Emergency Medical Advisor (999 Call Handler) - Crawley (Band 3) - 999, Call Handler, NHS, Ambul[...]

Main area: 999, Call Handler, NHS, Ambulance, Contact Centre, Call Centre, Customer Service Grade Band 3

Contract: Permanent

Hours:

• Full time
• Part time

Job ref: 278-999CHC-1612-JG

Employer: South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust

Employer type: NHS

Site: Crawley Emergency Operations Centre

Town: Crawley

Salary: £24,071 - £25,674 per annum NHS Agenda for Change Section 2 + NHS Unsocial Hours

Salary period: Yearly

Closing: 01/01/2025 23:59

Emergency Medical Advisor (999 Call Handler) - Crawley

Band 3

South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SECAmb) has a vision to ‘support our staff to provide a caring, high quality and efficient urgent and emergency care service to our communities’. We are rated ‘Good’ for care by the Care Quality Commission.

Our 4,000+ workforce provides services to 4.9m people across Kent, Surrey, Sussex and North East Hampshire. We handle over 1 million calls to 999 and 1 million calls to NHS 111 every year.

Job overview

Your NHS needs YOU!

Why apply for this role?

Our 999 Emergency Call Handlers (Emergency Medical Advisors) are people just like you, from different backgrounds and age groups.

You are the first person our patients speak to when they call 999 in an emergency.

What makes a great 999 Emergency Call Handler (Emergency Medical Advisor)?

• Caring and empathetic
• Great communication skills
• Happy and able to work flexibly

Main duties of the job

As a SECAmb 999 Emergency Call Handler, you are responsible for ensuring the correct information is obtained from the caller while offering advice or reassurance under difficult circumstances. You will enter details into a computer system about the patient and their condition, categorizing the seriousness of their illness or injury.

We will provide full training in a warm, friendly environment in our Emergency Call Centres:

• 9 weeks full time training
• Is full time, even for part time applicants
• Must attend policy due to obtaining your Pathways licence
• Comprises 3 weeks of Monday to Friday classroom training, then observing and mentoring periods for a further 6 weeks before going “live”.
• Designed to fully support transition to call handling independently

Working for our organisation

This role will involve working a varied shift pattern including earlies, lates, nights, and weekends on a rota pattern. If you have a requirement to work nights ONLY, this can also be catered for.

What we can offer you:

• Competitive salary of £24,071 - £25,674 with the earning potential of up to £30,000 per annum.
• Unsocial hours enhancements.
• 35 days’ annual leave inclusive of Bank Holidays (pro rata).
• Flexible working hours on a rota pattern.
• Free parking.
• Staff networks.
• Training and development.
• Salary Sacrifice schemes for cars or push bikes.
• Access to occupational health.
• Enhanced DBS check.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

When you dial 999, your call goes through to a call handler based in one of our 2 Emergency Operation Call Centres. These staff are trained to use the NHS Pathways system to provide assistance in various situations.

This role can be demanding, challenging, and ultimately very rewarding. Applicants will need to have a range of skills to deal with often stressful and emotional situations, demonstrating compassion and empathy to all callers.

• Demonstrate high levels of personal commitment to facilitate the delivery of a patient-focused service.
• Drive and passion to make a difference to people’s lives.
• Ability to work well within a team and independently, fast/accurate typing skills, and a good standard of education or equivalent experience.
• Remain calm under pressure, good at problem solving, and have excellent interpersonal skills.

Person specification

Qualifications

• Educated to GCSE or Functional Skills level with fundamental Maths, English, and ICT skills OR evidence of using Maths and English to GCSE level or higher.
• Level 2 in Customer Service or Health and Social Care.

Experience

• Previous experience working and communicating with the public.
• Ability to communicate with a variety of different people and build rapport.
• Experience of working in a computer-based role - strong IT skills.
• Previous experience working in a team or with stakeholders across a range of settings.

Please note that the salary range noted on the vacancy is in line with agenda for change (AFC) pay scales.

Following the revision of current national legislation, the Trust strongly recommends that new starters will be appropriately vaccinated unless medically exempt.

All positions come with a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check relevant to the post.

The Trust is committed to being an inclusive employer, offering flexible working arrangements and actively supports equality of opportunity for all our staff.

The majority of our roles will include some travel between sites for business purposes.

Should you require an application form in an alternative format, please contact recruitment@secamb.nhs.uk.

Please note, due to the high volume of applications at SECAmb, we will only contact those applicants who are shortlisted for interview.

Follow our recruitment on Twitter @SECAmbRecruit and check out our Facebook page - SECAmb NHS Recruitment.