Employer East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust Employer type NHS Site Kent and Canterbury Hospital Town Canterbury Salary £27,485 - £30,162 per annum Salary period Yearly Closing 16/10/2025 23:59
Senior Secretary for Sleep/NIV/Respiratory Physiology
NHS AfC: Band 4
Job overview
We are looking for an experienced professional to lead our growing secretarial team. You should have established experience in the secretarial field as you will also have your own workload, but also lead the existing and newly recruited team members.
The successful candidate will be responsible for:
* Following the Delivering Performance process for their teams, considering training and development requirements.
* Supporting the clinical leadership team for sleep medicine, NIV and physiology with their administration requirements.
* Reporting directly to the Band 5 operations manager for sleep medicine, NIV and physiology and participating in acting up in their absence in collaboration with the Band 4 senior administrator.
* Supporting and developing an effective induction process.
* Co-ordinating team leave, using Healthroster, and ensuring appropriate service cover is maintained.
* Managing and monitoring sickness absence of their team, reporting as necessary to Human Resources, Payroll and senior management.
* Managing the recruitment, selection and induction processes for new staff, carrying out appraisals ensuring policies and procedures are followed.
* Ensuring effective communication through regular team meetings.
* Monitoring the work environment to meet health and safety standards and recommending areas of improvement.
* Managing order and monitoring all equipment and supplies within the department considering budgetary guidelines.
Main duties of the job
The main duties of the job include:
* Acting as first point of contact on behalf of the Nurses, Healthcare Scientists and the Trust and dealing effectively and courteously with all enquiries from GP’s, patients, other departments within the Trust and all other departments.
* Assessing all enquiries and dealing with effectively and responding appropriately.
* Acting as key point of contact for health service employees at all levels, both within the Trust and outside agencies.
* Transcribing from audio, copy type or shorthand (where appropriate), all clinical letters and other correspondence as required by the Nurses and team, ensuring layout, spelling, grammar and punctuation is consistent.
* Maintaining a filing system that facilitates the effective running of the department.
* Attending meetings as requested, taking minutes as appropriate.
* Providing cover for MDTs during periods sickness or Annual leave.
* Organising own work schedule, adapting the schedule as required to meet commitments to others within the agreed timescales and, where this is not achievable, giving notification promptly with reasons to line manager.
* Providing support to other members of the secretarial team and cross-cover during periods of annual or sick leave as required.
* Opening of post, prioritising and passing on as appropriately. Drafting responses to routine enquiries as appropriate.
Working for our organisation
We are one of the largest hospital trusts in England, with five hospitals and community clinics serving a local population of around 800,000 people. Our vision is 'great healthcare from great people'. Everything we do is guided by our values: 'People feel cared for, safe, respected and confident that we are making a difference’.
We have a new way of working at East Kent Hospitals, called 'We care'. It's about empowering frontline staff to lead improvements day-to-day. We're looking for compassionate people to be part of our improvement journey for the patients, families and carers we care for every day.
Person specification
Qualifications
* Computer literate including Word and Excel GCSE A - C – English or equivalent RSA level 3 or equivalent
* Medical secretary qualification. Minute taking qualification. RSA level 3 (or equivalent) NVQ 2
Skills
* Experience of a range of work procedures and practice, majority non-routine
* Contributing to the design and development of standard reports
* Able to prioritise workload and meet deadlines and use own initiative
* Able to communicate with, co-ordinate and liaise with a multidisciplinary team
* Able to make judgements involving a range of facts, that require analysis
* Ability to organise a number of complex activities including formulation and adjustment of plans.
* Able to communicate routine information but understanding barriers to communication and imparting occasional sensitive information
* Previous NHS/medical secretary experience.
* Experience of recruitment, appraisal and performance management
* Previous experience working within a busy administrative environment
* Basic knowledge of Excel
Other information
Please note that if you require a Certificate of Sponsorship to work in the UK you must declare this on your application form, even if you currently have a certificate of sponsorship or a work permit for another role and are already working in the country.
The Trust fully supports the SAS Doctors Charter and is committed to their development through its CPD Framework.
The ability to converse easily and provide advice in accurate spoken English is essential for all customer facing roles.
Most positions require a Disclosure and Barring check and will be exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974. Posts working regularly or unsupervised with children or vulnerable adults require an enhanced check.
Applicants for eligible roles requiring Tier 2 sponsorship must meet UK Visas and Immigration eligibility criteria.
We operate a no-smoking policy on all our sites and grounds.
#J-18808-Ljbffr