Integrated Care Navigator in Truro

Contracted Hours: Up to 18 hours a week across the weekends with the option to pick up overtime in the evenings and overnight.

Location: Cornwall 111 Control Centre (24/7 call centre environment).

Make a Difference Even After Dark! Become a Weekend & Overnight Call Navigator (Cornwall).

Shifts: Primarily Weekends (perfect for those looking to work around other commitments).

Salary: Competitive + enhancements for unsociable hours.

Are you someone who stays calm under pressure, has a genuine passion for helping others, and is ready to be a lifeline when people need it most? Join our dynamic Care Navigation Team, where every call matters especially at weekends. As demand for our services grows, so does our need for compassionate, professional, and quick-thinking individuals to join our team in delivering vital healthcare support. Whether it's navigating someone to the right treatment centre or coordinating urgent home visits, you'll be at the heart of patient care, often during the hours when help is needed most.

Main duties of the job

What You'll Be Doing:

• Answering urgent calls with empathy, professionalism, and efficiency.
• Navigating patient care with support from clinicians, sending them to the right place at the right time, be it a home visit, Minor Injury Unit, or treatment centre.
• Monitoring patient flow and call queues to keep everyone safe and cared for.
• Collaborating with our clinical teams and other healthcare professionals across the system.
• Problem solving on the fly, handling sensitive information responsibly, and keeping calm under pressure.
• Becoming a local service expert, knowing where to send people and how to support them quickly and confidently.

Why This Role Stands Out:

• Weekend Flexibility ideal if you're looking to fit work around your lifestyle.
• Be the calm in someone's storm you'll be a vital voice for patients in their time of need.
• Supportive team environment work closely with clinicians and service managers.
• Skills for life build experience in the NHS, call handling, care navigation, and more.
• No two shifts are the same a fast-paced, fulfilling environment where you'll never be bored.

Who You Are:

• A strong communicator with a calm, reassuring telephone manner.
• Adaptable, quick to learn, and tech-confident (we'll train you on our systems).
• Empathetic and ready to support people in urgent and sometimes stressful situations.
• Reliable and ready to commit to weekend and overnight working patterns.

About us

Kernow Health CIC is a Community Interest Company supporting General Practice and delivering Primary Care Services at scale across Cornwall. Established in 2011 by a group of Cornwall practices, we are a GP‑owned provider organisation delivering several NHS contracts, including:

• Cornwall 111 Integrated Urgent Care Service
• School Immunisation Programme
• Children's Eating Disorder Service
• Cornwall Primary Care Training Hub
• Special Allocation Scheme

All profits are reinvested to benefit primary care across Cornwall, supporting sustainable and locally responsive healthcare. Our Integrated Urgent Care Service operates 24/7, providing telephone triage, clinical assessment, treatment centre appointments and home visiting services across the county.

Why Join Kernow Health CIC?

• Shift patterns across weekdays, evenings, weekends and nights with competitive unsocial hours enhancements.
• Access to NHS Pension Scheme.
• Competitive sickness, maternity and paternity provisions.
• Competitive annual leave, with the ability to buy and sell leave.
• Employee benefit programme through Vivup.
• Access to training and continuous professional development through the Cornwall Primary Care Training Hub.
• The opportunity to work within a high performing, supportive, multidisciplinary and forward‑thinking urgent care service.

Please note, we reserve the right to close the advert early should there be a significantly high level of applications.

Job responsibilities

The Care Navigator plays a crucial role in supporting the delivery of safe, timely, and effective patient care within the Cornwall 111 Integrated Urgent Care Service. Working closely with clinicians, they act as a key point of contact for patients, helping to direct calls and navigate individuals to the most appropriate services based on clinical guidance and system protocols. By managing the triage queue and identifying patients who may require urgent attention, Care Navigators ensure that clinical priorities are addressed swiftly. Under the direction of a clinician, they help direct Single Point of Access (SPA) calls, contact patients to gather further health information, and use structured templates and forms to record and relay accurate data. This enables clinicians to make informed decisions and maintain continuity of care. Their ability to handle high volumes of calls professionally and empathetically contributes to a positive patient experience, while their knowledge of local services allows for effective signposting and resource utilisation. Care Navigators also support the dispatch of home visits and booking of treatment centre appointments, helping to manage patient flow and maintain safety across the system. Their visible presence within the Clinical Advisory Service team fosters collaboration and operational awareness, while their communication with patients, clinicians, and external partners ensures that queries are resolved efficiently. By combining administrative precision with compassionate engagement, Care Navigators are essential to the smooth functioning of the urgent care pathway and the delivery of high‑quality patient care.

Key Duties and Responsibilities:

• Call Handling - Manage incoming calls to the IUCS and Acute GP Service using the clinical systems, ensuring patients are greeted professionally and navigated efficiently to appropriate services.
• Triage Queue Monitoring - Regularly assess the triage queue to identify patients needing urgent attention, escalating to clinicians to maintain safety and responsiveness.
• SPOA Call Direction - Direct Single Point of Access calls under clinician instruction, ensuring patients are routed to the correct service based on clinical need.
• Care Navigation - Support care navigation within integrated care across, primary, urgent and emergency care.
• Patient Contact - Contact patients to gather additional health information using structured forms and templates, supporting accurate clinical assessment.
• Information Recording - Accurately document patient interactions and health details, ensuring data integrity and compliance with clinical governance standards.
• Documentation Handling - Manage and support organisational process for documents received in relation to special patient notes, clinical care and child protection notifications.
• Clinical Care Navigation - Work with clinicians within the IUCS service to deliver the clinical care navigation model.
• Home Visit Dispatch - Prioritise and dispatch home visits according to clinical urgency, ensuring timely care and efficient use of resources.
• Appointment Booking - Schedule treatment centre appointments, balancing clinical priority with service capacity to maintain safe patient flow.
• Capacity Monitoring - Monitor demand for home visits and appointments, alerting managers when capacity risks patient safety or service performance.
• Service Knowledge - Maintain detailed knowledge of local healthcare services and pathways to enable effective patient navigation and signposting.
• Professional Liaison - Communicate with clinicians, service managers, and external partners to resolve queries and coordinate patient care.
• System Maintenance - Update the Adastra database, including special patient notes and record corrections, ensuring accurate and current patient records.
• Team Support - Assist with team meetings, training sessions, and business continuity planning, contributing to a cohesive and prepared workforce.
• Challenging Behaviour Management - Handle interactions with distressed or challenging individuals using calm, professional communication and escalation protocols.
• Performance Contribution - Support the achievement of service KPIs and quality standards through efficient call handling and patient navigation.
• Escalation Protocols - Recognise and escalation protocols, ensuring timely resolution and patient safety.
• Compliance - Adhere to all mandatory training, policies, and protocols, maintaining professional standards and regulatory compliance.
• Flexibility - Adapt to changing organisational needs, working across shifts and roles to support continuous service delivery.
• Prescriptions - Manage and complete documentation to support operational process for prescription management.

You will be expected to carry out any other duties that may reasonably be required in line with your main duties, as directed by your line manager.

We recognise that AI is becoming part of daily life, and you may choose to use it to help prepare your application. We welcome innovation but ask that anything you submit reflects your own abilities, experience, and voice. AI can support how you describe your skills and experience, but it should never replace your own words as we want to get to know you.

Person Specification

• Qualifications: GCSEs in Maths and English at grade C or above; Good level of literacy and numeracy; Demonstrated IT competence, including digital literacy and ability to navigate systems while communicating with patients; Education to A-level (or equivalent).
• Experience: Previous call centre or customer service experience, or experience working with members of the public; Commitment to providing excellent patient care and ability to communicate effectively in a professional and empathetic manner; Experience working within an NHS environment, particularly in primary, urgent, or emergency care; Prior experience handling high volumes of inbound calls or working in an out‑of‑hours control centre; Knowledge of Cornwall's healthcare system and geography; Experience working to targets and KPIs; Training or experience in conflict management.

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.