Team Leader – Access to Health Records - NHS

Job overview

Interview expected to take place in the week following shortlisting: commencing 10.02.25

We are looking for an enthusiastic, well-motivated individual to lead the Access to Health Records Team at Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

We are looking for someone with excellent communication, time management and organisational skills, and must be able to work under pressure. The role will involve the co-ordination of all activities within the team, as well as monitoring compliance and ensuring achievement of required performance levels in a complex environment that is bound by strict regulations.

The job holder must be able to use their own initiative and prioritise the workload of themselves and the wider team, to ensure deadlines are met as specified.

Previous leadership experience is essential, along with a basic knowledge of the legislation, as detailed in the Person Specification. A good working knowledge of the NHS would be advantageous. Previous administrative, communication and IT skills are essential to the success of the role.

For informal queries, please contact Awais Siddique, Service Manager, on 01274 365777.

Main duties of the job

The job holder will co-ordinate the provision of a comprehensive and efficient service ensuring that all access to medical record requests are logged, monitored and dealt with according to the Access to Health Records procedure. This will include meeting statutory requirements and supporting the delivery of key performance indicators, and to the benefit of the patient experience.

The job holder will lead a team of administrators to ensure efficient and effective systems of work are carried out and that internal service departments experience an excellent service.

The job holder will act as a point of reference to other team members offering expertise and guidance in relation to complex issues in particular relating to Access to Health Records.

The job holder will deal with complex telephone calls and face to face enquiries from patients, staff, other Health Care Providers and solicitors ensuring that they are dealt with accurately, in a timely, polite and courteous manner.

Working for our organisation

Our People Charter outlines the behaviours we can expect from one another and what you can expect from Bradford Teaching Hospitals Foundation Trust:

• We value people
• We are one team
• We care

We’re keen to meet people who share these values and are passionate about delivering the highest quality of care to our patients.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• Provide supervision, co-ordination, and leadership of the Access to Health Records Team
• Ensure the team carry out assigned activities in line with required performance levels, and in accordance with SOP’s, policies and procedures, job descriptions, and Service Level Agreements
• Ensure the team receive full training and support to carry out the role effectively
• Support the delivery of training to ensure cross-cover across the department where appropriate, and with other teams within Corporate Operations (with a focus on a specific team to ensure there is adequate cover in place to prevent any gaps in service provision
• Undertake the appraisals of all directly reporting staff, ensuring the completion of mandatory training, induction and departmental training, competency and skills assessment, and performance development for staff within the team.
• To ensure a full and effective onboarding and local induction process is in place and followed, to support new colleagues
• Lead by example in developing a professional set of behaviours to deliver an enhanced service, fostering a professional approach and a culture of quality
• To take an active role in the HR management of the team and be the first line of contact as a team leader.
• To manage your own workload and report any issues or concerns to your direct line manager.
• Provide full supervision, line management, appraisals, guidance, and coaching to all members of the team.
• Ensure that all staff within teams are tasked appropriately, and have the opportunity to develop and progress.
• To manage all sickness and absence within the team, supporting our team members, and acting in line with the relevant HR policies and procedures
• To ensure all rota’s and electronic rosters are completed well in advance and shared, ensuring that there is full and sufficient cover within all teams in the Service
• To chair regular team meetings in order to develop the team, share best practice, and foster a culture of teamwork
• To deputise for the Team Manager when required

• Provide day to day co-ordination of the team to ensure there is full continuity of service and any gaps are mitigated
• Co-ordinate a comprehensive and efficient Access to Health Records service, meeting the needs of the patients, clinicians and outside agencies and delivering against the Trust and National operating standards and procedures.
• To actively work to deliver the KPIs of the service
• To work as an active member of the team to support the delivery of these KPIs and Targets, carrying out the role of the team members as/when required.
• To be able to respond to urgent and immediate demands and to redirect the workload of the team to accommodate urgent requests.
• To escalate any issues or concerns relating to performance or targets
• To ensure the timely submission of Performance Reporting, as directed by the Service Manager
• Co-ordinate comprehensive and efficient services, meeting the needs of patients, clinicians, internal colleagues, and outside agencies.
• To deliver on the Trust and National operating standards and procedures.
• To allocate workloads to the team members ensuring all work requests are acted upon and monitored to enable statutory or internally dictated timescales to be delivered
• Ensure that all telephone calls are dealt with in a timely, polite and courteous manner ensuring enquiries are dealt with professionally. Support the team to handle more complex calls and queries providing assistance as required and to personally handle the more difficult calls ensuring corrective actions are taken and communicated as appropriate.
• Escalate any issues which compromise delivery of the required workloads
• To provide general non-clinical advice or information to patients, relatives and staff in relation to the role or service, in accordance with current legislation or Trust policies where appropriate.
• To monitor, test, and report any damage of all equipment required within the services – including but not limited to computers, phones and devices, scanners, printers and label printers.
• Monitor key performance indicators to establish areas of concern, resolve issues and escalate when necessary. To report on these indicators on a regular basis to the Senior Leadership Team.
• To store and share the data in different formats, as required by the Team Manager and/or Service Manager. This could include databases, reports, documents, charts, graphs, papers, or summaries.
• To ensure there is full oversight for any out-of-hours provision within the service or services of responsibility.
• To allocate workloads to the team members ensuring all requests, reminders and replies to queries are logged and monitored to enable statutory timescales to be delivered.
• To understand the Access to Health Records procedure and the procedure for specific requests for medical records and understand how the role of the Access to Health Records service supports the achievement of the Trust targets; to proactively manage the service resolving issues to avoid breaches in meeting statutory timescales.
• To co-ordinate team activities to ensure that all enquiries, requests, applications are reviewed to ensure accurate completion, and compliance with timescales and the relevant legislation and Trust policies.
• Escalate to the Team Manager or Service Manager any issues which compromise delivery of the required workloads and in particular the impact on the Access to Health Records procedure or relevant legislation and Trust policies.
• Provide supervision for any Access to Health Records procedures resolving issues in a timely manner to ensure that correct documentation is available for all requests in accordance with service standards and timescales.

• To develop key relationships with staff both within the local teams but also in the wider organisation, to ensure that the services are as swift and effective as possible to ensure an exceptional patient experience.
• To build a strong relationship with external contractors and internal stakeholders to ensure an effective service delivery.
• To develop audit tools as and when required to ensure availability of accurate information, compiling data into reports when necessary.
• To complete audits as required and when directed, reporting on outcomes and recommending actions for improvement
• To support the implementation of new ways of working, revised standard operating procedures, revised policy changes and general service improvements as directed by the Service Manager, ensuring all team members are trained and adhere to the new ways of working.
• Support the development and implementation of projects, to improve working practices to deliver more effective provision of services and offer cost improvements for the Trust. Support the team to develop a culture of continuous service improvement encouraging team members to identify improvements which could improve process, quality and patient outcomes.
• Keep up to date with relevant NHS or Trust issues, and national best practices in the service areas
• Keep up to date with the development of electronic systems and ensure good data quality and training.
• To identify quality issues within the Access to Health Records Team ensuring corrective action is taken and to feed back to the individual to support their personal development and learning.
• To develop key relationships with staff both within the local teams but also in the wider organisation, to ensure that Access to Health Records is as swift and effective as possible to ensure an exceptional patient experience.
• To support the implementation of new ways of working, revised standard operating procedures, revised policy changes and general service improvements as directed by the Team Manager or Service Manager, ensuring all team members are trained and adhere to the new ways of working.

• Act as a point of reference to other team members offering expertise and guidance in relation to issues relating to Access to Health Records.
• Demonstrate an understanding and knowledge across all work procedures and policies relevant to the role
• To understand all Medical Records policies & procedures, and the process for specific requests
• Ensure that the full team comply with policies and procedures, and the SOPs relevant to the role
• To identify quality issues within the team, ensuring corrective action is taken and to feed back to the individual to support their personal development and learning.

• To ensure that records are handled sensitively and that confidential and potentially distressing information is secure and dealt with appropriately. To ensure that the team are supported when dealing with this kind of information, and to provide line management support under emotional circumstances.
• Act as a point of reference to other team members offering expertise and guidance in relation to issues relating to Scanned Records, and Record Retention and Destruction.
• Ensuring that all destruction is completed in line with national guidelines and standards.
• To be able to use guidance to interpret clinical information to apply this to the Record Retention and Destruction Guidance. This will require analytical skills and the use of your own judgement.

Person specification

Skills

• I.T Skills

Qualifications

• Educated to GCSE Standard (or equivalent)
• Evidence of on-going personal development.

Experience

• Experience of supervising a team to deliver an exceptional customer service in accordance with set policy, process and operational guidelines.
• Experience of planning and organising work allocation/delegation to team members to deliver a high quality performance within policy and service timescales.
• Experience of supporting managers in monitoring expenditure against agreed budgets and in maintaining a healthy, safe and secure working environment for everyone in contact with the organisation.
• Demonstrate previous involvement in staff recruitment and selection; training and development; managing for performance and attendance management.
• Experience of supporting others in understanding the need for and making agreed changes.
• Experience of working face to face and/or telephone contact with the general public including the handling of complaints and complex calls.
• Experience of providing guidance to other team members on the processes and policies being executed by the team.

• Experience of working in the NHS environment.

Knowledge

• Knowledge of the Data Protection Act 1998, Access to Health Records Act 1990 and their application.
• Understanding of Information Governance and Confidentiality
• Understanding of equality and diversity issues and how this affects patients, visitors and staff
• Understanding of what the NHS Constitution means to you, and your responsibilities to the public, patients and colleagues.

• Knowledge of Patient Administration Systems or Electronic Patient Record Systems