Senior Caseworker in Manchester

About us

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) is a modern, vibrant organisation full of passionate, committed people. We make final decisions on complaints that have not been resolved by UK Government departments and the NHS in England. We work closely with people to understand where, how and why public services sometimes fall short and fail to put people first. And we find ways to put it right.

Based in the centre of Manchester, we employ over 600 individuals, collaboratively working together to make voices heard. We have created a diverse and inclusive culture, whilst offering flexibility to give you the autonomy to work in the best way suited to you. This is a hybrid role, with an expectation that you will work from the office at least 40% of the time.

The role

We have an exciting opportunity to become a Senior Caseworker, working on our most difficult and complicated cases. As a Senior Caseworker, you will undertake casework in a timely and proportionate way to meet our internal and external standards. We are looking for enthusiastic and motivated individuals to support and engage with change in their own area and within wider PHSO.

A key part of the role will be to ensure you progress all cases promptly and proportionately and look to fully resolve them at the earliest opportunity in line with our Quality Framework. Working independently in line with our delegation scheme, you will be expected to make nuanced and complex decisions which meet our quality standards.

You will have proven experience of successfully managing a varied workload, have excellent analytical skills, and the ability to make robust, evidenced-based decisions on complex material. You will be able to show appropriate empathy, whilst ensuring that you remain impartial.

Key benefits include:

• Civil Service Pension scheme
• 32.5 days annual leave (plus bank holidays on top)
• Hybrid working, 40 percent office based
• Access to a free, confidential Employee Assistance Programme offering 24/7 advice and support from professionals and counsellors
• Comprehensive learning and development programme
• Employee discount scheme across hundreds of retailers
• Bicycle loan scheme
• Season ticket loan
• Paid for professional memberships

Key dates

Start date: 28 September 2026 (no flexibility). You must be available for the first 3.5 weeks for training. Training: mix of office-based and virtual sessions; you’ll be in the office 3 days per week during the initial training period.

Join one of our virtual open days to hear from the team, learn more about the role, and ask questions.

How to apply (and how to do well)

You will answer four scored questions at application stage. We use these to shortlist, so your answers matter. Choose real examples (from professional settings), focus on what you did, not what “we” did as a group, explain your thinking: what you looked at, what you decided, and why, keep it clear and specific, avoid generic statements.

Shortlisting Criteria

The successful candidate will have:

• Experience of analysing complex written material and identifying and summarising key issues
• Ability to make robust, independent decisions on varied and complex casework
• Effective, proactive relationship management skills at all levels, including ability to convey difficult messages in writing, by telephone and, where appropriate, face to face
• Good planning and organisational skills and casework management experience.

We recognise the value of lived experience. If you have experience of complaining about any public body, we strongly encourage you to apply.

Please do not use AI to write your answers. We need to assess your own analytical and communication skills, and applications may be rejected if answers appear AI-generated. If your examples are very short, mostly opinion-based, or don’t describe a specific situation and outcome, you are unlikely to score well.

If you don’t have casework experience but are interested, we will be recruiting for our Caseworker role several times later in the year. You can set up job alerts on our careers page to keep up to date with new vacancies.

Equality, diversity, inclusion, and wellbeing are vital to the way we work and our culture. We want our colleagues to feel included, valued, and supported at work. It is essential that we are representative and accessible for the people who work here and those who use our service.

Actions we take to embed this include:

• An anonymised shortlisting process to make sure it is fair and unbiased
• Monitoring the demographic trends in our workforce and making measured, sustained efforts to improve our diversity at all levels
• Providing wellbeing support and opportunities for personal and professional development for all colleagues
• Creating spaces for connection and engagement through our employee network groups and social clubs
• Part of the disability confident scheme
• Providing reasonable adjustments
• Engaging in regular inclusion learning to enhance the cultural competency of our organisation.

We know the value of having diverse, representative teams across our organisation. Which is why we particularly encourage applications from candidates who are likely to be underrepresented within the team. These include people who are: Asian, Black, Mixed Ethnicity or another ethnic background, disabled, LGBTQ.

Contact and important information

If you would like to learn more about the role, please contact SCWRecruitment@ombudsman.org.uk and one of our Operations Managers will respond.

Interviews: held onsite. Feedback: we do not offer feedback at application stage. Right to work: we can only consider candidates with the right to work in the UK. Sponsorship: we are unable to offer sponsorship (we do not have a licence). Applications: we do not accept CVs—please apply via the application form (‘apply now’). Agencies: no agencies; applications from individuals only. Early closure: we may close the advert early if we receive a high volume of applications.

Important notice: fraudulent job postings

We have been made aware that some websites are falsely advertising job vacancies for the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO). We only advertise job vacancies through these official channels: our website, LinkedIn, GOV.uk, Indeed, Ombudsman association, BMEjobs.co.uk, LGBTjobs.co.uk. Do not share personal details with any other websites claiming to represent PHSO. Contact our recruitment team to report any concerns at recruitment@ombudsman.org.uk.