Guy’s and St Thomas’ is among the UK’s busiest and most successful NHS foundation trusts. We provide a full range of hospital and community services for people in south London and as well as specialist care for patients from further afield including cancer, renal, orthopaedic, respiratory and cardiovascular services. Guy’s is home to the largest dental school in Europe and a £160 million Cancer Centre opened in 2016. As part of our commitment to provide care closer to home, in 2017 we also opened a cancer centre and a kidney treatment centre at Queen Mary’s Hospital in Sidcup. St Thomas’ has one of the largest critical care units in the UK and one of the busiest emergency departments in London. It is also home to Evelina London Children’s Hospital. Evelina London cares for local children in Lambeth and Southwark and provides specialist services across south east England including cardiac, renal and critical care services. We lead a number of specialist service networks aiming to ensure children are treated locally where possible, but have access to specialist expertise when they need it. Our community services include health visiting, school nursing and support for families of children with long-term conditions. Our adult community services teams deliver care at the heart of the local communities we serve, working in partnership with GPs, local authorities and other healthcare and voluntary sector organisations. Working with our partners in Lambeth and Southwark, we are focusing on new ways of working to improve care for local patients. In February 2021 the Royal Brompton and Harefield joined Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, bringing together world-leading expertise in the care and research of heart and lung disease. Our merger provides a once in a generation opportunity to build a lasting, world-renowned heart and lung centre, providing the highest quality care for patients and conducting world-leading research. We have a reputation for clinical excellence and high quality teaching and research. We are part of King’s Health Partners, one of eight accredited UK academic health sciences centres. In partnership with King’s College London we have dedicated clinical research facilities including an MHRA accredited Phase I clinical trials unit. Patients are at the heart of everything we do and we pride ourselves on ensuring the best possible patient experience as well as safe, high quality care. We are proud to have one of the lowest mortality rates in the NHS. Following a comprehensive Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection in 2019 we maintained our overall rating of ‘good’. Our adult community services achieved a rating of ‘outstanding’. The commitment of our 23,500 staff is key to our success. We are one of the largest local employers and we aim to develop and support all our staff so they are able to deliver high quality, safe and efficient care. The 2019 NHS staff survey results show that we have one of the most engaged and motivated workforces in the NHS. We know this has a positive impact on the care provided to our patients. We have one of the most ambitious capital investment programmes anywhere in the NHS. Job overview This is a junior-level engagement officer post, based in the Evelina London Strategy team, funded by the Evelina London Children's Charity. It is a fixed-term, 18-month post. The post will support patient and public engagement activity with children, young people, parents, carers, families and women across Evelina London services. This role will involve actively working to get children, young people, families, and women engaged in our work to continually improve care. It will suit someone who enjoys working collaboratively across disciplines and services, with members of staff, and children, young people, families and women. We welcome candidates from diverse backgrounds and experiences and encourage people to contact Erin with enquiries about the role. Main duties of the job The Evelina London Patient and Public Engagement Support Officer will reinvigorate and manage the Evelina London Youth Forum, and Parent and Carer Forums. This will include ensuring these groups meet regularly, and running engagement activities in line with Evelina London's priorities. The role will also lead our outreach work to help us to work more closely and effectively with our local community organisations to help us to develop a better understanding of the needs of our populations and how we can better reach and engage with people who we don’t currently reach. The post holder will also support the Patient and Public Engagement Specialist to implement and apply the Trust Patient and Public Engagement Strategy and Policy across the Evelina London Women’s and Children’s Healthcare Clinical Group. Supporting staff across all our all clinical and non-clinical departments to involve patients and the public is part of everyday business in the clinical group and the Patient and Public Engagement Support Officer will play a key part in supporting the delivery of this in practice. Practically this will involve a variety of administration, coordination, project management, and delivery tasks such as engagement planning, running engagement events, and supporting engagement activities with the Maternity Voices Partnership and other patient and family forums. Working for our organisation Evelina London is part of Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust and we are responsible for providing services for women and children. With almost 4,000 dedicated staff, and led by an Executive Team and Board, we have significant devolved autonomy to focus operationally and strategically on the needs of our patients. We also benefit from being part of a large and successful NHS foundation trust, whose values we share. We have an ambitious strategic development programme, with backing from Guy’s and St Thomas’. Every year, the number of children and young people Evelina London cares for, in our hospitals and in the community, continues to grow. We provide comprehensive health services from pre-conception, before birth, throughout childhood, and into adult life. Evelina London is here for children, young people, and women from London to South East England, and provides specialist care for families around the UK and across the world. As the only NHS Trust in London with women’s and specialist children’s services on one site we have unique opportunities to provide excellent, high-quality, integrated care for mothers, babies, and children. We operate through five clinical directorates: Children’s Medicine and Neonatology; Children’s Surgery, Theatres, and Anaesthesia; Children’s Cardio-respiratory and Intensive Care; Children’s Community Services; and Women’s Services. Working arrangements The post holder can work flexibly from home and the office, based near Waterloo. Detailed job description and main responsibilities Duties and Responsibilities Re-establish, oversee, and manage the Evelina London Youth Forum and Parent and Carer Forum. To be responsible for the servicing and administration of both of these forums. Develop relationships with local voluntary and charity sector organisations to help us to work more closely and effectively with our local community organisations to help us to develop a better understanding of the needs of our populations and how we can better reach and engage with the people we don’t currently reach. To engage closely with women, children, young people, and families who use Evelina London’s services and use their feedback to shape and improve the way we deliver care. Support the delivery of Evelina London’s patient and public engagement priorities, providing knowledge, support, and advice to colleagues across the clinical group. Support Evelina London staff to practically apply the Trust’s patient and public engagement policies to their work. Support analysis of engagement both quantitative and qualitative to evidence the duty to involve and demonstrate robust engagement practice. To help coordinate a broad range of engagement activities across all parts of Evelina London, balancing competing pressures and priorities. To support the development, reporting, and dissemination of performance information to promote continuous improvement. To work with the Trust Patient and Public Engagement Team to ensure adherence to the Trust Patient and Public Engagement Strategy and Policy, “Putting patients first: a policy for patient and public engagement and consultation”. To support the PPE Specialist, Evelina London with activities related to the planning, delivery, management, and evaluation of engagement activities. To support the PPE Specialist, Evelina London in demonstrating the Trust’s compliance with the requirements of our regulators, including the Care Quality Commission’s quality statements related to involving people, patients, and communities. Patient and public engagement in strategy, service delivery, transformation, and capital investment schemes To support patient and public engagement for Evelina London, particularly in relation to clinical service transformation and service improvement, working closely with relevant clinical teams to ensure that all relevant stakeholders’ views are taken into consideration in the design and delivery of schemes. To collate, organise, and analyse feedback from the Evelina London Youth Forum, Parent and Carer Forum, and other engagement events so that they can be incorporated as part of any change initiatives. To adhere to the Trust framework for engagement plans, materials, or other resources, particularly those relating to patient and public involvement, which reflect good practice guidance. To design and facilitate patient and public engagement activities, including arranging events, designing surveys, developing copy, writing and producing presentation materials, and facilitating focus groups and workshops. To interpret and communicate information to a range of stakeholders including, patients, the public, and clinical and management staff, in an engaging way. Training, education, and development To support the PPE Specialist, Evelina London to develop and maintain learning resources and planning tools for Trust staff to help them engage effectively with patients and the public, in particular by providing practice examples relating to Evelina London. To deliver training and support for children, young people, parents, families and carers, women, and members of the public that supports their involvement in Evelina London activities. IT, communications, and administration Use online platforms to deliver effective engagement. To maintain relevant information systems that support the team’s work such as a database of internal and external stakeholders which can be used to support communications and engagement activities (e.g. Patient-Led Assessment of the Care Environment). To work with Evelina London Communications Team to make the best use of the clinical groups’ online and social media channels to support patient and public engagement activities. To be responsible for day-to-day project administration. Stakeholder relations, communications, and professional networks To develop relationships with members of the Evelina London Youth Forum and Parent and Carer Forum that generates honest feedback on potential changes across the clinical group. To work closely with colleagues across the clinical group where engagement and involvement are of most benefit. Build relationships with external bodies such as the local community voluntary sector, and patient advocacy groups. To be responsible for writing and producing communications materials for patients, staff, and other stakeholders as appropriate, including information for individual projects. Financial resources To manage small delegated project budgets, under guidance from the PPE Specialist Evelina London, for patient, public, and stakeholder involvement activities, including user groups, special events, and engagement activities e.g. focus groups and larger discussion and deliberative events. The post holder is required to follow Trust policies and procedures which are regularly updated. Person specification Education/qualifications Essential criteria Educated to degree level in relevant subject or equivalent level qualification or significant experience of working at a similar level in specialist area Desirable criteria Relevant qualifications e.g. youth work, social work, CYP/adult education, community education Previous experience Essential criteria Working directly with children and young people and/or families and/or adults to obtain feedback Organising, running and facilitating workshops/ sessions online and in person Planning, organising and delivering events Desirable criteria Working in a healthcare setting Skills/knowledge/ability Essential criteria Strong organisational skills Able to build and maintain trusting relationships with residents/patients as well as with other professionals Ability to effectively communicate with a range of different audiences (CYP and adults) through written and verbal means Able to creatively and innovatively think through and develop effective approaches to engage with different audiences Desirable criteria A working understanding of Patient and Public Engagement (PPE) in the NHS. EDI Essential criteria An understanding of Diversity and Equal Opportunity issues Guy’s and St Thomas’ celebrates, respects and values the diversity of its staff and patients. We review our policies, procedures and practices to ensure that all employees, patients and carers are treated equitable according to their needs. We are actively committed to ensuring that no one who applies for a job, works or study’s at the Trust, or accesses our services is discriminated against on the grounds of race, ethnicity, nationality, disability, religion or belief, age, gender identity , gender reassignment, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity/paternity, or marital/civil partnership. Applications are welcomed from applicants with a disability. We can make reasonable adjustments and offer support and advice in a variety of ways throughout the application process. Equality of opportunity is our policy. As an organisation we are committed to developing our services in ways that best suit the needs of our patients. This means that some staff groups will increasingly be asked to work a more flexible shift pattern so that we can offer services in the evenings or at weekends. Flexible working We are committed to supporting all employees to achieve a healthy work life balance and to work in a way that is best for them and our patients. We will consider all requests to work flexibly, taking in to account the individual’s personal circumstances as well the needs of the service. We encourage all prospective applicants to discuss their individual circumstances with the recruiting manager as part of the on-boarding process. Your e-mail address is important to us - We communicate to all job applicants via the e-mail address which has been provided on the application form. Please ensure that you check your e-mail on a regular basis. Please apply for this post by clicking "Apply Online Now." Applicant requirements The postholder will have regular contact with vulnerable people and as such this post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service to check for any previous criminal convictions. Further details / informal visits contact Name Erin Walker Job title Patient and Public Engagement Specialist Email address [email protected]