Complaints Manager for Social Care

Job Introduction

DBS: Yes – Standard 

An exciting opportunity has opened within Medway Council’s Customer Relations Team to work with customers and colleagues to help maintain high standards of social care delivery and to make continual service improvements through customer feedback.

This person will be responsible for ensuring that the authority offers an easy to access complaints procedure and that statutory and non-statutory complaints and compliments are responded to appropriately and in compliance with the Children Act 1989 Representations Procedure (England) Regulations 2006, and the Health and Social Care (Community Health and Standards) Act 2003 Regulations 2009. The postholder will work alongside a small team of Customer Relation Officers and will report to the Customer Relations Manager.

The right candidate will have excellent customer care and communication skills as their work will involve liaising professionally with customers who may feel aggrieved, as well as working closely with internal and external associates throughout complaint investigations, to bring the complaint to a satisfactory conclusion.

There is a requirement to be highly organised and to be able to prioritise workloads to meet conflicting demands as well as to competently use a range of IT applications such as Microsoft Word, Outlook and MS Teams, and bespoke systems, to manage the daily tasks, including Excel to produce complaints and compliments data. The postholder will be required to write and present reports to a range of audiences.

Alongside several staff benefits, we offer a comprehensive induction package and relevant training, although the successful candidate will have extensive knowledge of social care procedures and legislation, be familiar with the expectations of the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman and have experience of processing and monitoring complaints performance.

In return we offer you: 

• Generous annual leave entitlement
• Generous local government pension scheme package
• Access to wider training and development qualifications
• Flexible working scheme
• Travel plan discounts
• Car Benefit Scheme from Tusker 
• Access to CAREFIRST advice & counselling service
• Employee discount scheme for national and local retailers
• The Government has introduced new ways of supporting parents with childcare costs. Further details are available here: - https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk/

We're committed to making Medway carbon neutral by 2050. We have developed an action plan to ensure we play our part in addressing the climate emergency.  Our declaration fits into our Council Plan priority of making Medway a place to be proud of. The main outcome being a 'clean and green environment'. All Medway Council staff can access an additional day’s paid leave to undertake a volunteering activity which supports climate change.  

Our organisation: 

Medway is a unitary authority in the South East of England, made up of the towns of Strood, Rochester, Chatham, Gillingham and Rainham and more rural areas, including the Hoo Peninsula.

Situated in Kent in the South-East of England, the area has plenty of green spaces, excellent facilities and easy access to the national motorway and rail networks, facilitating superb transport links to London.

We provide all local Government services for a quarter of a million people, looking after education, environment, social care, housing, planning, business and much more - everything from frontline services such as rubbish collection and events like the Dickens Festival to work that goes on behind the scenes to ensure services in Medway run smoothly and cost effectively.

Working at Medway Council means that you get to be part of this journey working alongside talented, professional colleagues to drive forward change to transform the lives of our residents and the communities they live in. 

If you would like to have an informal discussion with the recruiting manager, please call Michele Pink on 01634 333055. 

Important Information- 

Applicants must be able to demonstrate all essential requirements as listed in the job profile

Equal Opportunities Commitment Statement

Medway Council is committed to creating an inclusive work environment with a diverse workforce. All appropriately qualified candidates will receive consideration for employment without regard to gender, race, colour, ethnic or national origin, disability, marital status, family commitments, sexual orientation, age, HIV status, religious or political beliefs, social class or trade union activity or irrelevant spent conviction. 

For further information please refer to the Medway information pack available as a download or to view online. 

Please be advised that if you are not contacted within 3 weeks of the advert closing date then you have not been shortlisted.   All recruitment correspondence, including interview letters and contracts of employment will usually be sent out via email. 

Please visit http://www.mindfulemployer.net/ for information on how Medway Council put good practices in place to ensure employees and job applicants who declare mental health issues receive the right level of support. 

We reserve the right to close this vacancy at any time prior to the closing date.