Band 3 Freedom of Information Support Officer

If you love a challenge and are looking for an exciting new venture, join our team at Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust.

Our mission as a Communications & Engagement team is to inspire and empower our communities (both internal and external) through outstanding communications and engagement, demonstrating openness, honesty and transparency, which is where our handling of Freedom of Information comes in.

Your role is to contribute to the management and coordination of Freedom of Information requests across the Trust to ensure that they are managed and responded to in an accurate, appropriate, timely and effective way.

Working with the Freedom of Information Lead Officer, you’ll provide support and advice on the implementation of the Freedom of Information Act to Trust staff and respond to requests for information.

You ideally should have previous experience or a basic understanding of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and associated legislation, however this is not essential.

Good communication and team work are essential for success in the role. You’ll need to be confident in a range of communication skills to correspond with a variety of internal and external stakeholders to ensure commitment to a high level of customer service and reputation of the team.

Finally, you’ll need to be disciplined, organised, resilient and tenacious. We receive a large number of requests, so keeping on top of the volume of work; commissioning (and chasing) colleagues to help find the answers, and putting the written responses together will keep you on your toes.

You’ll need to have good database management skills, for entering and chasing up requests to ensure good compliance with the ICO’s targets.

Being personable and persuasive is important too - this job’s about working in partnership, particularly inside the Trust, which means building great relationships, getting colleagues to understand and provide what’s required.

Our team’s role is to enhance and protect the Trust’s reputation; to develop, deliver and advise on the right tools, methods and channels to enable the Trust to be at its best; and to empower and engage our staff to deliver the best possible care.

Our mission as a Communications & Engagement team is to inspire and empower our communities (both internal and external) through outstanding communications and engagement, demonstrating openness, honesty and transparency, which is where our handling of Freedom of Information comes in.

Your role is to contribute to the management and coordination of Freedom of Information requests across the Trust to ensure that they are managed and responded to in an accurate, appropriate, timely and effective way.

Working with the Freedom of Information Lead Officer, you’ll provide support and advice on the implementation of the Freedom of Information Act to Trust staff and respond to requests for information.

You ideally should have previous experience or a basic understanding of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and associated legislation, however this is not essential.

Under the leadership of our Chair, Jacqui Smith and Matthew Trainer, our Chief Executive we provide care for the residents of three diverse London boroughs. More than half of our 7,500 strong workforce are from black, Asian and minority ethnic groups and most live in Barking and Dagenham, Havering and Redbridge. We also provide healthcare services to people in south west Essex, and specialist neurosciences services to the whole of the county.

Our services include all the major specialties of large acute hospitals, operating from two main sites - King George Hospital in Goodmayes and Queen’s Hospital in Romford. We also provide outpatient services at Brentwood Community Hospital, Barking Hospital, Loxford Polyclinic and Harold Wood Polyclinic.

As we recover from Covid-19, we’re proud to be leading the way in reducing the time our patients wait to get the treatment they need. The pandemic provided the drive for our teams to innovate and change.

We know we have more work to do to improve waiting times for urgent and emergency care, and this will be one of the many benefits of our closer collaboration with Barts Health. Working with them and with all our partners across north east London, we will find a sustainable solution to enhance patient care.

We are particularly proud of our regional Neurosciences Centre; Radiotherapy Centre; Hyper Acute Stroke Unit; and dedicated breast care service at King George Hospital. We’re also pleased to be part of the NEL Cancer Alliance.

For further information on this role, please see the attached detailed Job Description and Person Specification.