Joining #TeamNELFT means you’ll become part of a welcoming and supportive working environment. We’re CQC rated Good, and we want you to join us on the journey towards an Outstanding rating. NELFT has sites across North East London, Essex, Kent and Medway. We provide community and mental healthcare services to adults and children within these areas.
The Trust has award winning equality and diversity initiatives and staff health and wellbeing activities. We invest heavily in your development, because when you are valued and supported, we provide the best care to our patients. We are a Level 3 Disability Confident Leader, have been featured in the Working Families Top 10 Employers benchmark for five consecutive years, and we have achieved a Carers UK Level 1 Accreditation. Along with our staff networks and training opportunities, we work hard to embed a just and compassionate culture here at NELFT.
Find out more about NELFT careers and what makes our Trust a great place to work, in this video
Job overview
The post holder will achieve this by providing comprehensive administrative and secretarial support to the Community Treatment Team. Work without supervision, seeking advice from line manager when required.
The post holder will provide a responsive and efficient administrative service to meet the needs of the team. The post holder will use their reason, intellect, and judgement to work on their own initiative to deal with matters on behalf of their manager.
The post holder will be an effective decision maker, who is able to prioritise own workload whilst responding to interruptions. The post holder will be able to deal with unpredictable work patterns and proactively deal with issues.
Main duties of the job
Responsible for the ordering of stationery, and medical supplies
•Develop and maintain filing systems (electronic) to ensure effective access to relevant information.
•Be the first point of contact via the telephone for service referrals using initiative and judgement dealing sensitively with distressed/angry callers.
•Liaise in a professional manner with patients, relatives, carers, colleagues, clinicians, GPs, and other professionals.
•Prioritise own workload on a day-to-day basis to ensure that deadlines are met within set timescales and service requirements.
•Process incoming and outgoing correspondence for the service, ensuring urgent action is taken where appropriate.
•Oversee the facilitation and administration of meetings/panels, including the production of agendas and coordination of papers, ensuring key documents are available within defined timescales.
•Maintain up to date personal staff files.
•Competent use of computer systems for entering and retrieving patient information.
•Undertake any other duties as appropriate to the nature and grade of the post.
•Responsible for monitoring and maintaining standard office conditions.
•Reporting of general faults and specific office equipment to relevant department/s.
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Working for our organisation
Our Values 2025 - 2030
Working with our colleagues, patients and carers we have co-produced three new values that we aim to embed within our culture here at NELFT.
They are:
1. We are kind.
2. We are respectful.
3. We work together with our communities.
These three values help us to strive to provide the best care by the best people.
Probationary Period
This post will be subject to a probationary period.
Starting with Us
NELFT places great importance on new starters being properly welcomed into the Trust. All new starters will join the Trust on the first Monday of each month and undertake a comprehensive induction of up to two weeks, including mandatory training, systems training and the allocation of equipment. As part of the process, new starters will also have the opportunity to meet the executive team, senior managers, and attend several drop-in sessions focusing on engagement, health and wellbeing, and key processes. The induction will be held at our head office in Rainham, Essex.
High Cost Area Supplement - Outer London
This post also attracts payment for High Cost Area Supplement of 15% of the basic salary (with a minimum of £4,714 to a maximum of £5,941 pro rata for part time).
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
4. Act as the first point of contact for all incoming referrals via phone.
5. Accurately log referrals, ensuring urgent cases are escalated appropriately.
6. Maintain and update patient records using clinical systems (RIO).
7. Liaise with healthcare professionals, patients, and carers to gather essential information.
8. Monitor inboxes and ensure timely responses in line with service KPIs.
9. Generate reports and maintain referral logs to support service performance monitoring.
10. Assist with general administrative duties including scanning, and document management.
11. Ensure compliance with data protection and confidentiality policies.
12. Support service improvement initiatives and contribute to team meetings.
13. Work collaboratively with multidisciplinary teams to support seamless patient care transitions
Please see the attached job description and person specification for more information about this role and working at North East London NHS Foundation Trust. We encourage you to refer to this when completing your application.
We welcome your application even if you do not meet all the criteria listed in the person specification. Please apply as soon as possible as some posts close early to limit the number of applications.
Certificates of Sponsorship
Although we are a registered sponsor organisation, we are unable to offer sponsorship for all job roles. Please check your eligibility under the UKVI points-based system. When calculating the basic salary for sponsorship, HCAS (High-Cost Area Supplement) is not included to ensure fairness and consistency within our Trust.
Use of AI
Please see attached document regarding acceptable use of AI during the recruitment process.
Person specification
Experience
Essential criteria
14. previous experience in an administrative role, preferably in healthcare or social care setting
15. understanding of confidentiality and data protection principles
Desirable criteria
16. experience working in a referral based or urgent care service
17. knowledge of NHS systems and processes
18. familiarity with RIO
19. NVQ level 2/3 in business administration or equivalent qualification
Skills
Essential criteria
20. Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
21. Strong organisational and time management abilities.
22. Ability to prioritise tasks and manage competing demands
23. ttention to detail and accuracy in data entry and record keeping.
24. Ability to handle enquiries from patients, carers, and professionals with empathy and professionalism.
Benefits
We believe in bringing your authentic and best self to work, in order to deliver the best care to our patients. We are committed to supporting our employees holistically. Here is a snapshot of what is on offer at NELFT:
25. A long-standing and award-winning approach to equality and diversity with supportive networks for ethnic minority staff, staff with disabilities or long term/chronic conditions and LGBT staff.
26. A commitment to supporting colleagues to achieve a work life balance, through flexible working opportunities and our effortsto support our working parents and carers. This has resulted in us being recognised as a ‘Top 10 Family Friendly Employer’ from the Working Families Charity.
27. Proactive health and wellbeing support, including access to our employee assistance programme, staff psychological support, individual wellbeing conversations and a network of health and wellbeing ambassadors.
28. Detailed information about our wellbeing and benefits offer can be found in this link.
As a flexible working friendly organisation, we want to be sure that you can work in a way that is best for us and for our patients, and for you. Speak to us about how we might be able to accommodate a flexible working arrangement whether that’s a job share, part time hours or another flexible pattern.