Organisation: Healthwatch Westmorland and Furness

Salary Details: £14,040.00 (£23,400.00 FTE)

Closing date for applications: 12 Aug 2024

Information for applicants

Have you got an eye for great design, attention to detail when it comes words, an instinct for social media content, and an appreciation for the importance of admin? Are you a good listener, empathetic, and a resilient, confident, collaborative problem solver?

If so, we would love to have you on our team! We’re still fairly new, but we have lots of energy and vision to make a difference, create impact, and develop our skills. If you like taking an idea from inception to seeing the finished product, this job could be for you.

Department: Healthwatch Westmorland and Furness

Reporting to: Healthwatch Westmorland and Furness Manager

Hours: 22.5hrs

Contract: Part-time (Permanent)

Salary: £14,040.00 (£23,400.00 FTE)

Location: Westmorland and Furness (potential for hybrid/remote working). Preferably a resident of Westmorland and Furness.

Holiday entitlement: 20 days (FTE), plus bank holidays and Christmas closure, length of service increments (one additional day per year up to five years).

Benefits: 6% pension employer contribution, values-based organisation, flexibility of working hours, extra day off for your birthday.

Who we are

The Organisation

The contract for Healthwatch Westmorland and Furness is held by People First Independent Advocacy. People First is an independent customer-led charitable organisation that has worked in Cumbria for almost 32 years. We are passionate about our values of equality, respect, and inclusion. We provide a wide range of support and information services across Cumbria, Lancashire and Teesside, all aimed at helping people to live informed, respected, healthy and fulfilled lives. Our Westmorland and Furness office is in Barrow. We also have offices in Carlisle and Lancashire. Find out more at: https://wearepeoplefirst.co.uk/about-us

The Department

Healthwatch Westmorland and Furness is an independent champion of the views of patients and people who use health and social care across the local authority area of Westmorland and Furness. Our goal is to make services better and improve health and wellbeing.

We work closely with health and social care services, service users, residents and families, members of the public, and employees working in these environments, with a key focus on engaging with hard to reach and seldom heard groups.

Our main activities include:

• Gathering information from patients and the public on the quality of health and social care services in Westmorland and Furness, highlighting local issues raised.
• Promoting involvement of people in the provision and scrutiny of local health and care services to deliver better and more joined-up services.
• Connecting with community groups and the voluntary sector, NHS partners and local authority.
• Carrying out Enter and View visits at a wide range of health and social care settings.
• Providing free information and signposting support to help people know about health and social care services, and understand the choices available.

You can find out more about us here: https://healthwatchwestfurn.co.uk

The Person

For this role, we are looking for:

• A collaborative team member, someone who can work closely with others to provide consistent, effective and timely delivery of tasks, projects and events.
• A people person, someone who is empathetic and an active listener, sensitive to people’s life experiences and challenges, especially those of under-represented and seldom-heard groups.
• Someone who is resilient, confident and a self-starter when it comes to your own work, as well as being able to think creatively about how to tackle a challenge.
• Healthwatch’s strength is its independence and political neutrality. You will need to be able to stay ‘on message’ when speaking for us, and maintain confidentiality.

As our new Communications and Administrative Co-ordinator you will be focused on showing Healthwatch Westmorland and Furness in a vibrant and engaging way, creating a diverse range of digital and physical materials, impactful and targeted social media campaigns and e-marketing content, eye-catching webpages, and working with the team to develop communication and marketing plans which compliment engagement.

As well as occasionally attend engagement events to take photos and support with project work, you will also be supporting team members, including the Healthwatch Manager and Director, to attend a variety of stakeholder meetings to represent Healthwatch Westmorland and Furness. You will also be responsible for answering public enquiries and providing signposting information that come through our social media channels, phone number and information email address.

It is an exciting and varied role, which gives you the chance to make a genuine difference in our local area. 

Qualifications

• Educated to at least A-level, your skills, knowledge and experience are more important than exam certificates.

Skills, knowledge and experience

• Expertise in creating and posting social media content for maximum reach, especially Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
• Knowledge of WordPress, InDesign, Photoshop and Canva, or a demonstrable willingness to learn.
• Good IT literacy, particularly Word, PowerPoint and Excel.
• Great written and verbal communication skills, and an eye for design.
• Meticulous admin skills to write-up and log your activities.
• Self-starter, with the ability to work on your own initiative, as well as effectively be part of a team.
• Excellent time management and organisational skills, with the ability to follow direction, work on own initiative and meet timescales.
• Creative problem-solver, with a proactive can-do attitude and an eye for detail.
• Ability to communicate effectively with people and maintain positive working relationships. Acting as a brand ambassador when working with both internal and external partners.
• Knowledge and understanding of local and national health and care services are advantageous.
• Able to maintain confidentiality and work in a sensitive manner.
• Ability to work as part of a team by motivating and supporting colleagues, sharing knowledge and expertise.

Duties will include:

Communication and marketing duties

• Creating engaging digital content across a range of online channels to grow awareness of Healthwatch.
• Design skills to create eye-catching marketing materials.
• Contributing to the maintenance of our websites to ensure that content is up-to-date, informative and accurate.
• Producing e-newsletters that are imaginative and show our work to best effect.
• Identifying promotional opportunities by engaging with the Healthwatch team.
• Using a range of media to engage our audiences including accessible materials such as video and audio recording.
• Contributing to our social media output through well-crafted content and campaigns that deliver high engagement and impact.
• Working as part of the Healthwatch Westmorland and Furness team to contribute to the delivery of our marketing and comms strategy.
• Collecting insight and data from tools such as Metricool.
• Working closely with the Healthwatch team to develop excellent and mutually beneficial working relationships.
• Representing the team, People First and Healthwatch in a professional and dynamic fashion.

Administration duties

• To act as the first point of contact for office administrative communications, dealing with all such communications professionally, ensuring a prompt, efficient and customer friendly service is provided.
• To deal with highly confidential/contentious information in a discrete and appropriate manner.
• Gather, collate, and process administrative information in an efficient and effective manner, and where necessary, store it using robust systems and processes.
• Be proactive and act on own initiative to ensure that the organisation has appropriate administrative support.
• Take responsibility for day-to-day planning and prioritising of your own workload.
• Organise meetings, including workshops, conferences/events that may be off site, securing venues, equipment, and refreshments.
• Any other duties of an administrative nature requiring initiative and independent judgement including diary management, drafting agendas, taking minutes etc.
• Evening and weekend working may occasionally be required.
• Provide assistance and advice to other members of staff regarding the operation, management, and effectiveness of the organisation’s administrative systems.
• Manage specific projects as requested by the Healthwatch manager and senior engagement officers.
• Resolve problems / requests. These may be internal requests or requests from external organisations.
• Optimise the use of IT Technology applications by using all aspects of Microsoft Office applications.

Other duties 

• Be flexible and adaptable in a changing program of new projects and activities.
• Take a positive approach towards your own professional development, undertaking any training and development activities as required.
• Promote Healthwatch Westmorland and Furness across all communities and stakeholders.
• Work flexibly to accommodate travel to events, or occasional evening and weekend work.
• Comply with the organisation’s policies and procedures.

The duties outlined above are not intended to be exhaustive and may change as the needs of the organisation alter in line with current agendas.

 Driving – is a car essential for this role?

A current driving licence and access to own transport is desirable but not essential for this role.

You may be asked to travel to meetings; run business errands during the day; or travel between different People First business sites. Therefore, if you intend to use your car you are required to have the appropriate ‘business use’ insurance in place.

Mileage and expenses are paid while travelling on work business but not to and from your designated place of work.

 To apply

If you would like an informal chat about the role please email manager Kate at kate@healthwatchwestfurn.co.uk or call 01228 474700.

To apply for this position, please email a copy of your CV and cover letter and details of two references to recruitment@wearepeoplefirst.co.uk

Alternatively, you can post these for the attention of Barry to: People First Conference Centre, Milbourne Street, Carlisle, CA2 5XB.

All applications should be clearly marked:

Confidential – Healthwatch Westmorland and Furness Communications and Administrative Co-ordinator

To arrive no later than 5pm, Monday, August 12^th, 2024.