gesh PALS Manager (ESTH)

The PALS Manager will be responsible for the leadership of the Patient Advice & Liaison Service (PALS) for Epsom and St Helier NHS Trust in accordance with national core standards. The PALS manager will be accessible to the public, the PALS team and other colleagues to receive, examine and resolve questions, problems, and concerns ranging from simple enquiries to complex issues and/or criticisms. In certain situations, the PALS manager will be able to refer to alternative means of resolution within the Trust or to other organisations for additional support of the patient's needs.

Main duties of the job

• The PALS Manager will advise and make recommendations to staff at all levels that will influence best practice, promote quality improvement and outcomes of clinical care.
• The PALS Manager will ensure that the patient perspective as presented to PALS contributes to the development of other Trust wide practices, strategies and policies to support patient centred healthcare.
• The PALS Manager will encourage and support the training and education of all staff based upon the patient experience, through direct involvement in the development and delivery of the Trust's patient experience training.
• The PALS Manager is responsible for supervising the PALS team, induction of new staff members in line with Trust policies, managing absence reporting and performance issues in line with Trust Policies, ensuring all team members undertake statutory and mandatory training.

Job responsibilities

• Maintain a high quality PALS for patients, relatives, members of the public, carers and staff seeking information, help, advice and assistance with enquiries and concerns relating to the trust services.
• Act as a readily accessible and welcoming point of contact for patients who may need help with any aspect of their care, or the service they have received.
• Facilitate, wherever possible, a sympathetic resolution, causing minimum distress to all those involved.
• Ensure the PALS environment presents a calm and welcoming atmosphere for those who seek help in person.
• Provide a confidential service, led by the patients wishes, in order to resolve problems and concerns by conciliation and mediation.
• Respond to requests and provide good quality information for patients and users. Empower and enable patients to exercise their rights and responsibilities.
• Work collaboratively with patients, relatives/carers and colleagues to feedback from their experiences, invite comments and accept views to support service improvement.
• Refer, as appropriate, patients and relatives/carers to NHS Complaints Procedures and Independent Complaints Advocacy Services.
• Maintain confidential records, ensuring patient confidentiality at all times, in accordance with Trust policy.
• Ensure all PALS concerns are acknowledged and actioned to expectation of National Core Standards.
• Ensure all PALS data is entered on governance reporting software in a timely and accurate fashion ensuring on-going training and accuracy of data entry to support themes and trends analysis.
• Identification of learning outcomes, monitoring of action plans and identification of subsequent service improvements achieved directly through PALS intervention.
• Support the development within the Trust of a strategic approach to obtaining patient and user feedback.
• Monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of the PALS through quality evaluation and audit.
• Identify and undertake projects to further the development of PALS as well as the wider patient experience agenda in the trust.
• Raise staff awareness and sensitivities to patient experiences through the formal/informal teaching of trust staff at all levels ensuring successful reflective practice to ensure awareness of good practice.
• Contribute to the development and delivery of the trusts patient engagement and experience training programme, specifically leading on the development and implementation of point of care resolution training and development.
• Ensure patient experiences influence trust-wide culture & services globally, through the preparation and presentation of Patient Experience Reports at trust committees.
• Develop effective liaison with the PALS teams in neighbouring Trusts and CCGs.
• Work with other agencies across the ICB to support a seamless service.
• Ensure a close and effective working relationship with patient engagement groups and produce ad hoc, confidential reports at their request.

Line Management/Financial Management Responsibilities

• To ensure the service is delivered within budgetary guidelines keeping in mind financial value of decisions made.
• Responsible for personal duty of care in relation to equipment, staff, and resources.
• To line manage PALS team members.

Specific Additional Responsibilities

• Post holder will actively attend working groups and parties.
• To ensure resolution of unaddressed issues is appropriately escalated to directorate business partners and patient experience lead.
• To actively publicise PALS within and beyond the Trust at every opportunity.
• To lead on key projects related to improving patient experience.

Person Specification

• Education, Qualifications and/or Training
• Essential: BSc/BA or significant experience to the equivalent.
• Post-graduate management qualification to diploma level or equivalent experience.
• Knowledge and Understanding
• Essential: Knowledge of the national core standards for PALS and understanding of best practice delivery.
• Understands the different available approaches to resolution of patient concerns.
• Knowledge of the NHS Complaints Procedure.
• Knowledge of organisational policies and procedures.
• Experience
• Essential: Extensive experience working in an NHS environment.
• Experience of working in a public-facing, customer service based role.
• Experience of translating NHS practice and terms into plain language and easily understandable ideas.
• Skills/Abilities
• Essential: Able to use reliable judgement in relation to PALS services as well as advise on trust policy and procedure.
• Able to supervise the day to day running as well as the wider operational management of PALS.
• Able to lead the PALS team ensuring effective staffing coverage of the PALS office.
• Able to analyse emotionally complex situations in order to provide supportive advice on ways to manage patient and relatives' concerns.
• Able to propose policy or service changes across the organisation on the basis of patient feedback.
• Able to analyse departmental data, trends, and themes to develop reports regarding trust performance in relation to PALS.

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.