Personal Assistant to the Director of Pharmacy

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About Us

EPUT provides community health, mental health and learning disability services to support more than 3.2 million people living across Bedfordshire, Essex and Suffolk. Also:

• We are among the largest employers in the in the East of England region, with more than 10,000 staff working across more than 200 sites.
• We run the COVID-19 vaccination programme across mid and south Essex and Suffolk and north east Essex.

EPUT was formed on 1 April 2017 following the merger of North Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (NEP) and South Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (SEPT). A new leadership team was established at the Trust in 2020.
Our vision and values

Our Vision

"To be the leading health and wellbeing service in the provision of mental health and community care".

Our Purpose

"We care for people every day. What we do together, matters".

Our Values

• We Care
• We Learn
• We Empower

Our strategic objectives

• We will deliver safe, high quality integrated care services.
• We will enable each other to be the best that we can.
• We will work together with our partners to make our services better.
• We will help our communities to thrive.

Our services

• Mental Health Services
• Community Health Services
• Learning Disabilities Services
• Social Care

Find out more about the services we offer in our service directory.

Job overview

Are you a superhero? Are your organisational skills and attention to detail impeccable? If so we want you! Although some homeworking will be possible this post is office-based.

We are looking to recruit an experienced, enthusiastic and highly motivated Personal Assistant to provide quality administrative support to the Director of Pharmacy. In order to undertake this role, education to GCSE level or equivalent is required, in addition to excellent organisation and communication skills and an ability to work to strict timescales, all the while maintaining confidentiality.

You will enjoy working in a challenging and fast paced environment, and will be flexible, focused, resilient and able to build effective professional relationships and manage conflicting priorities successfully. We are looking for a candidate with a positive, 'can-do' attitude, who is comfortable with changing priorities and multi-tasking. A good understanding of Microsoft Office and the ability to quickly pick up other software packages is essential, as are excellent keyboard and organisational skills.

Previous secretarial/administrative experience is essential, as well as a knowledge of servicing committees and taking minutes. This is a unique opportunity to build a trusted relationship with the Director you support; every day will be different so you need to enjoy variety, challenge and complexity as well as being able to prioritise what is essential today and what can wait until tomorrow.

Main duties of the job

You will provide comprehensive support to the critical meetings of the pharmacy and medicines optimisation team and ensure that the Director of Pharmacy is fully prepared for all diary events with papers, travel and directions provided. Specific duties will include organising meetings, agenda preparation, note taking, minute production, diary management, bring forwards and follow up, preparation of reports, compiling data and statistics, arranging internal/external meetings, and general office duties including placing orders, and managing leave/payroll information.

You will deal with incoming and outgoing correspondence (including electronic mail), bringing urgent matters to the attention of the Director or appropriate deputy in her absence, and you will use specialised knowledge gained in the role, to make sure that all such communications are dealt with in an appropriate and timely manner, including in the absence of the Director. In the absence of the pharmacy Administration Team Leader, you will also oversee the work of our admin assistants who are based in Chelmsford.

Additional Working Pattern Details

worked across 4 or 5 days , but with some fixed times to support specific meetings which occur monthly on Monday and Thursday Afternoons

Working for our organisation

EPUT are looking for motivated staff who shares our Trust values of Care, Learn and Empower. In return, EPUT can offer you a range of benefits and development including;

• Season Ticket Loans
• NHS discounts for staff
• Excellent Training facilities and opportunities
• Buying and Selling annual leave scheme
• The opportunity to work bank shifts and expand knowledge and experience in other areas
• Salary Sacrifice schemes including lease cars and Cycle to Work

Join our Staff bank

What is Staff Bank?

Our EPUT NHS staff bank is an entity managed by the trust that hires clinical and non-clinical healthcare professionals to take on shifts at our trust hospitals and community settings. Here at EPUT we maintain our own bank of specialist staff to ensure that we are able offer safe and effective care at all times.

All our permanent staff are automatically enrolled onto the staff bank however this does not mean you have to work any additional shifts, but the option is there for you if you wish.

If you are joining our Trust in a fixed term role, please indicate on your New Starter Paperwork that you wish to join our staff bank.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities
• To provide comprehensive and effective secretarial and administrative support to the Director of Pharmacy.
• To communicate with internal and external stakeholders, and maintain a professional image of the Trust at all times.
• To act as the primary point of contact for the Director of Pharmacy for internal and external communication, screening calls/visitors as appropriate.

For further details see the job description and person specification in additional documents

Person specification

Education

Essential criteria

• Good standard of general education (5 GCSEs or equivalent including maths and english)
• IT shills equivalent to RSA3, NVQ3 or equivalent
• ECDL for equivalent

Knowledge

Essential criteria

• Knowledge and understanding of medical/pharmaceutical terminology
• Understanding and awareness of data protection and confidentiality
• Previous experience working in a PA role
• Ability to communicate routine information both verbally and in writing
• Knowledge and understanding of general administrative processes

Desirable criteria

• Previous NHS experience

Skills

Essential criteria

• Advanced Microsoft Office skills
• Proven ability in minute taking
• Methodical, organised approach
• Ability to work to strict timescales

Personal Qualitites

Essential criteria

• Customer focused, calm, empathetic listener
• Ability to engage with people at all levels
• Smart, articulate, pleasant manner, confident
• Flexible approach, ability to plan, organise and prioritise

Desirable criteria

• Driving licence and access to a car

!Important Professional References

Make sure that as a part of your application you have professional references with business contract information covering your last three year employment history. We are unable to accept personal or character references.

As a newly appointed employee you are responsible for incurring the cost of your initial DBS check relevant to your post, the amount will be deducted from your first salary with the Trust.

Applications for Job Share are positively welcomed.

Equal Opportunities Employer

Our Trust is an Equal Opportunities Employer. We particularly welcome applications from people with experience of using mental health services. We also hold the Disability two tick symbol and have made the pledge to commit to employing more people with learning disabilities, we encourage people with a disability to apply. If you require this application form in another format i.e. Braille or audio tape etc, please contact the Recruitment Department on 01375 364513 or email epunft.recruitment.adverts@nhs.net and we can arrange for this to be dispatched to you.

The Trust has the right to expire vacancies prior to the closing date if they so wish. The Trust makes every attempt to contact all applicants and we strongly advise that you check the email account which is registered with NHS Jobs regularly, we would advise however due to the high number of applications we receive that if you have not heard from us within three weeks of the closing date your application has been unsuccessful on this occasion.

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults, and expect all staff to undertake this commitment. Applicants will be subject to robust safer recruitment processes.

Covid Vaccination

Although Covid vaccinations are no longer a mandatory requirement within the NHS we continue to encourage and support the vaccination uptake as this remains the best line of defence against Covid19. The safety of our staff and patients is a top priority for us at EPUT.

If you would like to book a Covid vaccination or would like more information please contact us by emailing epunft.cv19hr@nhs.net.

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

• Personal Assistant Job Description (PDF, 640.5KB)
• Personal Assistant Person Specification (PDF, 528.3KB)
• Pharmacy SMT Organisational Chart (PDF, 82.6KB)
• Why Join The NHS Pension Scheme (PDF, 91.3KB)
• EPUT Pledge - Step into Health (PDF, 211.0KB)
• Candidate Privacy Policy (PDF, 336.6KB)
• Right to Work Information (PDF, 293.6KB)
• Employer Recognition Scheme - Gold Award (PDF, 27.7KB)
• Trust Vision and Values (PDF, 168.9KB)
• Values of the NHS Pension (PDF, 151.3KB)
• EPUT Staff Benefits (PDF, 89.3KB)