Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust provides child and adult mental health services, learning disability, wellbeing, older people's and eating disorder services across Norfolk and Suffolk.
We are committed to equality, diversity and inclusion and want to reflect the diversity of our local communities within our teams. We welcome applications from all talented individuals with the relevant qualifications, skills, knowledge and experience
Lead Complaints and PALS, Drive Improvement, Shape Trust‑Wide Learning
We are seeking an exceptional and compassionate leader to join the Trust as our Senior Clinical Manager for Complaints, Learning and Improvement, a highly visible leadership role at the heart of complaints, PALS, organisational learning and service improvement.
This is a unique opportunity to influence Trust‑wide culture, ensuring that concerns, feedback and complaints from service users, families and carers drive meaningful improvements in the quality and safety of our services. Reporting to the Director of Patient Experience, you will provide strategic direction for the Complaints and PALS functions, leading a high‑performing team and ensuring feedback is translated into tangible service improvement.
As the Trust’s subject matter expert on Complaints and PALS, you will advise Executive and Clinical leaders, oversee the management of complex and high‑profile cases, and represent the organisation in discussions with regulators, external agencies and partner organisations. Your leadership will be instrumental in strengthening governance, embedding a culture of openness and accountability, and ensuring learning is consistently translated into better outcomes for patients.
You will also promote a proactive, early resolution approach through PALS and local services, ensuring concerns are addressed promptly and do not escalate into formal complaints.
As Senior Clinical Manager for Complaints, Learning and Improvement, you will provide strategic and clinical leadership for the Trust’s Complaints and PALS service, ensuring the organisation listens to, learns from and acts on concerns from service users, carers and families.
You will lead the development of a culture where feedback, concerns and complaints are welcomed as opportunities for learning and improvement, ensuring insights are translated into measurable service improvements in partnership with Quality Improvement, Transformation, and operational teams.
Acting as the Trust’s senior clinical expert, you will support the resolution of complex and high‑profile cases, influence senior leaders, and ensure complaints and patient experience are a key driver of organisational learning and change. You will use data, thematic analysis and feedback intelligence to identify trends, drive improvement, and represent the Trust with regulators and external partners.
You will also ensure the voices of underserved and marginalised communities are reflected in improvement activity, working closely with the Health Equity Team to reduce inequalities and improve experiences for all service users.
Alongside this strategic leadership role, you will retain accountability for the effective operational delivery of Complaints and PALS services, ensuring high‑quality, compassionate and timely responses across the entire complaints pathway.
Here at NSFT we pride ourselves on being a welcoming, talented, friendly and supportive team who like nothing better than sharing experiences and learning from each other. In addition to ongoing training and development opportunities, we are committed to providing an environment in which you can thrive.
Why work for us? We have challenges as a Trust, but we have ambitious aspirations, are pushing ahead with exciting transformation work and we need dedicated individuals to support us on our journey. We have strong, established professional networks coupled with an exceptional leadership team who will ensure you are truly cared for and cared about.
Why Norfolk and Suffolk? The people here are warm and welcoming, you’ll never be far from the beautiful coastline or Broads National Park. We’re an hour and a half away from London and have an international airport in Norwich too. Our villages, towns and cities are packed full of history, independent cafes, shops and theatres. We have excellent shopping, eating out, top ranking schooling and affordable house prices too.
Location and Working Arrangements
The role is based at County Hall, Norwich. We support flexible working; however, there is an expectation that the post holder will be present on site for a minimum of three days per week to support visibility, leadership and collaboration across teams and services.
Please read the job description / person specification carefully and ensure your application reflects the knowledge, skills and experience needed
Please be aware that, due to the high number of applications for certain roles, this vacancy may close earlier than the advertised closing date. We encourage you to submit your application as soon as possible.
YOUR APPLICATION
We can provide all our job application materials in alternative formats so that these are accessible to everyone. Should you require any documents within this job pack in an alternative format, please do not hesitate to contact us at [email protected].
PLEASE NOTE: If you use a hotmail, msn or yahoo e-mail account, you will need to check your "junk" mail regularly as these email providers will divert any communication from this Trust/NHS JOBS straight into your " junk" inbox.
EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES Apart from its legal duties in relation to equality and diversity, the Trust recognises and actively promotes the benefits of a diverse workforce and is committed to treating all employees with dignity and respect regardless of race, gender, disability, age, sexual orientation, religion or belief.
As a part of the Disability Confident Employer Guaranteed Interview Scheme we interview all disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the job vacancy (outlined in the Person Specification).. We encourage you to indicate your eligibility through TRAC jobs when applying.
This post may be subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
