Job overview
As a Receptionist in the purpose built Children’s Emergency Department, you will be the first point of contact for children, young people, and their families during what can often be a stressful and emotional time. Based at the Children’s Emergency Department reception, you will work at the heart of a dynamic, friendly, and supportive multidisciplinary team committed to delivering excellent, compassionate care.
In this fast‑paced environment, you will play a vital role in ensuring that every family is welcomed warmly and helped efficiently. You will be responsible for providing a professional front‑of‑house service, supporting clinical teams with accurate administrative tasks, and helping maintain smooth patient flow throughout the department. Your responsibilities will include greeting and registering patients, managing enquiries in person and over the phone, maintaining confidential records, and ensuring families receive clear information and reassurance.
This role requires strong communication skills, empathy, and the ability to remain calm under pressure. You will need to be highly organised and confident using digital systems, with a proactive approach to problem‑solving. As a valued member of the Children’s Emergency Department team, you will contribute to creating a positive, caring environment where every child and family feels supported from the moment they arrive.
Main duties of the job
Provide a welcoming front‑of‑house service for children, young people, and their families, ensuring a calm, friendly, and supportive reception experience.
Register patients on the hospital’s clinical systems accurately and promptly, ensuring all demographic and safeguarding information is correctly recorded.
Manage patient flow by informing clinical staff of arrivals.
Maintain patient confidentiality and follow all information governance standards when handling personal or medical information.
Provide administrative support to the clinical team, including preparing documentation, updating electronic records, filing, and processing forms.
Prioritise and manage multiple tasks in a busy, fast‑paced emergency care environment, remaining calm under pressure.
Support the triage process by ensuring clinical staff receive timely and accurate information regarding patient arrivals and priority needs.
Assist in maintaining a safe and organised reception area
Report and escalate concerns relating to operational issues, safeguarding, or patient welfare in line with departmental procedures.
Contribute positively to the Children’s Emergency Department team, demonstrating teamwork, initiative, and a commitment to high‑quality care.
Working for our organisation
Why colleagues think we are
What does Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust offer you?
As part of our BHT family, you’ll benefit from learning and development opportunities to support your career progression.
Alongside NHS benefits of generous annual leave entitlement and pension scheme, you'll have access to NHS discount schemes.
We provide a range of health and wellbeing services to promote a healthy, happy workforce.
What do we stand for?
Our vision is to provide outstanding care, support healthy communities and be a great place to work.
Our mission is to provide personal and compassionate care every time.
We are working hard to increase diversity at all levels within the trust. We believe a diverse workforce can have a positive effect on both staff wellbeing and patient outcomes.
We welcome applications from black, Asian and minority ethnic candidates, LGBTQ+ candidates, candidates with disabilities and care-experienced candidates.
We make employment decisions by matching our service needs with the skills and experience of candidates, regardless of age, disability, gender, gender identity, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, or sexual orientation.
Person specification
Skills, Abilities and Knowledge
Essential criteria
1. Patient confidentiality & Data Protection Act.
2. Demonstrate ability to be methodical Pay attention to detail.
3. Good communication skills both verbally and written to enable liaison with multidisciplinary team.
4. Demonstrate ability to organise own workload
5. Prioritise and take initiative where necessary.
6. Ability to work under pressure & to tight deadlines whilst retaining accuracy and attention to detail.
7. Work as part of a team.
8. Knowledge of NHS Trust or general experience within the National Health Service
9. Knowledge of Medway, eRS & Soliton would be advantageous
10. Knowledge of Word and Excel
Education, Qualification & Training
Essential criteria
11. English Language GCSE grade C or above or equivalent.
12. IT/Computer skills to RSA I or equivalent with recent work experience in this field.
Experience
Essential criteria
13. Experience of taking and responding to telephone enquiries from customers and within own organisation and prioritising as necessary.
14. Recent experience of working within a customer care environment
15. Experience of high demand, team based environment
Desirable criteria
16. Working within the NHS
PPE requirements: Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust requires all colleagues to wear appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) in accordance with our infection prevention and control procedures.
COVID-19 and Flu vaccinations remain the best way to protect yourself, your family, your colleagues and of course our patients from the viruses when working in our healthcare settings. We encourage our staff to be vaccinated when recommended.
Application deadline: This post will close on the closing date stated at midnight, however if we receive a large number of applications or there is a change in circumstance, we may be required to close a job before the advertised date.
Application information: If you are offered a job, information will be transferred into the national NHS Electronic Staff Records (ESR) system.
Shortlisting: The monitoring and safeguarding sections are not made visible to the shortlisting panel. The safeguarding section may be made visible to the interview panel, dependent on the role being recruited into.
Travel expenses: It is Trust policy that travel expenses for interviews will not be reimbursed.
Smoking: All Trust sites are NO SMOKING. Smoking in all areas of the buildings and premises is prohibited.
Employer certification / accreditation badges