Head of Patient Experience

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Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust (CHFT) are committed to equal opportunities and welcome applications from all sections of the community, regardless of any protected characteristics.

We are committed to recruiting to our values. Leading One Culture of Care underpins our values by creating an environment, tone and behaviours across all parts of the Trust that are fundamentally rooted in compassionate care.

We are open to considering a wide range of flexible working arrangements. There are opportunities to flex the days of the week, hours and times of work and place of work including: part-time, job-share, flexible working hours and the possibility to work from home when appropriate. Please talk to us during the interview process to discuss any flexibility that you may require.

We received our Silver Award from the Defence Employer Recognition Scheme which is helping actively promote SaBRE - Supporting Britain's Reservists and Employers. This means that we provided its statement of intent to support all Defence personnel and we welcome application to work for us. Find out more - Why Choose CHFT?

Our Future Plans

The Department of Health and Social Care has awarded capital funding to invest in local health services at both Calderdale Royal Hospital and Huddersfield Royal Infirmary. This is a significant investment and an opportunity to enhance services for our populations in Calderdale and Huddersfield and West Yorkshire for generations to come. To find out more, please visit https://future.cht.nhs.uk/

Job overview

We are seeking an innovative and compassionate leader to join our Quality and Safety Team. The Head of Patient Experience will provide expert professional leadership, supporting all clinical teams throughout the organisation in delivering the highest possible standard of patient care which is delivered safely and effectively to ensure a positive patient experience. They will have a key liaison role with the Trust, Patients, families' carers and Patient Safety Partners and volunteers as key participants ensuring that the patient voice from all communities is heard, especially those with health inequalities.

The post holder will serve as a subject matter expert for patient experience and involvement and formal and informal complaints resolution, to ensure that the trust is continually improving the experience of those who use our services, their carers and families.

Main duties of the job
• Lead on the development and delivery of a patient experience and involvement strategy to continually assess and improve the patient, their family and carer experience across CHFT.
• Provide senior leadership for PALS & Complaints, Patient Feedback processes and Engagement for Experiences of Care and Health Inequalities.
• Play a key role in influencing behavioural and cultural development and change across the organisation to support the embedding of the Trust's vision, and the One Culture of Care ethos within its services and within its relationships with People who access our services, carers, volunteers, Trust members and the wider public.
• Work across organisational boundaries at multiple levels to ensure that support for patients/carers is developed in a coordinated, interagency context.
• Lead on identification of patient experience performance measures and service-related performance improvement strategies.
• To develop and maintain strong links with clinical teams with the aim of strengthening the learning and improvements possible through the review and interpretation of feedback from all sources, ensuring that patient and carers feedback is at the centre of our work.

Working for our organisation

We employ more than 6,500 staff who deliver compassionate care from our two main hospitals, Calderdale Royal Hospital and Huddersfield Royal Infirmary as well as in community sites, health centres and in patients' homes. We also are incredibly proud to have almost 150 volunteers here at CHFT.

We provide a range of services including urgent and emergency care; medical; surgical; maternity; gynaecology; critical care; children's and young people's services; end of life care and outpatient and diagnostic imaging services.

We provide community health services, including sexual health services in Calderdale from Calderdale Royal and local health centres. These include Todmorden Health Centre and Broad Street Plaza.

We continue to modernise and invest in our health services to build on our strong reputation. Foundation trusts are public leaders in improving quality in health services. They are part of the NHS - yet decisions about what they do and how they do it are driven by independent boards. Boards listen to their Council of Governors and respond to the needs of their members - patients, staff and the local community.

Foundation trusts provide what the health service wants, yet are also free to invest quickly in the changes to the local community needs, in striving to be the best, and in putting their patients first.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Please see the attached Job description and personal specification for detailed information with regards to this job role.

Person specification

QUALIFICATIONS / TRAINING

Essential criteria

• Educated to post graduate degree level in a related field and/or able to demonstrate appropriate equivalent experience
• Service improvement qualification or equivalent experience

Desirable criteria

• Current registration with a UK healthcare professional body

KNOWLEDGE, EXPERIENCE & EXPERTISE

Essential criteria

• Significant experience within concerns/complaints services
• Experience of leading PALS services within acute NHS trusts
• Experience of leading and delivering significant programmes of change including cultural change programme.
• Experience of effective partnership working with a range of agencies i.e., PHSO, CQC etc.
• Knowledge and understanding/experience of the PHSO, principles of good complaint handling.
• Experience of providing specialist advice when required.
• Developing policies and managing strategic change.
• Evidence of considerable experience within a patient experience agenda.
• Developing policies and managing strategic change.
• Experience of developing, leading, and establishing teams and services

Desirable criteria

• Specialist project management knowledge or experience.

COMMUNICATION AND RELATIONSHIPS (INCLUDING MANAGEMENT RESPONSIBILITIES)

Essential criteria

• Highly developed communication skills with the ability to communicate on highly complex matters and difficult situations.
• Ability to convey complex information and processes to a variety of audiences in a straightforward manner
• Excellent communicator - providing authentic and clear communication and direction even in times of uncertainty/ambiguity
• Ability to deal sensitively with difficult emotional circumstances and respond appropriately to emotional issues including bereavement and loss responses
• High level professional, people management skills and leadership qualities.
• Strategic and operational management skills
• Proven record of pro-active performance management

Our vision is to provide One Culture of Care for one another in order that we can provide compassionate care for the people who use our services. We are passionate about creating a workplace where we work together to get results, encouraging colleagues to have their say, in order to co create the change we want to see. We take pride in the diversity of our workforce that's why we encourage applications from all. Reasonable adjustments will be made for disabled applicants.

Please ensure your application is submitted with referees who can verify your employment/education history over the last three years and include valid email addresses for them. We will request electronic Factual Employment References from your previous employers. These references will be requested before you are issued with an unconditional offer of employment letter.

If you are appointed to a post, information will also be transferred into the NHS Electronic Staff Records system. The Inter-Authority Transfer (IAT) process is a critical and beneficial component of ESR and following interview your previous NHS employment data, if applicable will be transferred from your current / most recent employer.

You may be required to undertake a DBS. The Trust will administer the DBS check on your behalf and will recover the cost (Enhanced £42.90, Standard £22.90 or Basic £22.90) from your salary when you commence in post (including Internal staff). You will also be required to participate in the DBS Update Service and pay the £13 cost per year. This is a condition of your employment.

CHFT is part of the West Yorkshire Association of Acute Trusts (WYAAT), a collaborative of the NHS hospital trusts from across West Yorkshire and Harrogate working together to provide the best possible care for our patients.

If you have any questions please contact ask.recruitment@cht.nhs.uk for assistance.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Applicant requirements

The postholder will have access to vulnerable people in the course of their normal duties and as such this post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Documents to download

• JDPS (PDF, 328.4KB)