Business Support Assistant

The post holder will provide an effective and efficient secretarial and business support administrative service to the Team. The post holder will be expected to work with the minimum of supervision and co-ordinate their activities with the members of the Team in order that an efficient service is provided. The post holder will be expected to spend periods of time working unaccompanied and under their own initiative. The post holder will carry out the duties in such a way as to make a direct and positive contribution to the organisation of the work and to assist the Team to maximise the most effective use of their time. It is essential that the post holder exercise initiative commensurate with the role and vital that confidentiality is maintained at all times. The role will involve a mixture of home and office based working. The role may involve evening and weekend work.
Shortlisting planned for 20 May 2024
Interview planned for 29 May 2024, To provide a full range of high quality business support to the service.
First point of contact on the telephone, providing support to Service Users and other health care professionals.
To assist in general reception duties including assisting service users and carers with general enquiries when necessary.
To be responsible for booking assessment appointments for service users by telephone and recording information accurately, using the Choose & Book system and by self referral.
Liaise with all staff concerned with patient services, including communication with General Practitioners, service users and carers and other services that have a legitimate interest in the work of the Clinical Business Unit and deal with enquiries by letter, fax, email, telephone and/or in person
Make or change appointments on behalf of the Team and ensure that relevant documentation is available.
Ensure that efficient communications between the Team and other relevant agencies are maintained.
To assist the business support team in addressing any data quality issues.
Undertake general office duties e.g. photocopying, distribution of documents., + Type letters, memos and general documents or correspondence onto word processing package or database.

• To provide a full range of high quality business support to the service


• To ensure that any contact with service users/carers or other individuals is carried out in a sensitive and professional manner, this may include on occasions where they present in a distressed / agitated manner.


• To assist in general reception duties including assisting service users and carers with general enquiries when necessary.


• Support the day-to-day organisational/management responsibilities of the Service throughout the maintenance of Record Systems (e.g. annual leave or sickness), arranging meetings, appointments etc. and filing systems.


• To assist in the collation of statistical data for the compilation of monthly/weekly statisticaleturns.


• To be responsible for booking assessment appointments for service users by telephone and recording information accurately, using the Choose & Book system and by self referral.


• To be involved in the day to day management of the Service Website, to include updating and maintaining the website. To produce statistical information on the use of the website as and when appropriate.


• Attend to post, file correspondence and scanning of documents where necessary.


• To process invoices through the Trust Finance department for payment as necessary.


• Take responsibility for the Service's petty cash expenditure and collect cash from bank.


• To be responsible for processing all Subject Access Requests (SARS) for reports and copy notes from Service Users and Third Parties within the 40 day time frame.


• To be responsible for recording all SARS on the Trust Datix system.


• Assist Managers in all Estates issues relating to all premise the Services uses and attend meetings with outside suppliers when required.


• Liaise with all staff concerned with patient services, including communication with General Practitioners, service users and carers and other services that have a legitimate interest in the work of the Clinical Business Unit and deal with enquiries by letter, fax, email, telephone

and/or in person.

• Make or change appointments on behalf of the Team and ensure that relevant documentation is available.


• Ensure that efficient communications between the Team and other relevant agencies are maintained.

Arrange and attend meetings and produce minutes if required.

• Identify need for stationery, equipment, maintenance work etc. and order as necessary.


• Establish good levels of communication/liaison with all team members, disciplines and other

services in a professional manner.

• To co-ordinate annual leave taking within the Team and other colleagues.


• Make full use of information technology and co-operative in the introduction of technological developments.


• Where appropriate, provide data for clinical audit purposes and produce audit information for staff and management with the Service.


• To assist the business support team in addressing any data quality issues


• Support the Service in implementing new pathways/initiatives by providing project support to the relevant areas.


• Mentoring new members of staff including temporary staff as and when required.


• The ability to work as a team member and be able to adhere to strict guidelines.


• Undertake general office duties e.g. photocopying, distribution of documents etc.


• Be responsible for the collection and distribution of petty cash within the team.


• To be responsible for ordering goods and services when requested. This includes confirming receipt of goods.


• To perform other duties of a similar kind appropriate to the grade, which may be required by the Service.

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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 or email [email protected]) 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.

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.
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.