Employer: Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
Employer type: NHS
Site: Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
Town: KETTERING
Salary: £37,338 - £44,962 per annum
Salary period: Yearly
Closing: 17/02/2025 23:59
Interview date: 05/03/2025
Patient and Family Liaison Officer
Band 6
Job overview
The Family Liaison Officer will be required to provide support, advice, and signposting to families, carers, and significant others following a patient safety incident affecting any person receiving care or treatment from Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust or who was recently in receipt of care and treatment.
The Family Liaison Officer will be a passionate and motivated professional with a strong desire to make a difference for families who have experienced a patient safety incident.
You will need to be compassionate, empathic, responsive, and understanding, with a willingness to help grow and shape the Trust's vision for supporting families and empower people with lived experience to contribute to the development of standards that will make a difference.
A high level of self-awareness and the ability to prioritize your own self-care while balancing the needs of others and the demands of the role is essential.
Main duties of the job
• Provide support to individuals, some of whom may be deeply distressed. The post holder must be self-aware, compassionate, and actively seek to address self-care.
• Lead the support for care groups and staff with bereavement link roles to ensure bereaved families and carers are engaged and supported, advising staff on due process regarding raising questions and sharing concerns related to the quality of care received by their family member.
• Ensure families and carers are referred for and guided to receive a high standard of bereavement support or other individualized support, respecting confidentiality, values, culture, and beliefs. This includes close collaboration with specialist bereavement services and other specialist services.
• Link Trust investigations or legal services with families where a learning response is being undertaken or when a serious complaint has been made following the death or harm of a patient. Provide clear and accurate information about the Trust's learning response process.
Working for our organisation
NHFT is an integrated primary care and mental health Trust, providing physical, mental health, and specialty services in both hospital settings and the community. We focus on delivering care that is easily accessible, with many services provided at home, work, or in schools. We also provide health services to various prisons and detention centers in Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire.
NHFT promotes a culture of learning to improve the care and safety of our patients and staff, focusing on opportunities, innovation, development, and growth.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
This is a busy role where the main duties will include (but are not limited to):
• Ensuring families, carers, and significant others are supported and guided through the process of incident investigations, ensuring timely contact and information sharing, including signposting to sources of help and support following a bereavement/incident where indicated.
• Leading the development of team standards for post-incident support, empowering individuals with lived experience of loss, harm, or bereavement following a patient safety incident.
• Using positive family engagement within the Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF) to transform the experience of patients and families who experience harm due to a patient safety incident within NHS care.
• Supporting the incident review process and wider functions of the Patient Safety Team as required.
Person specification
Education, Training & Qualifications
* Educated to Degree level or equivalent level of education, training, or experience.
* Master’s level qualification in a relevant subject or equivalent experience.
* Investigations training.
Knowledge, Skills & Experience
* Proven ability to work independently and manage a caseload.
* Experience of working with the public in a public-facing service such as healthcare, volunteer sector support, police service, coroners service, retail, counselling, or customer services.
* Ability to work collaboratively and inclusively with a wide range of staff, teams, managers, people, and partner agencies.
* An understanding of some models of bereavement.
* An attitude that places family needs at the center of thinking.
* Excellent communication skills with a key focus on listening.
* Compassionate with the ability to deal with distressed and highly emotive patients/carers/relatives.
* Ability to prioritize and manage conflicting requirements professionally and handle complex issues simultaneously.
* Excellent diary management to ensure families and loved ones receive the necessary level of support.
* Excellent or developing report writing skills.
* Ability to present a subject to a professional group.
* Knowledge and understanding of NHS incident learning response methods.
* Knowledge and understanding of NHS complaints management arrangements and the role of the Parliamentary Health Service Ombudsman.
* Understanding of Care Quality Commission Regulation 20.
* Approachable, culturally mature, calm, and considerate.
* Willingness to grow and develop.
* A desire to make a difference for parents/carers/relatives of service users following a patient safety incident.
* A desire to share knowledge and develop knowledge.
* Ability to deal appropriately with potentially stressful and difficult situations.
* Resilience and strong awareness of the need for self-care and self-compassion.
* Able to use own initiative.
* Able to meet deadlines and work under pressure.
* Able to secure cooperation from colleagues at all levels.
* Organized and able to organize others.
* Self-awareness regarding personal impact.
* Ability to undertake the duties and demands of the post.
* Ability to travel routinely across the Trust catchment area and beyond as required.
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020, and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.
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