Specialist Family Liaison Officer

Job overview

As part of our commitment to strengthening maternity services ahead of the Independent Maternity Review, we are establishing a new Family Liaison Officer (FLO) Team across University Hospitals Sussex.

We are recruiting FLOs across UHSussex, with one post aligned to each site: Princess Royal Hospital (PRH), Royal Sussex County Hospital (RSCH), Worthing Hospital (WH) and St Richard's Hospital (SRH).

Each FLO will be based at a designated site while working collaboratively across the Trust under the leadership of the Perinatal Advocacy Lead, ensuring a consistent and compassionate approach across maternity and neonatal services.

These newly created roles will act as a key point of contact for women, families and staff, helping to improve communication, coordinate support and enhance the experience of care. Working closely with clinical teams, FLOs will promote family-centred care and contribute to service improvement across maternity and neonatal services.

The FLO team will help ensure families feel informed, listened to and supported while promoting openness, learning and positive experiences.

These three-year fixed-term opportunities offer the chance to develop leadership, communication, quality improvement and service development skills while contributing to a significant programme of maternity transformation.

Participation in the Manager on Call rota is required.

Main duties of the job

• Act as a key point of contact for women, birthing people and families who have experienced adverse maternity or neonatal outcomes, including bereavement, birth trauma, serious incidents and concerns about care.
• Provide compassionate, trauma-informed and restorative support to families throughout their care journey and any review or investigation processes.
• Support families to access information, services and resources, ensuring they feel informed, listened to and supported.
• Build and maintain effective relationships with families, clinical teams and external agencies to improve communication and coordination of care.
• Act as a key worker and advocate for families, signposting to appropriate support services where required.
• Collect, review and analyse information and data to support service improvement, reporting and response to enquiries.
• Prepare reports, provide updates and attend internal and external meetings as required.
• Support perinatal staff by offering guidance, facilitating communication and helping resolve concerns and queries.
• Contribute to improving patient experience, family-centred care and learning across maternity and neonatal services.
• Support ongoing maternity and neonatal improvement programmes, including work associated with the Independent Maternity Review.
• Work collaboratively across all maternity and neonatal sites within University Hospitals Sussex.
• Participate in the Manager on Call rota.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

This is an exciting opportunity to help shape the future of family-centred care within University Hospitals Sussex. Successful candidates will play a key role in enhancing the experience of women, birthing people and families, ensuring they feel informed, supported and listened to throughout their maternity and neonatal journey.

As a three-year fixed-term opportunity, these posts provide an excellent platform for career development, enabling candidates to broaden their leadership, communication, quality improvement and service development skills while contributing to a significant programme of maternity transformation.

Applicants should be able to demonstrate experience of working with families in challenging and sensitive circumstances, with a strong understanding of trauma-informed practice, compassionate communication and family-centred care.

If you are passionate about supporting families, improving experiences and driving positive change within maternity and neonatal services, we would love to hear from you.

Join us and help create a compassionate, inclusive and responsive service for women, babies and families across University Hospitals Sussex.

Internal applicants should note that this opportunity will be offered on a secondment basis. Before applying, internal colleagues must discuss the opportunity with their current line manager to confirm whether they can be released from their substantive role if successful. Release to undertake a secondment is not automatic and must be agreed between the colleague, their current line manager, and the recruiting line manager.

Applicant requirements

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.