Dental Call Handler

Welcome to FCMS! FCMS is commissioned by the Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board (ICB) to provide an NHS dental telephone triage and signposting service. Handling approximately 120,000 calls each year, our dedicated team supports patients across Lancashire and South Cumbria by assessing urgent dental needs, booking appointments, providing advice and arranging onward referrals where appropriate. The service operates 365 days a year, covering both in-hours and out-of-hours dental care. Operating hours are Monday to Friday 8am to 9pm, Weekends & Bank holidays 10am to 5pm.

About the Service: The dental helpline aims to direct patients following a telephone triage to the most appropriate service whether that be advice or an appointment, or an onward referral. Patients may need urgent and emergency dental care for symptoms such as pain, swellings, bleeding and injuries/traumas.

Main duties of the job: We are seeking compassionate, resilient and professional individuals to join our Dental Call Handling Team. As the first point of contact for patients seeking urgent dental support, you will play a vital role in delivering safe, effective and patient-centred care. Using approved dental triage algorithms, you will assess patient needs, book appointments, provide information and direct patients to the most appropriate service, escalating concerns to the Dental Nurse Supervisor if additional support is required.

Part Time positions: These are not standard office-hour positions. Successful candidates must be able to commit to the shift patterns outlined below, which includes evening and weekend shifts. Due to the nature of the service, flexibility to cover additional shifts, annual leave and short-notice absences is highly desirable.

About you: A caring and compassionate personality is extremely important, confident in speaking to patients, and able to work in a busy and sometimes challenging environment, remaining calm under pressure. Fully supported by our experienced Dental Nurse Supervisors. Able to have fun and develop good relationships with the team.

About us: The ethos of FCMS as a social enterprise, health and wellbeing services provider is to be passionate in its drive to ensure that patients and callers remain the central focus of all that it does. Coupled with excellent and well-established clinical governance systems and extremely effective operational expertise, it has meant that the company has the ability to strategically visualise, develop, and implement award-winning services. Over many years we have invested in our staff so that we have a core team of highly trained individuals who can manage the needs of our patients and callers. Our staff are able to significantly improve the service delivery and user experience due to their considerable experience and commitment to what they do.

We offer:

• NHS Pension
• Cycle to Work Scheme
• Career Development Opportunities
• Attendance Bonus
• Staff Benefit Scheme
• Free Tea & Coffee
• Eye Care Contributions

Job description: The duties listed below are representative of the role and are not intended to be exhaustive:

• Undertake telephone triage and assessments within a busy call-handling environment, providing patients with dental appointments, advice, self-care guidance and information to help them access the most appropriate level of care.
• Accurately collect, record and update patient information using clinical system Adastra, ensuring all records are completed promptly and maintained in accordance with confidentiality and data protection requirements.
• Use effective listening, questioning and communication skills to gather relevant information and support patients who may be distressed, anxious, frustrated or experiencing challenging circumstances.
• Assess patients' needs using approved dental algorithms, and guidance from the Dental Nurse Supervisor to determine the most appropriate outcome.
• Book appointments, make onward referrals and provide signposting to relevant services where appropriate.
• Communicate professionally and compassionately with patients, colleagues and external healthcare providers at all times.
• Support patients whose circumstances may make it difficult for them to engage with or follow recommended advice and treatment pathways.
• Contribute to service quality and continuous improvement activities, including audits, feedback processes and identifying opportunities to enhance patient experience and service delivery.
• Promote equality, diversity and inclusion, ensuring all patients are treated fairly, respectfully and in accordance with organisational policies and procedures.
• Support a positive and open safety culture by raising concerns, incidents or risks promptly and appropriately.
• Maintain compliance with all mandatory training, service updates and organisational policies.
• Work collaboratively with internal teams and external partners to ensure effective patient care and service delivery.
• Undertake any other reasonable duties, as requested by management.

Our key expectations are:

• Self-awareness
• Living authentically
• Adaptability - Being ready to adjust depending on the situation
• Openness
• Positivity with a real sense of being able to strive for the impossible
• Generosity of spirit - Everyday should be an opportunity to act with kindness
• Ability to have fun
• Taking the role seriously, whilst being yourself

Our Why: To nurture an environment of inspiration, innovation and disruption so that people in our world receive exceptional healthcare for this generation, and the next.

Values: Our organisational culture is very important to us, so it is vital that the successful candidate lives and breathes complimentary values and behaviours. Our behaviours should be in line with our values which form part of our Company DNA:

• Fun: People rarely succeed unless they are having fun. Happiness is healthy!
• Awesome: We aren't here to be average, we're here to be awesome!
• Humble: We're here to make a difference to the lives of others, NOT to see how important we can become
• Brave: We challenge the norm. We have the courage to get the difficult jobs done
• Oompf: We have natural oompf! It's infectious!
• Go-getting: We are intuitive to changing needs and respond quickly which we do with energy, ideas, and positivity

Disability Confident Employer: As users of the disability confident scheme, we guarantee to interview all disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for the vacancy.

DBS: This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exemption 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. This will require three forms of valid ID to be produced and verified. The onboarding process is also subject to an Occupational Health check, suitable professional references and eligibility to work in the UK (with the requirement to provide relevant documentation as evidence). For Driver positions you will also be required to undertake a Driver check.

Person Specification:

• Qualifications Desirable: Customer service, Health care related
• Experience Essential: Customer service, Able to multitask, type & talk simultaneously.
• Desirable: Experience in a healthcare office or administrative role preferably in Dentistry, Telephone triage, Call centre environment
• Other Essential: Honest, Kind & Compassionate, Confidence with talking to patients, Ensuring our culture is always upheld, Teamworking and able to work autonomously, Negotiation and influencing skills.
• Desirable: Computer/IT Skills, Attention to detail able to notice when something doesn't feel right, being able to ask probing questions in a delicate manner to obtain important information to safeguard patients.