Administration Team Leader

Job overview

We are looking to recruit a highly motivated, organised and conscientious Band 5 Administration Team Leader to join the Neuropsychiatry service at St. George’s Hospital. The Neuropsychiatry Service is a regional service at St George’s Hospital that provides multidisciplinary outpatient assessment and treatment to adults over the age of 18 suffering from psychiatric complications of neurological and neurosurgical disorders including epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, memory disorders, brain tumours and functional neurological disorders (FND).

The service is closely allied to the Regional Neurosciences Centre based at the Atkinson Morley Wing of St George’s Hospital (AMRNC) and serves the population of southwest London including the boroughs of Wandsworth, Merton, Richmond, Sutton, Kingston, Surrey and some surrounding areas covered by the AMRNC.

The service also provides specialised liaison neuropsychiatry input to inpatients admitted to neurological, neurosurgical and neurocritical care beds on neurosciences wards at St George's Hospital.

Main duties of the job

The Band 5 Administration Team Leader in Neuropsychiatry plays a critical leadership role in ensuring that patient pathways are managed consistently, in line with agreed processes while leading and developing the administrative workforce.

You will be responsible for the day-to-day supervision and direction of the administration team (Band 4s), ensuring that all relevant duties and tasks are performed effectively and seamlessly within expected timescales and to the required standards, thereby meeting the wider objectives of the service. The administration team provides secretarial and administrative support to the Neuropsychiatry clinical team to ensure the smooth running of outpatient clinics and the Neuropsychiatry liaison service offered to patients on neurology wards at St George’s Hospital. You will be overseeing appointment bookings, the service’s waiting list, collating statistics for audits and operational reports and participating in service improvement initiatives. You will often be the first point of contact for patients, relatives/carers and other professionals including GPs, neurologists and secondary mental health services. You will provide an operational interface between clinical teams, service management and wider trust functions.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Operational Leadership & Line Management

• Provide day to day leadership and supervision of the Neuropsychiatry administrative team (Band 4s).
• Allocate workload, prioritise tasks and ensure cover for clinics, MDTs, leave and sickness absence.
• Act as first line manager for administrative staff including workload allocation, performance management and appraisals. Address conduct or capability issues and support staff development.
• Act as the first point of escalation for administrative and pathway issues.

Waiting List & Pathway Management

• Lead the management of Neuropsychiatry waiting lists, ensuring referral to treatment (RTT) rules are applied accurately and consistently.
• Monitor patient pathways from referral to treatment, identifying risks of breach or delay and escalating appropriately in a timely and structured manner.
• Ensure prioritisation decisions align with agreed clinical criteria, policies and governance frameworks so as to minimise the risk of undermining equity of access.
• Optimise clinic utilisation, reduce DNAs and minimise cancelled or unused appointments in a resource constrained specialist service.

Referral Management & Triage Support

• Oversee receipt, validation and processing of referrals including tertiary and cross specialty referrals.
• Ensure referrals contain required clinical information and are directed to the appropriate pathway or clinician.
• Coordinate administrative support for triage processes and record outcomes accurately on RIO.

Governance, Quality & Compliance

• Ensure administrative processes comply with Trust policies.
• Maintain clear audit trails for prioritisation decisions, pathway deviations and expedited bookings.
• Support the preparation of information for access reviews, responses to incidents, complaints and data quality audits related to access or administration.
• Contribute to service improvement by identifying process gaps and implementing standard operating procedures (SOPs).

Data Quality, Reporting and Performance Monitoring

• Produce and interpret routine performance reports on RTT position, waiting times, clinical activity and DNAs.
• Use data to identify trends/emerging risks, inequality of access or pressure points and escalate appropriately.

Patient Experience and Communication

• Ensure a high standard of communication with patients, carers and referrers, particularly for long waiters or complex cases.
• Oversee the management of patient enquiries, concerns and access related complaints.
• Support fair and transparent management of expectations around waiting times and pathway access.

Service Development and Operational Resilience

• Provide operational continuity during periods of staff absence (leave/sickness), increased demand or service pressure, reducing reliance on senior managers for routine issues.
• Support the implementation of service changes and communication of pathway processes.
• Contribute to standardisation of Neuropsychiatry administrative processes through the development and maintenance of SOPs.