholders. Use sound judgement, organisation and attention to detail to manage sensitive, complex situations with empathy and discretion.
Bring motivation, compassion, professionalism, experience handling sensitive information and strong written and verbal skills. Balance priorities while maintaining service standards.
Help build a patient-centred culture that listens, values feedback and improves care and community outcomes.
Main duties of the job
As a Patient Experience Officer in the ICB Quality Team, provide compassionate support to patients, carers, families and stakeholders, using feedback to improve commissioned care.
Triage, allocate and progress enquiries, concerns and complaints within agreed timescales and KPIs. Advise and signpost patients, families, advocates, MPs, providers and partners, keeping them informed.
Coordinate formal and informal complaints: obtain consent, maintain records, arrange meetings, support investigations, track progress and ensure clear, accessible communications.
Assess complexity and severity, identify themes and resolution routes, escalate serious issues, including safeguarding, and support risk management.
Keep DATIX and other records accurate, current and compliant with information governance. Support reports and performance data for decisions, quality assurance and learning.
Work with providers, NHS partners, councils, advocacy and voluntary services to resolve concerns, support complaint meetings and share learning.
Support policies, procedures, audits, evaluations and reviews to improve patient experience, complaints processes and service quality.
Train and advise colleagues, new starters and stakeholders on processes, systems and best practice, promoting accountability and continuous improvement.
Help improve care and community outcomes across Birmingham, Solihull and the Black Country.
About us
Birmingham, the Black Country and Solihull Integrated Care Board (ICB) brings together the NHS, local councils and voluntary sector partners to support 2.7 million people. Our vision is to make the area the healthiest place to live and work by improving life chances and reducing inequalities.
As an employee, you will demonstrate our system values, champion inclusion and help address health inequalities so everyone can thrive. In return, the ICB offers a supportive, ambitious and inclusive workplace, with opportunities to develop and work with partners to deliver meaningful change.
The ICB is committed to a workforce that reflects the population of Birmingham, the Black Country and Solihull. We promote equality, diversity and inclusion and welcome applications from everyone who meets the role criteria, regardless of age, gender, disability, race, religion or sexual orientation.
The ICB is a registered Disability Confident Employer. We welcome applications from disabled people and will shortlist suitable applicants who meet the essential criteria.
This vacancy is open only to employees of BBCS ICB. Successful internal applicants will remain employed by their current ICB and their work base will remain unchanged
Job description
Job responsibilities
Please refer to the full job description and person specification attached.
You will be accountable for:
- Handling incoming contacts into the ICB, ensuring KPIs and deadlines are adhered to.
- Co-ordinating and allocating incoming work to the Customer Services Team, under the delegation of the Complaints or Patient Experience lead, ensuring the relevant target is met.
- Enact the consent process for NHS formal complaints prior to launching any formal investigation, ensuring that clear communication is given to the complainant/patient throughout.
- Triaging all contacts (assess severity, complexity and departments involved, telephone complainants, complete management plans and relevant DATIX fields).
- Exercising judgement when dealing with enquiries and analyse a range of facts and information to resolve the issue or direct to the most appropriate individual or team for support.
- Use DATIX to monitor timescales against key performance indicators within the informal process, escalating where appropriate.
- Formatting outward facing correspondence, ensuring they are written in easy-to-understand language, with correct grammar, spelling, punctuation and in the agreed format.
- Proactively answer queries regarding complaints and the process, using own judgement on how to provide this information depending on the circumstances of the individual who is raising the query I.e. encouragement of the local resolution process.
- Support other departments, providing advice and guidance on resolution timescales.
- Having the knowledge to allocate work, problem solve on behalf of the department and answer queries from a wide range of stakeholders
- Responsible for the escalate serious matters, such as safeguarding/incidents to the Patient Experience Manager and/or Patient Complaints Manager
- Ensuring DATIX is maintained with up-to-date information and use this to provide high quality data presented in different formats for ICB reports. This requires concentration and attention to detail to ensure reports are accurate.
- Ensure implementation of, and effective adherence to, the ICBs Complaints Policy.
- Actively considering and proposing changes to work practices and procedure relating to the team, including contributing to policy changes and development pertinent to own area of work.
- Responsible for providing training and practical support to new starters and existing team members on relevant processes, updates and any new developments within own work area.
- Contributing to the improvement of the informal resolution through audit, evaluation, and feedback including contributing to policy amendments.
- Understanding the need for confidentiality and how this can be impacted, to know its limits in relation to safeguarding, and to always work within child protection protocols, following associate policies and using judgement to escalate to Patient Complaint / Experience Manager, where appropriate.
- Co-ordinating files and release, as appropriate, for the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman and other information requests, such as Subject Access Requests and Freedom of Information (FOI).
- Coordinating and facilitating complaint meetings to support resolution prior to the formal complaints process, advise ICB and provider staff on the process for recording meetings, providing follow-up letters, and sending to complainants.
- Providing and receiving complex, sensitive, or contentious information, barriers to understanding required.
- Providing and receiving routine information orally, in writing, and electronically to inform work colleagues, patients/relatives and other external contacts.
- Dealing with queries via the telephone, email, and face to face from complainants, advocates, ICB staff and other external contacts, inclusive of our service providers.
- Effectively communicate across all boundaries (complainants, attendees, advocates, MPs) using negotiation and persuasion skills to establish availability and confirm arrangements.
- Providing information to senior team members for the preparation of a variety of reports
Person Specification
Personal Qualities
Essential
- Caring and considerate, with a genuine passion for improving the lives of our communities
- Respectful and able to listen to/take on board feedback from others
- Open and honest, ensuring that you are approachable in conducting your role
- Understanding of individual differences
- Trustworthy and able to maintain confidentiality
- Good time keeping
- Ability to maintain calm under pressure
Skills and Abilities
Essential
- Excellent verbal and written language and proof-reading skills
- Ability to produce error-free documents with a keen eye for detail
- Ability to compose a wide range of written communications, including analysing and summarising information, for a wide range of audiences
- High level skills for communicating complex information with a broad range of stakeholders
- Problem-solving skills and ability to respond to sudden and unexpected demands
- Excellent time management skills with the ability to reprioritise
- Able to function and remain focused in high pressure situations
- Ability to work collaboratively as part of a team to achieve collective goals
- Ability to motivate and encourage others
Desirable
- Advanced keyboard skills
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
Essential
- A demonstrable understanding of equality, diversity and inclusion
Autonomy
Essential
- Ability to work to own initiative and maintain a high level of organisation
Qualifications
Essential
- Educated to degree level in relevant subject, or equivalent level qualification, or equivalent demonstrable relevant experience
- Evidence of continued professional development
Desirable
- Project management experience or qualification
Experience
Essential
- Experience of managing or maintaining information systems
- Knowledge of project principles and techniques
- Experience of working in a fast-paced environment, where adjustment to project tasks and other priorities occurs regularly
- Experience of dealing with confidential and sensitive issues with tact and diplomacy
- Experience of achieving objectives by working with others not under your direct line management
- Experience of complaints management and patient experience services
Desirable
- Broad knowledge across a range of work procedures and practices which require expertise within a specialism, or specialist knowledge across a range of areas underpinned by theoretical knowledge or experience
- Demonstrable experience in a business/project support or manager role
Mobility
Essential
- Flexible approach to work
- Ability to travel across sites as required
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
Black Country Integrated Care Board
Address
Black Country Integrated Care Board
Wolverhampton Civic Centre
St Peter's Square
Wolverhampton
WV1 1SH
United Kingdom
Employer's website
https://blackcountry.icb.nhs.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)
Patient Experience Officer in Wolverhampton employer: Black Country Integrated Care Board
The Black Country Integrated Care Board is an exceptional employer, dedicated to fostering a collaborative and inclusive work culture that prioritises the well-being of its employees. Located in Birmingham, this role offers unique opportunities for professional growth and development while making a meaningful impact on health outcomes in local communities. With a strong emphasis on teamwork and innovation, employees are empowered to lead initiatives that address health inequalities, ensuring a rewarding and fulfilling career path.
Contact Details:
Black Country Integrated Care Board Recruitment Team
