Call Handler - First Point of Contact Centre

Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust

This job is now closed

Job summary

Are you someone who thrives in high-pressure environments?

Do you have a passion for being the first point of contact for those in crisis when they need us the most?

Can you provide a voice of reassurance and support to those in mental health crisis? If so, our First Point of Contact Centre is looking for people like you to make a real difference!

As a Call Handler, you will be the first point on contact for people calling our Mental Health 111 and crisis service.

Working as one of our Call Handling team, there will be a wide range of calls and you'll thrive amid the challenges this presents. You'll require an outstanding amount of resilience and emotional strength as you will be supporting patients with their mental health at their time of need. Your support will make a difference to the lives of our callers.

We're looking for applications from people that are passionate about helping people in need, strive to deliver a quality and positive customer experience and want to develop their skills and knowledge of Mental Health.

Ideally, you'll have experience in mental health care or have worked in a busy call centre where empathy and understanding were part of your role, or you might have life experience that you feel makes you a great candidate.

In return you'll get to work as part of a supportive team, offering a variety of working patterns over a 24/7 rota and making a difference to people's lives every day.

Main duties of the job

The FPCC manages mental health routine, urgent and crisis referrals in to the trust, alongside managing the mental health crisis calls.

With just a single telephone number the FPCC delivers a much simplified and smoother experience for our service users and referrers to access mental health support through the Trust.

Alongside this, we also receive telephone calls, letters and e-mails from GP's, HCP's, service users, their representatives and referrers seeking mental health advice, mental health support and to access the local secondary mental health and learning disability services.

We're currently recruiting for a variety of shiftsincluding:

Day Shifts -

7am to 8pm
9am - 10pm
7am - 3pm
2pm - 10pm

Night shifts -

21:30hrs - 07:30hrs

Flexible working options can be considered.

The qualification, training & experience requirements for the role are underlined in the Job Description/Person Specification.

About us

Please note that this role does not meet the criteria for sponsorship and therefore we are only able to consider applicants with unrestricted right to work in the UK due to the role not currently meeting the UK Government's Visa's & Immigration's requirements for a Skilled Worker Visa.

We have in excess of 5000 staff working over 50 sites, providing a diverse range of services. We strive to support an organisational culture that is welcoming, builds and celebrates inclusivity and diversity and provides a sense of belonging and trust.

The annual NHS Staff Surveygives our people the opportunity to tell us about their experience working at the Trust. For the 2023 survey just over 2800 colleagues gave us their views (58.5%). It was great to see from the results that colleagues are saying that:

89.7% believe they are making a positive difference to patients/service users;
73.3% would recommend the organisation as a place to work;
82.4% agree that care of patients and service users is the organisations priority;
76.7% would be happy with the standard of care for a friend or relative

Our results put us as 5th nationally as a Community, Mental Health and Learning Disabilities NHS Employer of Choice and 1st equal amongst all NHS Provider Trusts in the South West. However, we know we have more to do and will continue to drive forward our commitment to making GHC a Great Place to Work.

Date posted

19 December 2024

Pay scheme

Agenda for change

Band

Band 3

Salary

£24,071 to £25,674 a year per annum

Contract

Permanent

Working pattern

Full-time, Part-time, Flexible working

Reference number

327-24-338-E

Job locations

FPCC, Gloucestershire Emergency Services Centre

Waterwells

Gloucestershire

GL2 2BP

Job description

Job responsibilities

Communicating effectively with a wide range of people including patients who could be distressed, colleagues, team managers and members of the public, ensuring at all times that a professional approach is presented.
To use core key skills to de-escalate and manage distressed, vulnerable and challenging patients who have made contact with the service and may be feeling suicidal.
Transferring internal and external calls, mail, e-mails and taking messages, ensuring that all requests/issues are actioned or passed on and followed up in a timely manner.
Using Microsoft office applications such as Microsoft Word for word processing.
Actively participating in team meetings and discussions with colleagues and manager to make constructive suggestions as to how services could be improved within own work area, and implementing such changes with guidance from line manager
As far as possible within own role, ensure a professional, proactive service is provided to callers, including helping as far as possible with the absence of colleagues to deal with enquiries and avoid potential delays and/or problems
Ensuring that all departmental spreadsheets and Information Systems are accurate and are kept up to date
Prioritise own workload, organising work to meet priorities and highlighting to appropriate colleagues when potential problems may occur
Keep all files, systems, and paperwork up to date in line with departmental procedures, highlighting any difficulties or potential issues to the line manager
Ensure all paperwork is filed or shredded promptly and securely
Carrying out general administrative tasks for the department to agreed standards and timescales, e.g. photocopying, sending out correspondence and documents, etc.
Order office stationary as necessary
Undertake other support functions as requested by the Team Manager
Acts in ways that; support equality and value diversity. Treat everyone with whom you come in contact, with dignity and respect & recognise and report behaviour that undermines equality and diversity

Job description

Job responsibilities

Communicating effectively with a wide range of people including patients who could be distressed, colleagues, team managers and members of the public, ensuring at all times that a professional approach is presented.
To use core key skills to de-escalate and manage distressed, vulnerable and challenging patients who have made contact with the service and may be feeling suicidal.
Transferring internal and external calls, mail, e-mails and taking messages, ensuring that all requests/issues are actioned or passed on and followed up in a timely manner.
Using Microsoft office applications such as Microsoft Word for word processing.
Actively participating in team meetings and discussions with colleagues and manager to make constructive suggestions as to how services could be improved within own work area, and implementing such changes with guidance from line manager
As far as possible within own role, ensure a professional, proactive service is provided to callers, including helping as far as possible with the absence of colleagues to deal with enquiries and avoid potential delays and/or problems
Ensuring that all departmental spreadsheets and Information Systems are accurate and are kept up to date
Prioritise own workload, organising work to meet priorities and highlighting to appropriate colleagues when potential problems may occur
Keep all files, systems, and paperwork up to date in line with departmental procedures, highlighting any difficulties or potential issues to the line manager
Ensure all paperwork is filed or shredded promptly and securely
Carrying out general administrative tasks for the department to agreed standards and timescales, e.g. photocopying, sending out correspondence and documents, etc.
Order office stationary as necessary
Undertake other support functions as requested by the Team Manager
Acts in ways that; support equality and value diversity. Treat everyone with whom you come in contact, with dignity and respect & recognise and report behaviour that undermines equality and diversity

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

GCSE level of education or equivalent

Desirable

NVQ 2 or equivalent in healthcare

Length and Nature of Experinece

Essential

Experience of working in mental health, a healthcare or NHS setting with mental health experience

Desirable

Experience of working in a call centre or similar
Some experience of working collaboratively with other care teams, stat and not stat agencies, the voluntary sector

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

GCSE level of education or equivalent

Desirable

NVQ 2 or equivalent in healthcare

Length and Nature of Experinece

Essential

Experience of working in mental health, a healthcare or NHS setting with mental health experience

Desirable

Experience of working in a call centre or similar
Some experience of working collaboratively with other care teams, stat and not stat agencies, the voluntary sector

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.