Pals Officer

The postholder will manage, develop and deliver an effective PALS and GP concerns service for the Trust.

The postholder will provide comprehensive support to all Pathways, undertaking the triaging, administration, and monitoring of all PALS contacts in conjunction with PALS colleagues. This will also include managing database systems and to provide support in the production of timely and accurate reports.

The post will include managing the PALS processes within the Trust and to external agencies, liaising with Operational teams to facilitate prompt and effective resolution of concerns and enquiries, liaising with managers/enquirers throughout the PALS process ensuring that the PALS contacts are processed in line with Trust Policy, monitoring the progress of responses and providing feedback to enquirers on outcomes, including any actions.

The role will involve close liaison with the Complaints Team, Patient Experience Team, Commissioners, Acute Trusts, Directors, Assistant Directors, Heads of Service, Service Managers, and external agencies including MP’s, the Care Quality Commission and Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) where necessary.

The postholder will also be required to handle telephone messages/calls from or to the enquirer, listening to concerns and summarising for progression through the PALS process.

The postholder will lead on promoting the PALS throughout the Trust and externally as required.

The postholder will prepare and present reports as required, attending meetings involving senior colleagues where necessary.

The postholder will also support the Complaints service as and when required.

The post holder will also support the Band 8a Complaints & PALS Manager with any other reasonable support requests commensurate with the banding of this role.

NHFT is an integrated primary care and mental health Trust, providing physical, mental health and specialty services in both hospital settings and out in the community. Because we put the person at the centre of all we do, we focus on delivering care that is as easy to access as possible. This means many of our services can be provided at home, work or in schools. We also provide health services to various prisons and detention centres in Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire.

NHFT promotes a culture of learning to improve the care and safety of our patients and staff, which focuses on people who enable our Trust to be ‘outstanding’ by supporting opportunity, innovation, development and growth.

**The requirements of the role in detail are**:
Initial point of contact for all enquiries relating to PALS.

Provide an impartial, frontline PALS service for NHFT.

To develop and provide an effective, accessible and resolution-based service to assist patients and carers with queries and/or concerns, passing investigations to the appropriate service area for action, monitoring progress, keeping enquirers informed, liaising with operational colleagues to expedite responses.

Support the team with reviews of the Trust-wide Complaints and Concerns Policy

Ensure that there are robust administrative processes in place to ensure all concerns are responded to in a timely manner as per policy.

Arrange and mediate resolution meetings between patients, carers, families and clinical staff in meetings.

Support the patient advocating in a speedy resolution, signposting and advising the patients advocate where required.

Contribute to the reporting and analysis of complaints/PALS/ MP concerns/GP concerns/General Enquiries to support delivery of Board and national reports, presenting in a range of forums including annual and public meetings through to Board level committees.

Produce analytical reports providing PALS/Complaints/GP concerns including key trends and develop effective workstreams and relationships with external stakeholders including commissioners, partner NHS organisation, Health Watch, advocates and regulatory bodies to support service developments in order to improve patient experiences.

Support any PALS Regional Network to link in with other voluntary and public organisations for sharing information and support.

To act as a catalyst for change, feeding back patients’ and carers’ views and recommending learning to share good practice and promote improvement of services.

Work in conjunction with the Complaints and PALS Manager to receive, develop and manage learning relating to concerns/enquiries and develop systems to evidence changes to practice as a result of PALS concerns

To have knowledge on the Department of Health, NHS complaints regulations, time frames and NHFT Complaints Procedure in order to advise staff, patients, families, carers on the complaints process providing a choice of resolution options.

Review, design and produce publicity materials promoting accessibility of the PALS service.

Ensure an easy read leaflet for PALS is available.

Responsible for the improvement and development of the Trust-wide PALS