R&D Office and Reception Administrator

Guy’s and St Thomas’ is among the UK’s busiest and most successful NHS foundation trusts. We provide a full range of hospital and community services for people in south London and as well as specialist care for patients from further afield including cancer, renal, orthopaedic, respiratory and cardiovascular services.

St Thomas’ has one of the largest critical care units in the UK and one of the busiest emergency departments in London. It is also home to Evelina London Children’s Hospital.

Our community services include health visiting, school nursing and support for families of children with long-term conditions.

Our adult community services teams deliver care at the heart of the local communities we serve, working in partnership with GPs, local authorities and other healthcare and voluntary sector organisations. Working with our partners in Lambeth and Southwark, we are focusing on new ways of working to improve care for local patients.

In February 2021 the Royal Brompton and Harefield joined Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, bringing together world-leading expertise in the care and research of heart and lung disease. Our merger provides a once in a generation opportunity to build a lasting, world-renowned heart and lung centre, providing the highest quality care for patients and conducting world-leading research.

We have a reputation for clinical excellence and high quality teaching and research. We are part of King’s Health Partners, one of eight accredited UK academic health sciences centres. In partnership with King’s College London we have dedicated clinical research facilities including an MHRA accredited Phase I clinical trials unit.

Our adult community services achieved a rating of ‘outstanding’.

We know this has a positive impact on the care provided to our patients.

We have one of the most ambitious capital investment programmes anywhere in the NHS.

Job overview

The R&D Reception Administrator will provide high-quality reception and administrative support to the whole department overseeing reception, working closely and responsible for the management of R&D Reception Administrator (Band 3).

Tasks include greeting visitors to the department, booking and organisation of meeting rooms, effective coordination of research events and research meetings conducted within our NIHR Research & Development Department and NIHR Clinical Research Facility, maintaining databases and accurate records, providing excellent customer service and the effective and timely provision of general administrative support to the department.

The post holder should have experience in minute taking, AV/IT set up, managing large events for directors/executives and experience in generating income through managing external events when room availability allows.

The R&D Reception Administrator will play a key role in the efficient day-to-day operational activities of the department. The post holder will be responsible on occasion to work independently providing operational cover when needed across different floors.

Main duties of the job

• Handling enquiries and requests from staff members regarding floor, desk, or room bookings, upcoming meetings, and assisting with the preparation of packs.
• Deputising management of the floor in the absence of the R&D Admin Team leader ensuring the smooth running and addressing any issues that may arise

• Assisting staff members with IT-related issues on the floor, including setting up IT equipment on site, co-ordinating between IT and R&D, logging support calls to IT Services or Essentia services, and updating the tracker accordingly
• Ensuring meeting rooms and audio-visual equipment are properly set up prior to meetings and provide IT support in meetings when needed.
• Trouble shooting all IT/AV related issues within the department

• Arranging internal staff members to attend training courses and raising POs/payment when needed
• Utilising the Trust travel booking system to book hotels and flights for staff members for courses and conferences

• Updating desk and room booking requests and maintaining up-to-date desk and meeting room staff booking accounts
• Liaising with external teams as needed, such as during events or visits that have been booked

• Taking minutes, preparing agendas, setting up meetings
• Booking external meetings and maintaining an updated track

Working for our organisation

The R&D Department at Guy’s & St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust (GSTFT) is one of the focal points for innovative research in London through its nationally recognised research portfolio and research infrastructure. We are systems leaders in NHS research with strong strategic partnerships across the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), Department of Health & Social Care (DHSC) and the Health Research Authority (HRA) and are active members of the organisations such as the Shelford Group, University Hospitals Association (previously AUKUH) and UKRD.

This is approximately over 40% of the total number of participants of research studies within our Local Clinical Research Network in South London.

For the financial year 2022/23, the NIHR budget for the R&D Department totalled approximately £25 million. We are a the most active research partner in the King’s Health Partners Clinical Trials Office for contract commercial clinical trials with 60% of the commercial trials portfolio in 2021/22 lead by the Trust; we also collaborate in the South London NIHR Applied Research Collaboration (ARC).

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Please see attached job description and personal specification for full details of the main responsibilities for this role.

Person specification

Previous Experience

• Experience in administration business role(s), preferably in either clinical or academic research setting, providing a first-class support service
• Experience using and setting up IT and AV
• Good diary management including organising, setting up meetings and minute taking.

• Relevant experience working in a multi- disciplinary department and busy office environment
• Experience using office procurement systems Oracle or equivalent
• Evidence of an ability to prioritise and meet tight deadlines.

Skills, Knowledge & Abilities

• Excellent organisational skills and attention to detail including the ability to manage multiple tasks
• Strong computer and advanced keyboard skills (proficient in use of IT systems and web based applications, including Outlook, Microsoft Word, Excel)
• Good standard of written and oral English Language

• An interest and an enthusiastic approach to working in a dynamic and diverse research environment
• The ability to work independently and without direct supervision

Qualifications & Education

• Good general education (with GCSE English Language & GCSE Maths, or equivalent, at Grade C or above).
• Administration or equivalent experience e.g. experience in administrative roles coupled with substantial previous experience.

Guy’s and St Thomas’ celebrates, respects and values the diversity of its staff and patients. We review our policies, procedures and practices to ensure that all employees, patients and carers are treated equitable according to their needs. We are actively committed to ensuring that no one who applies for a job, works or study’s at the Trust, or accesses our services is discriminated against on the grounds of race, ethnicity, nationality, disability, religion or belief, age, gender identity , gender reassignment, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity/paternity, or marital/civil partnership.

Applications are welcomed from applicants with a disability. We can make reasonable adjustments and offer support and advice in a variety of ways throughout the application process. Equality of opportunity is our policy.

As an organisation we are committed to developing our services in ways that best suit the needs of our patients. This means that some staff groups will increasingly be asked to work a more flexible shift pattern so that we can offer services in the evenings or at weekends.

Flexible working

We encourage all prospective applicants to discuss their individual circumstances with the recruiting manager as part of the on-boarding process.

Your e-mail address is important to us - We communicate to all job applicants via the e-mail address which has been provided on the application form. Please ensure that you check your e-mail on a regular basis.

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