Patient Experience Officer

Job overview

We’re recruiting a Patient Experience Officer to join our Engagement and Experience Team at Sheffield Health Partnership University (SHPU) NHS Foundation Trust. This is a pivotal role at the heart of our services, strengthening communication between clinical teams, patients, families and carers. You’ll create safe, open and honest spaces for people to share their experiences, ensuring they feel heard, respected, valued and supported.

The role plays a key part in resolving low-level concerns at an early stage, turning feedback into meaningful learning and improvement for services and the Trust as a whole. You’ll work closely with clinical and corporate colleagues to influence positive change and improve care delivery.

With a strong focus on inclusion, this role actively engages with people and communities who experience inequality, discrimination or barriers to accessing mental health services. It you’re passionate about listening, advocating for others and using lived experience to shape better care, SHPU offers the opportunity to make a genuine and lasting impact.

Main duties of the job

The Patient Experience Officer plays a vital role in ensuring the voices of people who use our services, and those of their families, and carers, are heard, understood and acted upon. The post holder will maintain a proactive on-site presence across inpatient and community services, spending the equivalent of four days per week embedded within services. The role is predominantly face-to-face, building visibility, trust and strong working relationships with service users and clinical teams.

You will engage with people who use services to support them to share their experiences and concerns in a safe and supportive way. This includes listening to feedback, identifying themes and resolving non-clinical issues at an early stage where possible. You will also act as a liaison between service users, carers, advocacy services and wider Trust teams to support timely and effective resolution.

The role requires the ability to communicate sensitive and sometimes contentious information with empathy, tact and professionalism, while maintaining a calm and diplomatic approach. You will work confidently and independently across a range of settings, with strong verbal and written communication skills and the ability to communicate effectively at all levels.

You will be comfortable using IT systems, including Microsoft Office, and committed to ongoing development through supervision, training and reflective practice, working in line with organisational policies, procedures and values.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The postholder will:

• Maintain a consistent, proactive on-site presence across inpatient and community services delivering most of the role face-to-face and being present within services for the equivalent of four working days per week, engaging with people who use services and supporting clinical teams to better understand lived experience.
• Be required to complete and maintain Respect Level 1 training as a minimum which will be provided by the Trust.
• Have responsibility for ensuring teams and services are embedding and responding to feedback through care opinion and escalating to the head of experience where appropriate.
• Engagement and liaison with advocacy services.
• Regularly touch base with in-patient wards and community services to understand any themes arising through advocacy and align with our feedback improvement plan and communication and engagement strategies.
• Provide non-clinical advice to patients, relatives and carers and, if necessary, refer enquiries on.
• Be able to communicate personal and sometimes contentious information using tact and empathetic skills, whilst maintaining a diplomatic approach.
• Be able to provide advice and signposting when issues require wider input, act as a liaison between the service user/family carer members and wider services to enable resolution of non-clinical issues.
• Where issues relate directly to clinical care, ensure the clinical team are updated and engaged on issues, supporting an honest dialogue between parties to attempt to come to a resolution.
• Supporting with expert by experience activity and encourage wider opportunities for this role
• Be an initial point of contact for Experts by Experience
• Maintain and develop the service user and carer networks.
• Act as a connector between networks and individuals both with lived experience and staff within the clinical areas to advance the co- production and lived experience agenda.
• Provide advice and support to clinical teams to advise and guide them on how to engage in a co-productive way.
• Gather evidence and report back on changes to services which have taken place as a direct result of learning from service user and carer experience.
• Support the evaluation and analysis of feedback from care opinion and mutual help groups from those with lived experience, to ensure actions are taken forward and used to inform our approach to quality improvement.
• Have a role in maintaining and improving relationships between service users, carers and family members and clinical services within Sheffield Health Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.
• Frontline clinical and non-clinical staff across the organisation
• Service users, carers, young carers and families
• Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
• Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust
• Sheffield Flourish
• Pakistan Muslim Centre (PMC)
• Sheffield African Caribbean Mental Health Association (SACMHA)
• Firvale Community Hub
• Sheffield Carers Centre
• Sheffield Young Carers
• Regional Providers, commissioners and social care
• Voluntary Sector Organisations
• Wider private sector/third sector organisations as appropriate