Patient Affairs Manager - Complaints

The Role

You will support the Patient Affairs and Complaints Lead in management and co-ordination of processes, performing a key role in encouraging feedback to improve patient care. Ensuring staff and organisational adherence with NHS Lanarkshire Complaints Policy and with the Complaints Handling Procedure (CHP) through:

1. Acting as a point of contact for complainants, clinicians, managers and others, offering expert knowledge and guidance on the complaints procedure and policy.
2. Training organisational staff on complaints procedure and organisational requirements of complaint handling.
3. Coordinating NHS Lanarkshire complaints responses, up to Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO) level.
4. Investigating and triaging complaints including assessing information to determine an appropriate and proportional response.
5. Using complaints data to identify and report on themes to facilitate organisational learning and including flagging potential risk or performance issues.
6. Providing regular reports to Governance committees and Management teams on NHS Lanarkshire performance against Scottish Government performance indicators.

NHS Lanarkshire

Have you always wanted to work with NHS Lanarkshire? Then this might be the opportunity for you to join Team Lanarkshire!

Here at NHS Lanarkshire, we put the patient at the heart of everything we do. Each colleague within the organisation plays a key role in how we deliver our healthcare services.

We proudly serve a population of 655,000 across rural and urban communities in both North and South Lanarkshire. NHS Lanarkshire is comprised of Acute Services, Corporate & Property & Support Services, and Health and Social Care Partnerships which provide integrated primary healthcare and social care services to local communities.

What we'll need you to bring

• Educated to degree level alongside relevant specialist knowledge acquired through experience e.g. Relevant experience within an NHS setting or equivalent experience within a customer care/complaint handling environment.
• Experience of working in and with multidisciplinary teams.
• Good working knowledge of the national Complaints Handling Procedure.
• Good knowledge of medical terminology.
• Good working knowledge of policies including: Freedom of Information Act, Data Protection Act, Duty of Candour Act, Patient Confidentiality, Patient Consent, Access to Records and Advocacy Services.
• Knowledge of the principles of the quality strategy and national quality agenda.
• Understanding of the function of the professions within the multi-disciplinary team.
• Excellent interpersonal skills and an all-round professional attitude with proven ability to communicate effectively with patients, relatives, the public and all levels of staff.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills; able to express views convincingly and coherently both verbally and in writing.
• Letter writing & report writing skills.
• Tact, diplomacy, confidentiality and the ability to act upon complex sensitive information.
• Facilitation, influencing and negotiating skills.
• Empathy and compassionate approach to staff and members of the public.
• Ability to manage difficult situations including de-escalation / conflict management skills.
• High level of I.T. skills and a highly competent user of all Microsoft Office applications e.g. Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Access, Internet Explorer and Outlook.
• Experience of maintaining databases.

Please note for all vacancies where a driving licence is required this must be a full UK/EU/EEA licence.

It would be great if you

• Car driver with a full, valid UK/EU/EEA licence.

Contract type

Permanent

Full time

37 hours

Location and Working Pattern

This role will be based in Patient Affairs Complaints Department within University Hospital Hairmyres.

The working pattern for this role is Monday - Friday, 9am -5pm.

Whilst this advertisement may be for a specific post(s) in a particular location, applicants who are shortlisted for interview may be considered for similar vacancies in alternative locations.

Looking to find out more?

If you’re looking to find out more, then we would love to hear from you!

Please contact Kevin Rooney, Patient Affairs and Complaints Lead on Kevin.Rooney@lanarkshire.scot.nhs.uk.

For enquiries regarding the application form or recruitment process, please contact Lynn Deas, Recruitment Administrator on lynn.deas@lanarkshire.scot.nhs.uk (Please remember to include the job title and reference number in your email).

Why NHS Lanarkshire?

Join us and you will discover a supportive environment where you will have the chance to add to your skills and further your career.

Some of NHS Lanarkshire’s benefits include:

• A minimum of 27 days annual leave increasing with length of service.
• A minimum of 8 days of public holidays.
• Membership of NHS Pension Scheme, with life insurance benefits.
• Paid sick leave increasing with length of service.
• Occupational health services.
• Employee counselling services.
• Work-life Balance policies and procedures.

NHS Lanarkshire has a range of support services on topics that can impact both your working and personal life including occupational health, spiritual care and independent counselling.

Further Information

For more information on the role, please refer to the Job Description. If you’re looking for more information on the recruitment process, organisation or the services we provide, please refer to our information pack, or our recruitment webpage.

Additional Information for Applicants

• Posts close at midnight on the indicated date. However, if there are a high level of interest in this position, we may close the advert once sufficient applications are received. Please complete and submit your application early.
• For help to complete an application on Jobtrain please follow this link: https://www.careers.nhs.scot/how-to-apply/application-process/.
• Please check your e-mail regularly (including junk & spam folders) as well as your Jobtrain account for updates.
• We recommend using the Internet Browser "Google Chrome" or "Microsoft Edge" when using Jobtrain.
• Once you have submitted your application form you will be unable to make any amendments.

NHS Lanarkshire is dedicated to building a diverse workforce where everyone can thrive, develop, and succeed based on their skills, knowledge, and talent—regardless of race, disability, gender, sexual orientation, or care experience or any other dimension that can be used to differentiate people from one another.

Care experienced applicants include those who have lived with foster parents, kinship carers, or in residential/secure children’s settings.

Candidates should provide original and authentic responses to all questions within the application form. The use of artificial intelligence (AI), automated tools, or other third-party assistance to generate, draft, or significantly modify responses is strongly discouraged. By submitting your application, you confirm that all answers are your own work, reflect your personal knowledge, skills and experience, and have not been solely produced or altered by AI or similar technologies. Failure to comply with this requirement may result in your application being withdrawn from the application process.

Right to Work within the UK

NHS Lanarkshire has a legal obligation to ensure that it does not employ any worker who has not been granted the relevant permission to work in the UK.

We are required to check the entitlement to work in the UK of all prospective employees, regardless of nationality or job category. UK Visas & Immigration rules are available at www.bia.homeoffice.gov.uk.

Prospective applicants are encouraged to check eligibility in advance of applying for vacancies in NHS Lanarkshire.

Please note that all Band 1 and Band 2 posts are not eligible for sponsorship through the Skilled Worker route.