Complaints Officer

Our vision for Single Corporate Services  

Isle of Wight NHS Trust (IWT) and Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust (PHU) have a shared vision of a single corporate service across our two organisations, supported by a single set of identical systems and processes, under joint leadership, to drive significant efficiencies, improve employee experience, and return time to patient care. 

This vacancy is part of the Single Corporate Services Division.

The vision for our single corporate services is to:

• Be an employer of choice for corporate talent, attracting and retaining people who share our values for excellence in care and welcome the opportunity to benefit from the broad range of flexible career and development opportunities we can offer.   
• Improve efficiency through simplified and standardised policies, processes, and systems, drawing on the best from both Trusts.  
• Do things once and reduce any duplication on transactional tasks giving corporate staff the ability to focus on higher value and more diverse activities.  
• Co-invest in the latest digital solutions and standardise our approach, meaning we do things once for both organisations. 
• Improve learning and development opportunities and sharing best practice, upskilling both Trusts.  
• Co-locate teams in purpose-built facilities on the Island and in Portsmouth to enable closer working and sharing.  
• Build resilience for individuals and our teams. 

The single corporate service is delivered across both organisation.  You may be based at either IWT or PHU and individuals may be required to undertake business travel between sites. For leaders managing staff across multi-site locations, you will need to be visible and provide in person leadership. The arrangements and frequency will be agreed locally.

This vacancy is open to employees of Isle of Wight NHS Trust and Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust only.

Grade: NHS Agenda for Change Band 3 

Hours: Full time 37.5 hours per week

Contract Type: Permanent 

Location: Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust, De La Court House, Queen Alexandra Hospital, Cosham, Portsmouth PO6 3LY. Individuals may be required to undertake business travel between sites 

Isle of Wight NHS Trust and Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust have an exciting opportunity to join our Single Corporate Services Division as a Complaints Officer.

In this role the postholder will need to provide an excellent standard of customer care support to patients and relatives who have raised concerns about any treatment they have received at the Trust; they will also need to be able to provide advice and support to not just patients and relatives, but to visitors, MPs, advocates, external NHS organisations and Trust stuff on the handling of formal complaints and PALS concerns.

The successful candidate will be working as part of a team on behalf of the Chief Executive in achieving the statutory requirements of complaints handling within required deadlines, as well as helping deliver a high standard of administrative support to the complaints team- this includes: dealing with telephone and email enquiries, maintaining the database system (Datix), scanning, photocopying, supporting the production of timely and accurate reports on formal complaints, and identifying any emerging trends and themes and ensuring these are escalated to the Complaints Manager.

For more information please see the full Job Description

Essential qualifications

• Educated to GCSE level (or equivalent)
• NVQ Customer Services (Level 3)
• Proficient in the use of Microsoft Office, Excel and databases

Essential experience

1. Experience of working in a busy customer service environment or complaints handling environment
2. Experience of working within an NHS or Social Care environment
3. Ability to work using own initiative, deal with competing priorities and have a high level of accuracy in recording information
4. Excellent verbal, telephone, and written communication skills
5. Excellent administrative skills
6. Knowledge of NHS Governance and Risk Management
7. Knowledge of Data Protection Act or Freedom of Information Act legislation
8. Demonstrate tact and diplomacy when dealing with highly sensitive issues and maintain confidentiality
9. Time management skills with the ability to prioritise own workload
10. Problem solving skills and ability to respond to sudden unexpected demands

The health and wellbeing of our staff is at the forefront of everything we do. We are proud to be able to offer our staff some fantastic benefits including our on-site Nursery, access to our free Beach Hut for those long summer days, our on-site Wellness Centre including a gym and a swimming pool, access to our fantastic staff networks including LGBTQ, Race Equality and DisAbility, and awards ceremonies to recognise your achievements. We believe we can offer support to all of our staff when they need it the most.

Please note your application may be transferred to the Isle of Wight Applicant Tracking System (ATS) if you are selected for an interview

We welcome the unique contributions that you can bring in terms of your education, opinions, culture, ethnicity, race, sex, gender identity and expression, nation of origin, age, languages spoken, veteran’s status, colour, religion, disability, sexual orientation, and beliefs.

We welcome the unique contributions that you can bring in terms of your education, opinions, culture, ethnicity, race, sex, gender identity and expression, nation of origin, age, languages spoken, veteran’s status, colour, religion, disability, sexual orientation, and beliefs.