Secure 24 - Specialist Mental Health Ambulance Service
Location: Crawley (Office-based – Control Room)
Salary: Starting from £12.75 per hour, increasing to £13.36 per hour following successful completion of probation
Hours: 40 hours per week
About Secure24
Secure24 provides specialist secure patient transport services across the UK, supporting both NHS and independent healthcare providers. Our teams work closely with hospitals, Place of Safety units, AMHPs, bed management teams and police services to ensure vulnerable patients are transported safely, professionally and with dignity.
We are now looking to recruit an Operations Controller to join our Control Team.
This is a key operational role at the center of the organisation, coordinating the safe movement of vulnerable patients across the UK. The Control Team manage all live activity across Secure24, ensuring patient transport requests are planned safely, crews are deployed appropriately and journeys are monitored in real time.
The Role
Working within the Control Team, you will manage live operations during your shift, acting as the central point of communication between frontline crews, healthcare partners and internal operational teams.
You will coordinate the safe movement of vulnerable patients across the UK, making time-critical decisions, often with incomplete or evolving information. You will balance patient safety, staff welfare and operational priorities in a fast-moving environment.
The role requires calm decision-making, excellent communication skills and the ability to manage multiple priorities in real time.
Key Responsibilities
· Managing live operational activity across Secure24 during your shift
· Creating and maintaining accurate task records and operational logs
· Gathering and validating information from crews and healthcare partners to ensure tasks are correctly planned
· Allocating appropriate crews based on location, risk and operational capacity
· Monitoring live journeys and maintaining communication with frontline staff
· Coordinating with healthcare partners, police and hospital teams during patient conveyances
· Conducting welfare checks during longer or higher-risk tasks
· Escalating incidents, delays or safety concerns to the Operations Manager
· Recording operational issues and supporting quality and compliance processes
· Providing clear handovers to the next shift to ensure continuity of operations
About you
You will be calm, organised and able to make clear decisions under pressure. You must be confident managing multiple tasks simultaneously, prioritising effectively and communicating clearly in time-sensitive situations.
You will be comfortable making decisions based on incomplete or changing information and taking ownership of those decisions. This role requires resilience, accountability and the ability to remain professional in challenging situations.
Key skills
Applicants should also demonstrate strong organisational and multitasking ability, with good IT skills and confidence working across multiple systems in a live operational environment.
Experience that would be advantageous
Experience in fast-paced operational coordination environments would be beneficial. This may include emergency services dispatch, healthcare operations coordination, patient transport services, logistics dispatch or other operational control environments.
Full training will be provided for the successful candidate.
Personal attributes
The role requires individuals who can remain calm and professional in a busy operational setting. Successful candidates will typically demonstrate:
· The ability to prioritise multiple tasks in real time
· Strong situational awareness and sound judgement
· Clear and confident communication
· Attention to detail when recording operational information
· A calm and supportive approach when dealing with frontline staff and healthcare professionals
Working environment
The Control Team operates in a live, fast-paced operational environment, managing multiple requests, incidents and competing priorities throughout each shift.
You will be joining an experienced and collaborative Control Team who work closely together to manage live operations and support crews across the UK.
Day in the role
During a typical shift, you may:
· Manage multiple live patient movements across different regions simultaneously
· Coordinate urgent requests while supporting crews already on active tasks
· Make safe decisions quickly where information is incomplete or changing
· Liaise with hospitals, police and healthcare partners to resolve delays or risks
· Support crews during challenging or high-risk situations
· Respond to unexpected incidents or operational pressures and reprioritise accordingly
You will be expected to remain calm, think clearly and communicate effectively, even when situations are fast-moving and pressured. This role is not purely administrative. It requires judgement, accountability and the ability to take control of situations in real time.
Is this role right for you?
This role may suit you if you:
· Perform well under pressure
· Can make decisions confidently and take responsibility for them
· Stay calm when dealing with challenging or emotional situations
· Enjoy problem solving and working in a fast-paced environment
This role may not be suitable if you:
· Prefer routine or predictable work
· Struggle to prioritise multiple demands at once
· Find high-pressure environments overwhelming
· Prefer roles with limited decision-making responsibility
Location and salary
This role is based at our Control Room in Crawley and is an office-based position.
Salary: Starting from £12.75 per hour, increasing to £13.36 per hour following successful completion of probation
Hours of work
This is a full-time position working 40 hours per week.
The Control Team operates on a rota covering 7 days a week, including day and night shifts to support live operations across Secure24.
Applicants should be comfortable working a mixture of shifts as part of a scheduled rota.
Safer recruitment
Secure24 Support Ltd is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of vulnerable people. We operate safer recruitment practices across the organisation.
As part of this process, all appointments are subject to appropriate pre-employment checks, including an Enhanced DBS check, employment references and other relevant screening.
Job Type: Full-time
Pay: £12.75-£13.36 per hour
Work Location: In person
