[ref. c64957117] Personal Assistant to Associate Chief Operating Officer - Warwick
South Warwickshire University NHS Foundation Trust is one of the top performing organisations within the NHS. Our staff think this is a great place to work and we hope you will agree. We have recently been rated as 'Outstanding' by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) following our most recent inspection.
We provide services across Warwickshire and beyond ranging from Hospitals in Warwick, Stratford-Upon-Avon, Royal Leamington Spa and Shipston-on Stour to Community Services across the whole county. This includes our Community Teams in North Warwickshire.
We are a progressive, expanding organisation with great ambition around improving quality, integrating pathways and delivering high levels of productivity. Over 6000 people work for the Trust and many of them have been here a long time. People find they don’t need to go elsewhere to find a fulfilling career in healthcare.
The first thing you will notice about us is how we take our values seriously. We believe that our values underpin everything we do. If you are interested in a role with us you need to make sure our values match your own.
Our values can be summed up in one sentence. We are ‘Trusted to provide inclusive, safe, effective and compassionate care’. Throughout the recruitment process you will be asked to think about how you demonstrate these values and how they impact on your work.It doesn’t matter what role you do, whether it is patient facing or not, we are all working in the same way with our values at the core.
Probationary Period
All new staff to the Trust will be subject to a standard 6 month probationary period, the details of which will duly follow in your contract of employment.
Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion
South Warwickshire University NHS Foundation Trust is committed to creating and sustaining a positive and inclusive working environment for all our employees. Our aim is to ensure that employees are equally valued and respected and that our organisation is representative of all members of society.We define diversity as valuing everyone as an individual – we value our employees, job applicants, students, patients and visitors as people. This is reflected within our values of being Inclusive, Safe, Effective, Compassionate and Trusted.
Agile and Flexible Working
All our staff will have a work base. However the Trust operates as an Agile Working Team therefore staff may be working from home on a regular basis as required by the service. However, occasionally travel around Warwickshire and into your base will be required so access to your own transport would be helpful.
The Trust also welcome staff to work flexibly and we would welcome the conversation at interview regarding flexible working.
Staff Benefits
The Trust offer a wide range of additional benefits to staff. Anyone who joins us on a substantive basis can assess things such as the Lease Car Scheme, Electronics Scheme, Discounted Leisure and Travel, Cycle to work scheme amongst many others available.
Car Parking
The Trust have recently completed the construction of a multi-storey car park at our Warwick Hospital site which has allowed us to reduce waiting times for car parking passes.
To keep up to date on our latest recruitment activity follow us on twitter @swftrecruit or look us up on Facebook (Recruitment - South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust).
Job overview
The Emergency Division are looking for a creative, dynamic individual who has significant previous experience of working as a Personal Assistant and is able to bring their knowledge, skills and experience to support a busy division.
The post holder will be highly organised, practical, reliable and efficient and will have a flexible approach to their role, working on their own initiative as well as working effectively as part of the wider divisional team. Duties will include proactive forward planning, fielding emails and telephone calls, diary management, committee management (agenda setting, minute taking, follow-up etc.), and typing of reports/ presentations for committees/ board level meetings.You will be responsible for a portfolio of meetings.
To be successful in this challenging but rewarding role, you will thrive on pressure and have the drive and courage to solve problems.
The post holder will be diplomatic with highly developed communication skills and the ability to engage with a range of stakeholders.
Main duties of the job
To provide a comprehensive high level of administrative support to the ACOO and Divisional Management Team. The post holder will be a key member of the divisional management team and will be required to complete a range of duties.
To manage committees, meetings and groups for the Divisional Management Team.
The role requires liaison with all stakeholders involved in the delivery of elective and emergency activity. Regular attendance at meetings will be required.
To work flexibly as a member of the Divisional Management team, covering colleagues as and when required to ensure smooth, efficient and effective Divisional Support Services.
Working for our organisation
Come and join a Trust rated Outstanding by the CQC. South Warwickshire University NHS Foundation Trust have been rated as outstanding following our latest inspection by the CQC and we are recruiting new staff to come and help us improve even further.In addition our staff survey results have placed us 4^th in the country for recommended place to work.
We provide services across Warwickshire and beyond ranging from Hospitals in Warwick, Stratford-Upon-Avon, Royal Leamington Spa and Shipston-on Stour to Community Services across the county. We are a progressive, expanding organisation with great ambition around improving quality, integrating pathways and delivering high levels of productivity.
Our values can be summed up in one sentence. We are ‘Trusted to provide safe, inclusive, effective and compassionate care’. Throughout the recruitment process you will be asked to think about how you demonstrate these values and how they impact on your work.It doesn’t matter what role you do, whether it is patient facing or not, we are all working in the same way with our values at the core.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Key Result Areas
In conjunction with the Service Manager and General Manager help arrange short notice theatre list cover, on-calls etc during periods of sickness, and communicate changes to relevant personnel. Reallocating specific duties as required maintaining service cover.
Working with the Service Manager and General Manager to authorise and record annual leave, study leave and professional leave.
Authorised signatory for Health Roster.
Ensure sickness absence is recorded, reported and managed appropriately.
Provide a full range of administrative support to both the Service Manager and General Manager.
Work with Management to oversee the effective management of the PTLs and RTT breaches cancer pathway, advising on additional capacity and help arrange this.
Under the supervision of Management, liaise with consultants to arrange extra sessions and arrange cover for gaps in rotas where required.
Support Management in collating data to enable them to produce reports on a regular basis to establish the Trust position against nationally set targets..
Learn to become proficient at collating audit data and presenting these findings in suitable format within specified deadlines.
Co-ordinate bookings for study days.
Help co-ordinate responses to complaints with the support of Management ensuring that the investigation report is completed by the service deadline.
Help co-ordinate responses to incidents on Datix and formulate appropriate conclusions with the help of Management.
Support Management in keeping up to date the local risk registers.
Provide the PA role to the ACOO including:
Manage the ACOO’s diary
Meeting arrangements
Plan and make arrangements for large meetings and seminars, liaising with internal and external staff to book venues, arrange programmes and speakers. Negotiate costs, ensuring the event stays within set budget. Attend the event to ensure its smooth running, where appropriate.
Communication
Answer telephone calls from members of the public, members of Parliament, representatives from the media and external organisations, providing general non-clinical information about the Trust or directing the caller more appropriately.
Greet visitors to the department in a professional and courteous manner. Offer hospitality as required.
Document production
There is a regular requirement to produce accurate and professional documentation, in line with corporate style, including letters, reports, presentations, and minutes or notes of meetings. This includes advanced use of IT packages including Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint.
Record systems
Set up and maintain records for sickness and holiday absence of staff reporting to the ACOO.
Manage and maintain effective filing and bring forward systems.
Ordering
Responsible for maintaining stationery stocks and ordering supplies.
General office duties including photocopying and reception duties.
Management of committees, meetings and groups
To manage the arrangements for specific committees in line with agreed protocols, including:
Arranging the annual schedule of meetings, in discussion with the ACOO or Chair, along with an annual plan of business scheduled for those meetings.
Meeting with Chairs and appropriate Managers prior to each Committee meeting, to draw up the agenda and agree timings.
Ensuring reports are received within agreed deadlines, liaising with Trust and external staff as required.
Communicating effectively with all Committee members, and circulating agenda and supporting papers in line with agreed protocols.
Be comfortable taking both formal minutes and action and prepare draft minutes within 10 working days for approval by the Committee Chair.
Taking responsibility for progressing action items from meetings, liaising with ACOO, general managers and other staff, to ensure up to date position statements are available for following meetings.
Taking responsibility for ensuring governance requirements for the Committee are met in line with the Committee’s terms of reference.
Events
Organise Divisional events including Divisional AGM, Cancer Summits, CIP planning workshops
Ensure venues are booked and catering is appropriate
Ensure that people are properly informed and issues escalated to ACOO as necessary
Administrative and Support Service to the Divisional Management Team
Work with other members of the Divisional Management Team to provide administrative and support service when required to the General Managers, Service Managers, including the following:
Record systems
Manage and maintain relevant rotas on Healthroster on behalf of ACOO to ensure information is accurate and up-to-date.
Responsible for maintaining information for eExpenses. Ensuring documentation is checked and confirmed as appropriate.
Values
The post-holder is expected to promote South Warwickshire NHS Trust’s vision: To provide high quality, clinically and cost effective local healthcare services that meet the needs of our patients and the population that we serve.
The post-holder is expected to work in a way that observes the Code of Conduct for NHS Managers as well as following the Trust’s world class care standards of behaviour.
Performance Management
Support the infrastructure which measures performance within the services (including RTT reports, waiting lists, outpatient new to follow up ratios, and follow ups over threshold, diagnostic treatment status). Work with Management and stakeholders in the Patient Access Team to ensure data validation is completed to achieve required national and local RTT targets and milestones.
Work across the division under supervision to ensure that the emergency access standards are consistently met for all patients.
Work with Management, the complaints team and other relevant stakeholders to support effective complaint responses within the directorate. Collate necessary responses and provide these to Management to enable them to respond and monitor the process.
Work with Management to monitor activity levels including outpatients, diagnostics and inpatients across allocated specialities.
Support Management to help ensure that all activity is accurately and fully coded thereby ensuring income is maximised and outpatient treatment status recorded for RTT measurement.
Participate in monitoring and maintaining compliance with relevant CQC/NHSE standards.
Strategy and Business Planning
To understand departmental policies, procedures and requirements, and to make appropriate judgements and allocations accordingly.
Take part in divisional planning events as instructed by Management, working with clinicians to help deliver trust and divisional targets such as CIP targets and specialty level objectives.
Financial Budgetary Management
To work within delegated budgets effectively.
To collate data for Management using service line reporting to support and inform financial management.
To help Management monitor CIPs with their respective service teams.
Quality/Governance corporate and clinical, patient feedback
Participate in monitoring and maintaining compliance with relevant CQC standards.
Contribute to the achievement of CQUINs relevant to the division.
Support Management in effectively responding to appropriate incidences and complaints.
Advise on changes to Procedures following patient complaints, which may impact on other areas.
Promote the corporate and clinical governance frameworks within the division.
To represent the Service Manager as required.
Person specification
Qualifications
Essential criteria- Education to degree level in relevant subject or equivalent.
- Diploma in administrative practice or business management or equivalent knowledge.
- Advanced ECDL or high level expertise in Microsoft applications
Experience
Essential criteria- Previous relevant experience as a departmental administrator or PA
- Previous experience of working in the NHS with exposure to medical staffing issues.
- Experience of managing complex medical staff rotas.
- Line Management experience.
Skills
Essential criteria- Demonstrates a good knowledge and understanding of the current issues in medical staffing.
- Can show understanding of how the NHS works.
- Able to effectively use and interpret medical terminology.
- Able to think through practical implications of evolving IT software including ability to suggest improvements, identify problems and offer solutions.
- Communicates effectively with a wide range of stakeholder at all levels of the organisation including General Managers and Consultants
- Ability to receive complex information, verbal or written, and take the necessary actions or put appropriate procedures in place.
- Develop persuasive and negotiating skills to operate effectively with Consultants, General Managers and senior staff.
- Able to demonstrate well developed interpersonal skills to overcome barriers to acceptance, resistance or understanding when dealing with sensitive or complex issues.
- Ability to participate in management of complex rotas involving administrative and medical staff.
Personal Qualities
Essential criteria- Tactful and diplomatic
- Adaptable and flexible
- Organised, professional and punctual
- Ability to work and communicate with people at all levels
- Team player
- Ability to concentrate for prolonged periods
- Ability to deal with unpredictable workload and frequent interruptions
- High degree of discretion and initiative
- An effective team member able to prioritise, meet deadlines and work on own initiative in a challenging and demanding environment
- Ability to concentrate for prolonged periods. Workload is heavy and frequently unpredictable dependent on emerging urgent issues and interruptions.
- Occasional need to communicate sensitive information or deal with challenging individual behaviours.
Other Job Requirements
Essential criteria- Good personal presentation
- Good attendance record
- Flexibility in working hours
- Ability to independently travel (car driver)
IMPORTANT INFORMATION
Sometimes we get a lot of applications for our roles. On those occasions we might close the job early. If you don’t want to miss out we recommend submitting your application as early as possible.
The Trust use an Applicant Management System called TRAC which helps us manage the recruitment process. All communications regarding your application will come via TRAC (even if you applied via NHS Jobs).
Please check your TRAC account regularly and ensure your email is set up to accept messages so they don't go into your junk/spam folder.
We aim to shortlist all vacancies within 2 days of the vacancy closing, we will get back to all candidates ASAP.
Please ensure all sections of the application form are completed fully. Please particularly ensure that you provide full details of all referees including business email address, telephone contact details and postal address.
South Warwickshire University NHS Foundation Trust is an equal opportunities employer who is committed to Equality and Diversity and does not tolerate discrimination or harassment on the grounds of any protected characteristic as defined by the Equality Act 2010.
All South Warwickshire University NHS Foundation Trust sites are smoke free. We feel it’s a great way to help our patients, visitors and staff stay healthy.
The Trust is part of a ‘Foundation Group’ through a strategic alliance with Wye Valley NHS Trust, George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust and Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust. This partnership is great for the sustainability of all four organisations and allows us to share learning and maximise opportunities to ensure the delivery of high quality health and care services for our local populations.