Job summary

We are recruiting an experienced governance lead to join the sites clinical governance team at the Royal London and Mile End Hospitals for a 1 year fixed term period to cover maternity leave.

As the Complaints and Risk Lead you be responsible for delivering the effective management of governance activity for the division including managing complaints, supporting incident investigations and risk management. This will include promoting and contributing to high quality clinical governance in the service lines and providing advice and support to clinicians. You will be joining a dynamic team at this busy teaching hospital and working with large, busy divisions that manages services at the Royal London and Mile End Hospitals as well as specialist networks across East London

You will need to be able to prioritise and adapt as well as be confident in working with many professions throughout many specialties. The ideal candidate will have experience of working in clinical governance. Good management, diplomacy, sensitivity, organisational skills, communication skills and team working will all be essential qualities for this role.

You will need to have a flexible approach to facilitate new ways of working whilst supporting the delivery of a high quality service. You must be able to work well under pressure and you will be an experienced and enthusiastic governance lead who connects well with staff at all levels as well as patients and their families

Main duties of the job

The post holder will work as a senior member of the site Governance team to lead and deliver respective divisional complaints and risk performance at divisional level and within individual service groups, to ensure compliance with key performance indicators. This includes effective complaint handling, gathering patient feedback, patient safety, incident reporting and risk management in line with trust policy.

About us

Barts Health is one of the largest NHS trusts in the country, and one of Britain’s leading healthcare providers.

The Barts Health group of NHS hospitals is entering an exciting new era on our improvement journey to becoming an outstanding organisation with a world-class clinical reputation. Having lifted ourselves out of special measures, we now have the impetus and breathing space to chart a fresh course in which we are continually striving to improve all our services for patients.

Our vision is to be a high-performing group of NHS hospitals, renowned for excellence and innovation, and providing safe and compassionate care to our patients in east London and beyond. That means being a provider of excellent patient safety, known for delivering consistently high standards of harm-free care and always caring for patients in the right place at the right time. It also means being an outstanding place to work, in which our WeCare values and behaviours are visible to all and guide us in how we work together.

We strive to live by our WeCare values and are committed to promoting inclusion, where every staff member has a sense of belonging. We value our differences and fully advocate, cultivate and support an inclusive working environment.

Date posted

07 February 2023

Pay scheme

Agenda for change

Band

Band 7

Salary

£49,036 to £55,049 a year per annum inc

Contract

Fixed term

Duration

12 months

Working pattern

Full-time

Reference number

259-5021637RLH

Job locations

Royal London Hospital

London

E1 1FR

Job description

Job responsibilities

  • Key Result Areas
  • Support the sites 2 Heads of Clinical Governance in delivering effective and timely management of complaints on site, so that trajectories and targets are met on an on-going basis
  • Contributes to meeting CQC regulation standards by supporting staff in the preparation for site inspections via monthly 2 hourly assurance activity
  • Promote and implement a patient safety culture in all service lines, delivering education and training in all aspects of governance as necessary
  • Provide expert governance advice and support to specified service group(s), by attending key clinical governance operational meetings and assisting with the analysis of key issues as necessary
  • Work with the divisional triumvirate by writing their monthly risk excetion report to the sites risk and regulation committee
  • Demonstrate competent Datix user skills and the ability to train and instruct others in the team and service line staff
  • It is anticipated that safety, quality and clinical outcomes including reported patient experience in service lines will improve on a continuous and sustainable basis through the activities of the post holder in supporting the service lines to achieve.
  • Deputise for the Head of Governance as required
  • Provide cross cover for peers within your clinical governance business unit
  • Main Duties And Responsibilities

Leadership

  • Provide supervision and support to the Governance Support roles and administration teams by directing / prioritising the work of the whole team
  • Deputise in the absence of the relevant Head of Governance , supporting the Associate Director of Nursing by attending meetings, leading and maintaining the governance framework and work of the team
  • In conjunction with the Head of Governance actively seek out best practice and innovation from within the NHS and elsewhere, participating in benchmarking and or research around the topic of governance and risk reduction as appropriate
  • Establish and maintain collaborative relationships and effective team working with clinical leads and managers to ensure increased understanding/compliance with all governance standards and the management of risk

Operational

  • Demonstrate effective communication with services, and frontline staff on site and Trust wide to provide help and support to a range of clinical governance activities including
  • formal complaint handling
  • supporting the risk assessment process To trust standards
  • flagging high risk incidents to the divisional leadership teams
  • tracking and supporting the closure of internal concise investigations
  • Establish and maintain good relationships with external key stakeholders e.g. Health watch, patient and service user groups and the local community.
  • To assist in the coordination of and preparation for CQC and other external inspections, including any mock reviews liaising with key personnel, at all levels of the site. Ensure the relevant regulations and standards are embedded in practice and evidenced in the delivery of care and services. Responsible for supporting the services in collating that evidence to demonstrate compliance. Work with services to develop action plans to develop areas identified within mock/real CQC as requiring improvement.
  • Research and keep abreast of national and local Trust and sector developments which impact on the governance service and ensure that these are communicated across the site at the appropriate level. This includes benchmarking the Trust against other providers to identify areas of good practice.
  • Ensure that the services maintain accurate and timely Governance records, ensuring the maintenance of quality systems and processes in your own work and that of the governance team
  • Evaluate the quality of your own work and others within the team, in order to identify risks and improve performance.
  • Support the Head of Governance and through the Trusts Talent and Performance /appraisal process, identify own educational and professional development needs.
  • Contribute to the effective use of the site governance budget and resources.

Governance responsibilities

  • Work with the Head of Governance to monitor and support progress against agreed site action plans relating to, risk and governance.
  • Undertake qualitative and quantitative analysis from governance activities as required and directed by the Heads of Governance or Site Tier 1 identifying trends and highlighting areas of good practice as well as concern
  • Work collaboratively with site colleagues to agree actions that maintain standards and mitigate identified risk.
  • Arrange and attend meetings relating to divisional clinical governance and safety, participating in the meetings and taking minutes if required.

  1. a) Complaints handling
  • Identify and implement processes to ensure patient/carer concerns are resolved quickly through local resolution (wherever possible) and in line with the Trust Complaints policy, in collaboration with front line teams and the PALs/AIRs service.
  • Be a senior accessible point of contact for service users and their families/carers regarding complaints about services they have received.
  • Provide effective day-to-day management of a complaints case load and when required oversee the overall site complaints service without supervision, ensuring responses are sent within agreed timescales.
  • Develop and communicate the Trust Complaints Policy and processes to all service lines across the site.
  • Provide senior advice and support on both local resolution and effective formal complaints handling and investigation to services, teams, and individuals thereby supporting learning and development.
  • Quality check and where necessary edit draft complaint responses (using track changes and comments so that the lead investigator can learn from your experience) received from lead investigators.
  • Develop tools and training and/or provide access to suitable training, to enable site lead investigators to produce high quality complaint responses.
  • Organize and facilitate complaint and local resolution meetings (LRM) with complainants in order to clarify or resolve concerns. Support the Governance Coordinator in the effective management of LRMs.
  • Ensure the sites processes for responding to requests for PHSO second stage complaint reviews are effective and understood across all service lines to ensure that all information is made available and the deadlines for responding are adhered to.
  • Ensure statutory duty of candor, transparency and openness in dealing with complainants and complaints across all service lines is adhered to at all times.

  1. b) Patient Safety and Risk Management
  • Work with the Heads of Governance to ensure your division delivers effective risk register management, to ensure it accurately reflects the divisions risks and is reviewed and updated on a regular basis.
  • Interrogate provided reports from risk management database (DATIX), to identify recurrent or adverse trends and work with others to plan remedial action under the leadership of the Tier 1 (site executive) & 2 management teams.
  • Attend RCA and investigation training to gain and ensure skills and competencies are maintained. Participate in SI and incident investigation to main RCA investigatory skills and competency as required
  • Ensure statutory duty of candour, transparency and openness in incident and SI management across all service lines.
  1. c) Patient experience and feedback
  • Work with the Head of Patient Experience to co-ordinate mechanisms to obtain patient comments and suggestions, e.g. surveys/observations/interviews, on how to improve the service and environment. This includes promoting the Friends and Family Test (FFT) in all relevant areas to achieve high participation rates for the site.
  • Support the Patient Experience leads in working with service users and the service lines or localities to support a culture which achieves best practice and consistent high performance to improve patient engagement and overall the experience of the service user.
  1. d) Quality assurance, audit, data collection and analysis
  • Work with the Head of Governance to review their reports and undertake qualitative and quantitative analysis identifying trends and highlight areas of good practice as well as concern, working youre your divisional leaders to agree actions that maintain standards and mitigate risk.
  • With the site Head of Governance, undertake regular (quarterly for Quality Assurance Committee) site and service line patient experience (complaint, PALs, AIRs & FFT) thematic analysis to enable shared learning and implementation of actions by services to rectify issues identified.
  • Maintain the integrity of all governance information using agreed methods and procedures.
  • Report site and service data and information clearly, in the required format and at the agreed time.

Staff development and training

  • Act as a specialist resource within the site using knowledge and experience of quality governance and risk management to support compliance with regulation & governance standards and in the management of risk.
  • Motivate and support all, to recognise their role in complying with all external standards, regulations and inspections
  • Work with the site Head of Governance to ensure that site-based staff receive the necessary governance training/instruction to manage clinical and non-clinical risk through delivery of or access to appropriate training.
  • Develop and provide teaching and training sessions on effective complaints management and good customer care skills to staff as required.
  • Support new staff induction and encourage good practice in incident reporting and complaints handling by role modeling and leading by example.
  • Use awareness of individuals learning needs and styles to develop education and training to meet those needs and for a range of target audiences

Job description

Job responsibilities

  • Key Result Areas
  • Support the sites 2 Heads of Clinical Governance in delivering effective and timely management of complaints on site, so that trajectories and targets are met on an on-going basis
  • Contributes to meeting CQC regulation standards by supporting staff in the preparation for site inspections via monthly 2 hourly assurance activity
  • Promote and implement a patient safety culture in all service lines, delivering education and training in all aspects of governance as necessary
  • Provide expert governance advice and support to specified service group(s), by attending key clinical governance operational meetings and assisting with the analysis of key issues as necessary
  • Work with the divisional triumvirate by writing their monthly risk excetion report to the sites risk and regulation committee
  • Demonstrate competent Datix user skills and the ability to train and instruct others in the team and service line staff
  • It is anticipated that safety, quality and clinical outcomes including reported patient experience in service lines will improve on a continuous and sustainable basis through the activities of the post holder in supporting the service lines to achieve.
  • Deputise for the Head of Governance as required
  • Provide cross cover for peers within your clinical governance business unit
  • Main Duties And Responsibilities

Leadership

  • Provide supervision and support to the Governance Support roles and administration teams by directing / prioritising the work of the whole team
  • Deputise in the absence of the relevant Head of Governance , supporting the Associate Director of Nursing by attending meetings, leading and maintaining the governance framework and work of the team
  • In conjunction with the Head of Governance actively seek out best practice and innovation from within the NHS and elsewhere, participating in benchmarking and or research around the topic of governance and risk reduction as appropriate
  • Establish and maintain collaborative relationships and effective team working with clinical leads and managers to ensure increased understanding/compliance with all governance standards and the management of risk

Operational

  • Demonstrate effective communication with services, and frontline staff on site and Trust wide to provide help and support to a range of clinical governance activities including
  • formal complaint handling
  • supporting the risk assessment process To trust standards
  • flagging high risk incidents to the divisional leadership teams
  • tracking and supporting the closure of internal concise investigations
  • Establish and maintain good relationships with external key stakeholders e.g. Health watch, patient and service user groups and the local community.
  • To assist in the coordination of and preparation for CQC and other external inspections, including any mock reviews liaising with key personnel, at all levels of the site. Ensure the relevant regulations and standards are embedded in practice and evidenced in the delivery of care and services. Responsible for supporting the services in collating that evidence to demonstrate compliance. Work with services to develop action plans to develop areas identified within mock/real CQC as requiring improvement.
  • Research and keep abreast of national and local Trust and sector developments which impact on the governance service and ensure that these are communicated across the site at the appropriate level. This includes benchmarking the Trust against other providers to identify areas of good practice.
  • Ensure that the services maintain accurate and timely Governance records, ensuring the maintenance of quality systems and processes in your own work and that of the governance team
  • Evaluate the quality of your own work and others within the team, in order to identify risks and improve performance.
  • Support the Head of Governance and through the Trusts Talent and Performance /appraisal process, identify own educational and professional development needs.
  • Contribute to the effective use of the site governance budget and resources.

Governance responsibilities

  • Work with the Head of Governance to monitor and support progress against agreed site action plans relating to, risk and governance.
  • Undertake qualitative and quantitative analysis from governance activities as required and directed by the Heads of Governance or Site Tier 1 identifying trends and highlighting areas of good practice as well as concern
  • Work collaboratively with site colleagues to agree actions that maintain standards and mitigate identified risk.
  • Arrange and attend meetings relating to divisional clinical governance and safety, participating in the meetings and taking minutes if required.

  1. a) Complaints handling
  • Identify and implement processes to ensure patient/carer concerns are resolved quickly through local resolution (wherever possible) and in line with the Trust Complaints policy, in collaboration with front line teams and the PALs/AIRs service.
  • Be a senior accessible point of contact for service users and their families/carers regarding complaints about services they have received.
  • Provide effective day-to-day management of a complaints case load and when required oversee the overall site complaints service without supervision, ensuring responses are sent within agreed timescales.
  • Develop and communicate the Trust Complaints Policy and processes to all service lines across the site.
  • Provide senior advice and support on both local resolution and effective formal complaints handling and investigation to services, teams, and individuals thereby supporting learning and development.
  • Quality check and where necessary edit draft complaint responses (using track changes and comments so that the lead investigator can learn from your experience) received from lead investigators.
  • Develop tools and training and/or provide access to suitable training, to enable site lead investigators to produce high quality complaint responses.
  • Organize and facilitate complaint and local resolution meetings (LRM) with complainants in order to clarify or resolve concerns. Support the Governance Coordinator in the effective management of LRMs.
  • Ensure the sites processes for responding to requests for PHSO second stage complaint reviews are effective and understood across all service lines to ensure that all information is made available and the deadlines for responding are adhered to.
  • Ensure statutory duty of candor, transparency and openness in dealing with complainants and complaints across all service lines is adhered to at all times.

  1. b) Patient Safety and Risk Management
  • Work with the Heads of Governance to ensure your division delivers effective risk register management, to ensure it accurately reflects the divisions risks and is reviewed and updated on a regular basis.
  • Interrogate provided reports from risk management database (DATIX), to identify recurrent or adverse trends and work with others to plan remedial action under the leadership of the Tier 1 (site executive) & 2 management teams.
  • Attend RCA and investigation training to gain and ensure skills and competencies are maintained. Participate in SI and incident investigation to main RCA investigatory skills and competency as required
  • Ensure statutory duty of candour, transparency and openness in incident and SI management across all service lines.
  1. c) Patient experience and feedback
  • Work with the Head of Patient Experience to co-ordinate mechanisms to obtain patient comments and suggestions, e.g. surveys/observations/interviews, on how to improve the service and environment. This includes promoting the Friends and Family Test (FFT) in all relevant areas to achieve high participation rates for the site.
  • Support the Patient Experience leads in working with service users and the service lines or localities to support a culture which achieves best practice and consistent high performance to improve patient engagement and overall the experience of the service user.
  1. d) Quality assurance, audit, data collection and analysis
  • Work with the Head of Governance to review their reports and undertake qualitative and quantitative analysis identifying trends and highlight areas of good practice as well as concern, working youre your divisional leaders to agree actions that maintain standards and mitigate risk.
  • With the site Head of Governance, undertake regular (quarterly for Quality Assurance Committee) site and service line patient experience (complaint, PALs, AIRs & FFT) thematic analysis to enable shared learning and implementation of actions by services to rectify issues identified.
  • Maintain the integrity of all governance information using agreed methods and procedures.
  • Report site and service data and information clearly, in the required format and at the agreed time.

Staff development and training

  • Act as a specialist resource within the site using knowledge and experience of quality governance and risk management to support compliance with regulation & governance standards and in the management of risk.
  • Motivate and support all, to recognise their role in complying with all external standards, regulations and inspections
  • Work with the site Head of Governance to ensure that site-based staff receive the necessary governance training/instruction to manage clinical and non-clinical risk through delivery of or access to appropriate training.
  • Develop and provide teaching and training sessions on effective complaints management and good customer care skills to staff as required.
  • Support new staff induction and encourage good practice in incident reporting and complaints handling by role modeling and leading by example.
  • Use awareness of individuals learning needs and styles to develop education and training to meet those needs and for a range of target audiences

Person Specification

Skills

Essential

  • The ability to work on personal initiative and as part of a team, working across professional boundaries at all levels of the site and organisation
  • Demonstrates the skill required to present complex issues clearly and concisely at all levels including site Quality Governance Board level
  • Good organisational skills; able to work effectively under pressure and to identified and work successfully towards deadlines
  • Evidence of good presentation skills in a range of media and training materials
  • Demonstrates skills in analysis and interpretation of risk, performance, clinical and other data and reports
  • Able to write concise and grammatically correct reports and summaries, presenting information clearly
  • Competent Datix (or equivalent risk management data base ) user and demonstrable evidence that they can teach others to use the system

Qualifications

Essential

  • 1st level degree or equivalent experience or study
  • Intermediate qualification or demonstrable experience in the use of Microsoft Office Applications
  • Comprehensive knowledge of Microsoft Office Applications and use of databases and commercial IT systems

Desirable

  • Completion of a management qualification or equivalent

Knowledge

Essential

  • Good level of clinical governance knowledge and demonstrable experience of working within a clinical governance arena
  • Comprehensive understanding and knowledge of external assessment or regulation. In the NHS or other public service
Person Specification

Skills

Essential

  • The ability to work on personal initiative and as part of a team, working across professional boundaries at all levels of the site and organisation
  • Demonstrates the skill required to present complex issues clearly and concisely at all levels including site Quality Governance Board level
  • Good organisational skills; able to work effectively under pressure and to identified and work successfully towards deadlines
  • Evidence of good presentation skills in a range of media and training materials
  • Demonstrates skills in analysis and interpretation of risk, performance, clinical and other data and reports
  • Able to write concise and grammatically correct reports and summaries, presenting information clearly
  • Competent Datix (or equivalent risk management data base ) user and demonstrable evidence that they can teach others to use the system

Qualifications

Essential

  • 1st level degree or equivalent experience or study
  • Intermediate qualification or demonstrable experience in the use of Microsoft Office Applications
  • Comprehensive knowledge of Microsoft Office Applications and use of databases and commercial IT systems

Desirable

  • Completion of a management qualification or equivalent

Knowledge

Essential

  • Good level of clinical governance knowledge and demonstrable experience of working within a clinical governance arena
  • Comprehensive understanding and knowledge of external assessment or regulation. In the NHS or other public service

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Certificate of Sponsorship

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab) .

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab) .

Additional information

Certificate of Sponsorship

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab) .

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab) .