Coroner's Officer

This is a Full Time, Permanent Position. Are you looking for a challenging and rewarding role where you can make a real difference during some of the most difficult times in people’s lives? Do you have excellent communication skills, a positive team work ethic and demonstrate a meticulous attention to detail? Do you have the resilience to work in a fast-paced environment under significant time pressures and the ability to prioritise competing demands whilst dealing with distressing subject matters?

An exciting opportunity has arisen to join the Kingston upon Hull and East Riding of Yorkshire Coroner’s Service as a Coroner’s Officer, supporting HM Senior Coroner in delivering a vital public service to the community. You will act as first point of contact when sudden, unexpected, and unnatural deaths are reported to the Coroner’s Office; initiating initial enquiries and gathering evidence to enable judicial decision making.

Acting as a representative of the HM Senior Coroner, you will ensure compliance with statutory legislation (Coroners and Justice Act (2009) and the Coroners (Inquests) Rules 2013) and provide a professional level of customer service to both bereaved families and other interested parties. Emotional resilience and the ability to collate and deal appropriately with sensitive and personal material in what can be distressing circumstances is essential in this role.

About the role: In this role, you will act as the first point of contact for the HM Senior Coroner when sudden, unexpected, and unnatural deaths are reported to the office, initiating initial enquiries and gathering evidence to support judicial decision-making. You will manage complex and sensitive casework from the initial death report, ensuring all investigations are progressed efficiently and in line with current legislation. This includes collating reports, preparing inquest files, liaising with professionals, and supporting HM Coroner to make informed decisions.

You will need to be confident in dealing sensitively and professionally with people, particularly those who are vulnerable and/or distressed. Liaison with bereaved families, Police, medical personnel, internal and external agencies is a key part of the role and forms the basis of investigatory process. You will be able to demonstrate the capability to produce accurate work, pay meticulous attention to detail and will be able to evidence excellent organisational, adaptability, ICT and time management skills. Prioritisation and organisation of a demanding workload within tight timescales is paramount.

ROLE AND PURPOSE:

• To act as a representative for HM Senior Coroner for Hull and the East Riding of Yorkshire. Ensure the smooth running of the Coroner’s Office and compliance with the appropriate statutory requirements and that a professional high level of customer service is provided to both bereaved families and other interested parties.
• To receive reports of sudden, unexpected and unnatural deaths and complete enquiries into the circumstances of the death, exhausting all lines of enquiry in a timely environment.
• Progress evidence chasing and ensure the collation of reports, documents, and court bundles for presentation to the HM Coroner to enable judicial decision making. This includes the collation of sensitive medical and personal material.
• To provide advice and guidance to bereaved families, Doctors, Funeral Directors and other interested parties to ensure that the role of the HM Coroner is understood and correct procedures relating to the coroner’s enquiry are followed.

PRINCIPAL ACCOUNTABILITIES:

• Statutory Obligations - Prepare files for review by the HM Coroner ensuring that all casework is progressed in a purposeful manner. Statutory requirements include timescales and both explicit process and instruction from the HM Coroner that must be followed in order to support judicial decision making, are a key priority and accountability of the role. Seek guidance and make certain the appropriateness of any requests for disclosure and information sharing.
• To receive reports of deaths and complete enquiries into the circumstances of the death, gathering information from a range of sources in order to understand specific issues and progress to the HM Coroner for judicial decision making. Maintain accurate computer records for all aspects of the work, interrogating IT to retrieve information, update records and progress workflows as additional reports and information are received into the office. Ensure all information is accurately recorded and relevant to the HM Coroner’s needs.
• Co-ordinate and manage a personal workload of assigned cases, managing the process from reporting through to closure, generating, recording, distributing appropriate accurate and complete paperwork at all stages, monitoring progress to ensure timely completion of all cases and a quality service to bereaved families.
• To discuss causes of death with medical professionals, ascertaining the appropriateness and possibility of a medical certificate of cause of death (MCCD) being issued and agree actions with the HM Coroner pursuing further investigation or other necessary activity as requested by HM Coroner.
• Make all necessary arrangements for post-mortem; this may include appointing and briefing the appropriate general or special pathologists and also attending post-mortem to represent HM Coroner as and when required. Ensure adequate information is available to the HM Coroner to facilitate the timely release of the body (including any retained tissue or organs as appropriate) to the person legally entitled so that funeral arrangements can be made and/or organ donation facilitated.
• To establish and maintain contact with bereaved families and other interested parties, providing appropriate accurate and timely information and advice in an ethical and empathic manner including details of post-mortem examinations if required.
• To deal with incoming calls and correspondence sensitively and professionally. Liaising with Doctors, Pathologists, Mortuary staff, Funeral Directors and Registrars updating with information and taking appropriate action were necessary. Maintain secure, timely, accurate and complete computerised records of all contact.
• Prepare an inquest file for review by the HM Coroner and to be used in court. Ensure that all casework is progressed in purposeful manner and all necessary reports are available and actions completed, whilst pursuing missing information to aid the timely hearing of inquests.
• To participate in the out of hours rota to provide for a continuation of service outside of normal working hours, weekends, and bank holidays. Filter incoming calls and make enquires as appropriate to determine when the situation needs to be escalated to the Senior Coroner in line with the Regulation 4 of the coroners (Investigations) Regulations 2013.
• The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and associated legislation places responsibilities for health and safety on Hull City Council, as your employer and you as an employee of the council. In addition to the Councils overall duties, the post holder has personal responsibility for their own health, safety and wellbeing and that of other employees; additional and more specific responsibilities are identified in the Council’s Corporate H&S policy.

We are committed to increasing the diversity, equality, and inclusion within our workforce to represent the people we serve and build an environment in which everyone can feel like they belong. We encourage people from all backgrounds to apply.