Eye Care Liaison Officer - Ayrshire and Arran in Kilmarnock

RNIB is pleased to announce this exciting opportunity to join our Eye Care Support Service in Aberdeenshire. This is a rewarding role providing the right individual the opportunity to make a difference every day working with people affected by sight loss.

Contract type: Permanent

Location: University Hospital Ayr and Crosshouse Hospital, Kilmarnock

You will provide critical emotional support, information and guidance, remotely via digital platforms and in community locations, as required. Each day you will support people affected by sight loss to identify their needs, access information and make informed choices which enable and empower them to maintain their independence. Admin tasks are a large part of this role; you will create and input accurate patient records into a variety of databases and use Microsoft365 each day.

Main duties of the job:

• You will have proven experience of delivering information and advice services working directly with the people you are supporting as well as maintaining professional relationships.
• Key to this role will be your excellent communication and relationship building skills with patients, clinicians and a wide range of cross sector partners.
• You will have the ability to work in different locations as required.
• You should be confident to work on your own initiative, have excellent organisational skills and be a confident user of IT systems.
• Impeccable record keeping skills are also key to this role.

As an RNIB ECLO, you will also complete the RNIB & City University Eye Clinic Support Studies qualification: essential for the role, access to Clinical Supervision, peer support and the opportunity to support RNIB priority of no diagnosis without support.

Job responsibilities:

This is an exciting opportunity to join RNIB’s Eye Care Support Service in Ayrshire and Arran. In this role, you will be a vital member of the team working directly with people diagnosed with conditions causing sight loss, their family members and carers. You will provide critical emotional support, information and guidance via telephone or digital platforms or in community locations and as required.

Each day you will support people affected by sight loss to identify their needs, access information and make informed choices which enable and empower them to maintain their independence. You will be critical in developing referral pathways and partnerships with Statutory and Third Sector partners, NHS Eye Care Services and community-based partners to develop referral routes, relationships and partnership working to support the needs of people living with a sight condition in Aberdeenshire.

Main Accountabilities:

• Provide advice, information, practical and emotional support to people of all ages affected by sight loss.
• Provide a person-centred screening of needs by telephone, in person and via digital platforms, ensuring those affected by sight loss feel more confident about where and how to get support, advice and guidance, signposting and referring patients to a wide range of services and organisations, as identified in the screening of needs.
• Develop positive working relationships to establish and maintain referral routes with a range of health, statutory and third sector organisations.
• Provide basic visual awareness training to eye clinic staff and others as required.
• Provide information and guidance on the certification and registration process for people with sight loss. To support eye clinic staff with the processing of the Certificate of Visual Impairment (CVI).
• Maintain an up-to-date and comprehensive information resource relating to services available for people with sight loss.
• Support patients, family and carers with advice on falls prevention and refer to available services where appropriate.
• When needed, act as an advocate for patients to navigate the complexities of the sight loss pathway to ensure they receive appropriate services.
• Collate and maintain accurate patient records, inputting quality data, using multiple IT systems. Undertake high-quality case recording in line with the highest standards and best practice principles, whilst ensuring compliance with all GDPR and information governance policies and procedures.
• Engage patients, their family members or carers to gather feedback on the ECLO service. Positively contribute to RNIB evaluation, monitoring and continuous improvement of the service.
• Attend clinical audit meetings, steering groups, forums and other events to promote the benefits of the service.
• Positively contribute to a range of local and national ECLO team meetings, networks, training and information events. Attend mandatory ECLO seminars and take responsibility for own CPD.
• Ensure that specific safeguarding risks, GDPR and regulatory requirements are understood, applied and managed in line with relevant NHS and RNIB policies.
• Support volunteers within the ECLO service and wider RNIB activities, where appropriate.

Person Specification:

• Proven experience of delivering information and advice services, preferably within a health, social care or community setting.
• Demonstrable experience of delivering person-centred support to customers and their family and carers.
• Demonstrable experience of working in health, social care or community support services and understanding the functions of their practitioners.
• Proven advanced communication skills, including positively influencing other professionals across health, social care or community services.
• Demonstrable IT literacy with proven experience of working with Office 365 and bespoke systems whilst adhering to GDPR Information Governance Policies and maintaining appropriate customer records.

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.