Home First Call Handler

Job overview

This advert is for permanent roles, full time or part time - this will be over a variety of shift patterns that fall between the core hours of 07:00-22:00.

Job Overview

This is an exciting opportunity to join the new Countywide Home First Front Door Service, that launched on 1 September, and play a key role in shaping and supporting this innovative service from the outset. As part of the Home First Team, you will work within a multidisciplinary service that brings together Occupational Therapists, Physiotherapists, Therapy Assistants, Home First Assistants, Planners and Reablement Workers to support people across Gloucestershire to remain independent and receive care in their own homes whenever possible.

Working as the first point of contact for patients, carers, healthcare professionals and partner organisations, you will manage referrals and enquiries into the Home First service, ensuring they are handled safely, efficiently and directed to the most appropriate clinical team. This is a fast-paced and rewarding role requiring excellent communication, organisational and decision-making skills, with a strong focus on delivering high-quality, person-centred care and support within the community.

Job description

• Act as the first point of contact for Home First referrals and enquiries from patients, carers, healthcare professionals and partner organisations.
• Manage incoming calls and referrals, ensuring information is accurately recorded and processed in a timely manner.
• Support the safe and effective management of urgent referrals in collaboration with clinical leads.
• Use agreed pathways, protocols and decision-support tools to direct referrals to the most appropriate service or clinical team.
• Maintain accurate records and update patient information on clinical systems, including SystmOne.
• Communicate professionally and sensitively with patients, families, carers and healthcare professionals.
• Work closely with multidisciplinary teams, acute hospitals, GPs, social care services and community partners to coordinate care.
• Escalate complex queries, concerns or risks to the appropriate clinical or operational lead.
• Provide administrative support to the wider Home First team as required.
• Contribute to maintaining service capacity, patient flow and effective team communication.
• Uphold confidentiality and information governance standards in line with Trust policies.
• Participate in a rota to provide service coverage across operational hours (7am-10pm, 7 days a week).

Job responsibilities

Gloucestershire Health & Care Services deliver community health & social care services for adults & older people via a model of locality-based cluster teams. Each of the clusters consist of Nursing, Therapy and Reablement Teams working closely alongside social work professionals to provide support to people within their own homes and within bed based reablement units. We work closely with GPs, local communities, acute and community hospital(s) and other partners to enable people to live as independently and for as long as possible within their own home.

We are a clinically led organisation where individuals are valued for their unique professional contribution to ensuring best patient care. Continuing Professional Development is a key priority and we actively promote and develop the broadening roles that Physiotherapists and Allied Health Professionals are able to contribute. We have an extensive range of Advanced Practitioners, Clinical Specialists, Professional Leads and Non-Medical Prescribers across a wide range of specialisms that actively support clinical colleagues within our organisation. Our well established, structured Clinical Supervision and In-Service Training programmes contribute to the learning culture which develops and challenges thinking and practice.

This role is not eligible for sponsorship as per the Governments UK VISA and Immigration Rules and Regulations. For more information please visithttps://www.gov.uk/browse/visas-immigration/work-visas

To support compliance with UK immigration requirements, all applicants who require a visa to work in the UK must disclose their visa history in full. This includes current and previous sponsors, dates of sponsorship, visa category, and any changes of employment. If you are on a Graduate or Dependant Visa, please disclose the expiry date on your application. Incomplete information may mean we are unable to consider your application

About the organisation

We have a skilled and dedicated workforce of over 5000 colleagues working in a diverse range of services over 55 sites and within people's homes. We strive to enable a welcoming workplace culture that builds and celebrates civility, inclusivity and diversity, while providing a sense of belonging and trust.

Annual staff surveys, regular Pulse surveys and other engagement opportunities provide our people with lots of opportunity to tell us about their experiences of working with us. In the latest staff survey, 61% of colleagues gave us their views. It was great to hear that:

• 72% of colleagues would recommend the Trust as a place to work, ranking us 1st for Provider Trusts in the South West region on this question.
• 76% would recommend the standard of care provided in our services if a friend or relative needed treatment, also ranking us 1st in the South West region.
• 81% said that care of patients and service users is the Trust's priority, compared with an average in comparable NHS Trusts in England of 64%.

This high-level overview shows we are in a healthy position, with higher scores than average for comparable organisations, alongside a great response rate, indicating good staff engagement. However, we also know we have plenty of room for improvement in many areas. To that end, we continue to prioritise and invest in our commitment to genuinely becoming a Great Place to Work with consistent top-quartile performance in the annual staff survey and Pulse surveys.

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential

• GCSE English & Maths Grade C or above or equivalent
• NVQ 3 or working towards or, can demonstrate experience to that level

Experience

Essential

• Evidence of working as part of a team
• Experience of communicating over the telephone
• Proven ability to work unsupervised and manage working time effectively
• Ability to remain calm under pressure and deal with competing demands
• Evidence of good interpersonal skills

Professional Knowledge

Essential

• Evidence of willingness and ability to learn new skills

Desirable

• Understanding and comprehensive use of Electronic records and the local system for patient records (SystmOne), including writing/typing appropriate paperwork on the system

Supporting documents

• Using AI in your Application.pdf (PDF, 95 KB)
• Call Handler JD-PS.pdf (PDF, 465 KB)