Directorate Support Manager – Internal Medicine

Job overview

We are looking for a positive, pro-active, and professional person to join our team. If you have excellent interpersonal skills, are a good communicator, and have a strong desire to deliver outstanding support to our clinical teams then this could be the role for you.

Based at St Richards Hospital with travel to both sites required working full time.

The Directorate Support Manager will report directly to the Service Manager and work with the General Manager to provide efficient and organised administrative support to the directorate.

The role will involve supporting the Service Manager in a range of duties including administrative support of the waiting lists, clinics, supporting administrative processes across Respiratory, Diabetes and Endocrinology and Sleep to be co-ordinated in order to deliver both governance and performance functions.

Main duties of the job

• Direct Line Management of our Band 4 Specialty Co-ordinators and to oversee their direct line management of our Band 3 and 2 Admin support staff (managing this where required and any bank admin staff). To include management of leave approval, rosters and all HR processes, acting as their first port of call.
• Manage and support the Directorate's Administration processes.
• Manage the admin recruitment process from advertising to shortlisting, interviewing and appointing.
• Actively support the Service Manager in carrying out the directorate's validation to support delivery of the Trusts key performance targets.
• Reviewing and supporting the service waiting lists, clinics and capacity to ensure booked in turn, utilised and any capacity issues highlighted.
• Liaising with multi-disciplinary teams in the resolution of PALs concerns.
• Organise Service meetings and venues, preparing agendas and taking minutes.
• Attend performance, service and any clinical governance meetings where required
• Deputise for Service Group Manager where required

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• Communications and Relationship skills - (Factor 1)

• Develop networks and liaise with other hospital professional groups and outside agencies as required on behalf of the division.
• Actively support the (CGM) /ACGM in the escalation process by informing wards / departments and medical staff of the situation and by providing operational assistance to the general management team as requested.
• Respond to any general queries with varying levels of complexity from the Teams and direct them to alternative information sources if appropriate.

• Provide close support for Team member/s responsible for organising meetings and conferences

• Respond to frequent enquiries from managers, stakeholders, professionals and, less frequently, the general public, offer support and guidance including using written, verbal and face-to-face communication. Using empathy, tact, sensitivity and judgement to deal with all queries in a professional, confidential and sensitive manner, especially where there are barriers to understanding.
• Manage and dealing with complex, sensitive, confidential and continuous information.
• Take accurate telephone messages, collect relevant information, and deal with difficult callers, including members of the media in a confident and friendly manner.
• Liaise with staff and managers over a range of issues.
• Provide diary management for the Teams, including arranging meetings and booking appointments on request or based on precedent, giving apologies where appropriate and finding a suitable deputy.
• Prepare agendas from previous minutes, collate documents and meet deadlines, once agreed.
• Take notes when required and distribute after approval. Provide other administrative support to a variety of meetings when required.
• Proof-read documents for spelling, punctuation, format and grammar. Reformat documents as needed.

• Analytical and Judgemental skills - (Factor 3)

• Co-ordinate all aspects of the services risk management and governance activities in conjunction with the (CGM) /ACGM
• Actively involved in producing reports relating to governance issues and actively involved in the analysis of clinical and information governance incidents that will contribute to the improvements in clinical and administrative practice.
• Actively involved in the embedding of risk management processes and support the co-ordination and maintenance of the service and Divisional Risk Register
• Analysis of business performance information of varying levels of complexity, decisions on meeting business targets, highlighting gaps and issues in performance information.
• Participate in validation of patient pathways to ensure RTT & Diagnostic pathways (DM01)  compliance / completion
• Using initiative and judgement to raise issues with Line Manager or members of the Teams when

• Planning and Organisational skills - (Factor 4)

• Use initiative to prioritise own workload some of which can be of a complex nature, exercising discretion as to the degree of urgency, importance and confidentiality required
• Multi-task, and plan work for short- and medium-term. Plan straightforward, and occasionally complex tasks and activities.
• Actively involved in the development of the annual capacity and demand planning
• Actively involved in the development of cost improvement plans

• Support the (CGM) /ACGM in setting up meetings as required by the CGM /ACGM and for taking notes at meetings.

• Check clinics daily for capacity and ensure all slots are filled in a timely manner and arranging the setting up of additional clinics as able.
• Check two week rule capacity sheet and escalate through Line Management if clinics are required.
• Organise dates and venues for appraisals and mandatory training of secretaries within the Care Group Team, type up notes and store in Divisional Management drive.
• Provide a flexible workforce to arrange for maximum secretarial and administrative and clerical support within the division, especially durng periods of leave and sickness.
• Co-ordinate any bank staff requirements and minimise bank and overtime costs.
• Share best practice and document processes.
• Undertake specific projects and tasks as requested by the Teams.
• Ensure deadlines are met and take appropriate action to make sure work is completed to given timescales.

• Patient/ Client Care - (Factor 6)

• Check clinics daily for capacity and ensure all slots are filled in a timely manner and arranging the setting up of additional clinics as able
• Management of specific projects and for supporting divisional projects that contribute to service improvements aimed to ensure that the patient is central to the delivery of high quality patient care

• Policy and Service Development Implementation - (Factor 7)

• Utilising service improvement techniques including process mapping, capacity and demand modelling, development of integrated business and service plans and improvement cycles support the teams to provide services in new and innovative ways.
• Implements policies, proposes changes to practices, procedures for own area
• Management of specific projects and for supporting divisional projects that contribute to service improvements aimed to ensure that the patient is central to the delivery of high quality patient care.
• An integral part of the Divisional team that supports the Trust in delivering its strategic direction and objectives surrounding the ‘Patient First’ programme
• Work closely with CGM/ACGM to ensure that services are compliant with all national and local targets such as Referral to Treatment, Cancer Waiting Times and national and local CQUINS.

Please see attached Job Description for full details.