The role of the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman

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1 LGO 03 (03/08) Job Pack Appointment of Complaints Advisors The role of the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman The LGSCO the final stage for complaints about councils, all adult social care providers (including care homes and home care agencies) and some other organisations providing local public services. It is a free service that investigates complaints in a fair and independent way The Job The Intake team are the initial point of contact for the LGSCO. The team s objective is to provide an accessible and knowledgeable front-line service to members of the public. The team handles all new enquiries, through a dedicated phone line, an online complaint form, and via postal correspondence. Your role as an Advisor is to identify complaints that have not yet been made to a Council or service provider, to accept complaints into the organisation and to filter out misdirected enquiries. To be successful in the role you must be able to manage expectations. You must be confident on the telephone and resilient in dealing with challenges to what you say. You will also need to be able to identify and act on any reasonable adjustments that may be required to enable a customer to access the service. You must have attention to detail to enter data on our complaints data base. The quality of the information that you gather is essential for assisting our Investigative Teams in considering complaints. The Advisor role itself is not about investigating complaints or providing an advocacy service to members of the public.

2 Intake Team Structure The Customer Services Manager leads two Intake Team Leaders (ITLs) and 12 Complaints Advisors (CAs) and one Administrative Assistant. The ITLs supervise the Advisors and lead day-to-day operations. There are three major daily tasks phones, online complaints and post. The ITLs will assign and rotate these responsibilities daily or weekly according to resource and demand. There are two reporting lines for management purposes, however as an Advisor you will be expected to act as part of one team. Advisors will deliver all aspects of the role to maximise flexibility to respond to changing patterns of demand. For more information about the Intake Team and their role please refer to the reference manuals which are available on our website. 2

3 Information for candidates Location Earlsdon Park, Butts Road, Coventry CV1 3BH Salary 20,094 to 22,332 per annum (pro rata for part time working) Appointment is at the bottom of the scale. Progress through the scale is on the basis of satisfactory performance. There is an increment on satisfactory completion of a six-month probation period and thereafter annually at 1 April. Only one increment is paid in each calendar year. Probation Period There will be a probation period of six months. Working hours Full time hours are 35 hours per week, Monday to Friday. Normal hours of work are 9:30am to 5:00pm and 8:30am to 4:00pm on a rotating shift pattern. There is a half hour lunch break, arranged to allow the team to continue to operate. In addition, flexibility is needed on finishing times to meet business needs as the Intake Team operates until 5.00pm. Requests for part time working within these hours will be considered. There may be occasional visits to our offices in London and York. Annual leave There are 22 days annual leave in a full leave year with three additional concessionary days usually at Christmas. Pension The LGSCO operates the Local Government Pension Scheme which is administered by the London Pension Funds Authority. This is a contributory, contracted out career average scheme. To apply Please send to hr.recruitment@lgo.org.uk an up to date CV, together with a covering statement, of no more than two sides, demonstrating how you meet the essential criteria and setting out what you will bring to the role. The selection process Short listing will be based on the CVs and covering statements and shortlisted candidates will be invited to take an online assessment during the period September If successful you will be invited to attend an interview on Wednesday 10 October 2018 in Coventry. 3

4 Security Vetting We are required to ensure that any personnel employed to work in government offices, comply with the Baseline Personnel Security Standard (Baseline Standard) before they take up their post. This standard involves verification of: Identity; nationality and immigration status; employment history (past 3 years); and criminal record. Equality and Diversity Policy We are a diverse organisation and welcome applications from all sectors of the community. In order to find out if our Equality and Diversity Policy is working and to take steps to ensure further progress is made towards achieving equality of opportunity, we ask you to complete our Equal Opportunities Form. Your answers will be treated in confidence and will not affect your job application in any way. Closing date for applications 0900 hrs on Friday 21 September

5 JOB DESCRIPTION JOB TITLE DEPARTMENT REPORTS TO Complaints Advisor Intake Intake Team Leader PURPOSE OF THE JOB To act as the first point of contact for complainants. To receive and process information on the telephone or in writing from members of the public who wish to make a complaint or have an enquiry about making a complaint and, where appropriate, record sufficient information to progress a complaint to the assessment stage. CONTEXT To provide flexibility, all staff employed in the Intake team will be able to move between roles dealing with telephone calls, web complaints and correspondence according to the needs of the business. This is to ensure that the team can respond to peaks and troughs in demand and accommodate changes in the relative volume of calls and written contact. MAIN DUTIES OF THE JOBHOLDER Telephone Take telephone calls from members of the public, council officers, advocates, solicitors, voluntary sector agencies and other public bodies. To screen out all obviously premature complaints and all incomprehensible or misdirected calls (with some limited signposting to other organisations) To correctly record all required information using appropriate ICT and telephony systems and forward complaints promptly to the assessment stage. To give accurate and good quality advice short of a decision about the role and jurisdiction of the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsmen. To flag complaints that may require joint working with other Ombudsmen or other special handling and forward to assessment stage. Correspondence and web complaints To process all post and correspondence. To return or reject all obviously premature complaints and incomplete, incomprehensible or misdirected contacts, and provide some limited signposting to other organisations. To scan information from incoming postal complaints onto the ECHO database and forward complaints promptly to the assessment stage. To correctly record all required information on the relevant database before the complaint is forwarded to the assessment stage. 5

6 To flag complaints that may require joint working with other Ombudsmen or other special handling and forward to assessment stage. Other duties To work within the target performance measures for answering and responding to complaints and enquiries. Promote, implement and personally comply with the Commission s Equality and Diversity policy. WORKING RELATIONSHIPS AND CONTACTS Internal Customer Services Manager Intake Team Leaders Investigative staff Support staff Corporate staff Policy and communications staff External Members of the public Officers of bodies in jurisdiction Officers of other Ombudsman schemes Other complaint handling organisations PERSON SPECIFICATION ATTRIBUTES ESSENTIAL DESIRABLE Knowledge No specific prior knowledge is required, but you will need to demonstrate an ability to learn complex information and apply it in a fast-paced, high volume call centre and administrative environment. An understanding of local government and other public services and of the role of ombudsmen. Technical/Work-based Skills IT literate Excellent keyboard and telephony skills General Skills/Attributes Excellent oral communications skills, numerate and capable of producing clear written communications Problem solving skills Ability to deal empathetically with customers in extracting 6

7 Experience Qualifications important points; exercise tact and diplomacy Ability to listen, obtain, extract, record and re-present information that is accurate and appropriately detailed and concise Ability to respond appropriately to the diverse needs of customers (i.e. disability, cultural, literacy and language issues) Ability to deal with challenging callers Initiative Able to work as part of team Flexible Able to work under pressure in a fast-paced, high-volume, customer-facing complaints service 12 months experience of providing information and/or advice to a diverse range of members of the public over the telephone, including recording information using ICT There are no essential qualifications but candidates must be able to demonstrate excellent oral communications skills, be numerate and capable of producing clear written communications. Previous experience of complaint handling Five GCSE Grades A-C or GCSE O level passes (or equivalent) including English Language. A pass at GCSE A level (or equivalent) Training in customer service skills Training in telephone answering skills Training in relevant ICT 7