Complaints and PALS Co-ordinator

Overview

Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is one of the largest NHS teaching trusts in the country. It provides a wide range of general and specialist clinical services and is a base for medical education, training and research. The Trust comprises four hospitals: the John Radcliffe Hospital, Churchill Hospital, Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre in Headington and the Horton General Hospital in Banbury.

The Trust’s values, standards and behaviours define the quality of clinical care and professional relationships with patients, colleagues and the wider community. We focus on Delivering Compassionate Excellence, based on the values of compassion, respect, learning, delivery, improvement and excellence.

We use Value Based Interviewing to identify those who have the skills we seek, share our values and can deliver compassionate excellence from the outset. For more information about our values and Value Based Interviewing please visit

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Complaints and PALS Co-ordinator to join the existing well-established team at the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust. We are looking for someone who is personable and self-motivated with the ability to cope under the stresses and pressure that comes from dealing with complaints daily. The ability to work autonomously and as part of a team is essential.

Resilience is key to this role. You must be an excellent communicator, who remains calm and professional at all times. A proven track record of high-level written and verbal communication skills is essential, as is the ability to prioritise and meet challenging deadlines. You will be expected to facilitate resolution meetings between complainants and clinicians, ensuring these are conducted in an appropriate, supportive environment.

Well-developed telephone skills and the ability to extract and summarise the essence of a verbal complaint without preconceptions or judgement are required. The role is demanding, therefore you must be able to prioritise and take responsibility for your workload with the confidence to liaise with people at all levels. Previous experience of working in the NHS Complaints system or similar is welcome, but not essential;

a thorough understanding of the NHS Complaints process is expected. You will need to demonstrate excellent experience of producing documents using Microsoft packages.

• Oversee and manage the Divisional response to queries and complaints
• Prioritise own work for action, delegate where appropriate and supervise responses
• Ensure the efficient handling and resolution of enquiries from patients, families and visitors; maintain excellent customer care and embed the Trust’s Values into Action throughout the complaint or PALS pathway
• Supervise and provide reports on division-specific areas of processing, recording and responses to complaints
• Review and edit draft responses for complaints
• Ensure the complaints and PALS database and files are accurate and up to date
• Administer and facilitate patient resolution meetings
• Assist with administration associated with inquiries investigated by the Parliamentary and Health Services Ombudsman
• Oversee the production of complaint and PALS feedback reports and provide qualitative analyses to senior managers

Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is one of the largest NHS teaching trusts in the country, providing a wide range of clinical services and being a base for medical education, training and research. The Trust comprises four hospitals:
John Radcliffe Hospital, Churchill Hospital, Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre and Horton General Hospital. For more information on OUH please view OUH At a Glance by OUHospitals.

We call this Delivering Compassionate Excellence and focus on our values of compassion, respect, learning, delivery, improvement and excellence.

1. Management of Trust Complaints Process

• Oversee and manage the divisional response to queries and complaints from first contact with a complainant to the final response
• Directly oversee complaints coordination for one or more…