Main area Information Governance - Trust Wide Support Services Grade Band 3 Contract Permanent Hours
* Full time
* Flexible working
* Home or remote working
37.5 hours per week Job ref 350-TWS6236286
Employer Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust Employer type NHS Site Hollins Park House Town Winwick, Warrington Salary £22,816 - £24,336 Per annum Salary period Yearly Closing 15/05/2024 23:59
Freedom of Information Officer
Band 3
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Job overview
The Information Governance Team is responsible for the Trust-wide provision of Information Governance support and assistance in line with Trust policies and procedures and national legislation and requirements. We are seeking applications from enthusiastic, conscientious and highly motivated individuals to join the team as a Freedom of Information Officer.
We are looking for a dynamic and experienced individual to support the Information Access Manager in a varied, fast-moving and challenging role to ensure the efficient and effective use of resources to deliver a high quality Freedom of Information service. The post-holder will liaise with all levels of staff within the Trust, both clinical and non-clinical, and external stakeholders where required. The post-holder will need to have good communication skills and the ability to present information and training to all levels of staff. A good understanding of the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act is desirable.
Main duties of the job
The post holder’s main duties will be to provide a comprehensive and effective Freedom of Information (FOI) and Environmental Information Regulations (EIR) service ensuring compliance with Trust policies, procedures and national legislation, including the processing of requests
under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and the Environmental Information Regulations 2004. This will include planning, organising, directing and co-ordinating the work of the identified service. The post holder will be expected to work with the minimum of supervision.
They will be able to demonstrate flexibility and use own initiative to carry out duties in such a way as to make a direct and positive contribution to the organisation. The post holder will provide a professional service to the general public and any other parties who may contact the team.
Working for our organisation
Mersey Care is one of the largest trusts providing physical health and mental health services in the North West, serving more than 1.4 million people across our region and are also commissioned for services that cover the North West, North Wales and the Midlands.
We offer specialist inpatient and community services that support physical and mental health and specialist inpatient mental health, learning disability, addiction and brain injury services. Mersey Care is one of only three trusts in the UK that offer high secure mental health facilities.
At the heart of all we do is our commitment to ‘perfect care’ – care that is safe, effective, positively experienced, timely, equitable and efficient. We support our staff to do the best job they can and work alongside service users, their families, and carers to design and develop future services together. We’re currently delivering a programme of organisational and service transformation to significantly improve the quality of the services we provide and safely reduce cost as we do so.
Flexible working requests will be considered for all roles.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Communicate professionally and effectively with the general public, service users, staff and all internal and external agencies both verbally and non-verbally in a timely manner.
Proactively manage emails and written requests from the general public, service users, staff and or from other individuals, which may require a level of confidentiality and sensitivity.
To provide advice and guidance to other members of staff across the site relating to FOI and EIR processes and practice with the Trust and the national legislation.
To be responsible for providing accurate, up to date advice relating to queries into the team.
Ensure professionalism, diplomacy, empathy and confidentiality when dealing with individuals.
Liaise with staff at all levels, both clinical and non-clinical, to resolve any issues that may arise, to the mutual benefit of all concerned.
Attend and contribute to departmental/team meetings.
Please refer to attached Job Description for full list of duties and responsibilities.
Person specification
Qualifications
* Three GCSEs or equivalent (including English and Maths), grades 9-5 or A-C
* NVQ level 3 in Business Administration or equivalent experience
Knowledge/ Experience
* Experience of working in a health care setting
* Experience of working in a public authority
* Freedom of Information Act legislation and its requirements
* Experience of using databases and manipulating spreadsheets
* Experience of filing systems
* Microsoft Office 365
* Willingness to gain understanding of local targets in order to take an active part in achieving targets relevant to the role
* Data Protection legislation and its requirements
* The use of redaction software
Values
* Accountability
* Support
* High professional standards
* Responsive to service users
* Engaging leadership style
* Transparency and honesty
* Discreet
* Change orientated
Skills
* Excellent communication skills both verbally and non-verbally
* Ability to maintain administrative information systems efficiently and accurately
* Demonstrate the ability to organise own duties and prioritise tasks within agreed timescales
* Excellent organisational skills
* Ability to maintain confidentiality
* Ability to deal with difficult situations
* Flexible working approach.
* Self motivated
* Professional attitude
* Ability to adhere to strict deadlines
* Possess a caring, compassionate and empathic attitude
* Able to meet the Trust’s professional standards e.g., dress code, customer care
* Ability/willingness to undergo further training as necessary
Other
* Flexible working approach
* Self motivated
* Professional attitude
* Ability to adhere to strict deadlines
* Possess a caring, compassionate and empathic attitude
* Able to meet the Trust’s professional standards e.g., dress code, customer care
* Ability/willingness to undergo further training as necessary
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We celebrate diversity and promote equal opportunities; we are committed to challenging and eliminating racism and other forms of discrimination and advancing and promoting equality of opportunity in the provision of services and creating an inclusive environment for all employees. We believe that everyone has the right to be treated with dignity and respect.
We take positive action to support disadvantaged groups and also particularly encourage applications from BAME, disabled and LGBT people that are under-represented in our workforce. Furthermore we welcome applications from reservists and ex-armed forces as we recognise the benefits of the values, skills, training and experience that they bring to their work with us. We encourage all applicants to share their equality information with us.
As a Disability Confident Employer, we offer a guaranteed interview scheme for applicants who consider themselves to be disabled who meet the minimum (essential) criteria for the role in the person specification. If you would like your application to be considered under the Trust’s guaranteed interview scheme you can indicate this in the personal information section of your online application form.
Please ensure you check the email account from which you apply for all correspondence. All information regarding your application will come from apps.trac.jobs not NHS Jobs. Only those applicants who demonstrate clearly how they meet our person specification will be shortlisted for interview.
Should you require a reasonable adjustment to our recruitment process please contact the recruitment team to ensure that measures can be put in place to support you.
We reserve the right to close any vacancy earlier than advertised in exceptional circumstances once we have received a high volume of applications.
The Trust expects all post holders who require an enhanced DBS for their role subscribe to the DBS Update Service. You will be required to enrol for this service for a fee of £13 per year and maintain registration. Trans applicants who require a DBS check and do not want to reveal details of their previous identity can contact the DBS Sensitive Applications Team (01516761452 or email sensitive@dbs.gsi.gov.uk) with their application number once they have completed their DBS application form. The team is able to prevent any previous identity showing on the DBS Certificate, unless the applicant has a conviction under their previous details in which case this will need to be disclosed.
Flexible working requests will be considered for all roles.
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