Bereavement Officer

Our cultural ambition is to have a culture that places people at the heart of all we do, where we all belong, and where learning, improvement and excellence thrive.

Provide a Trust-wide service for newly bereaved relatives, ensuring that newly bereaved families understand procedures for registration of death and provide support to families advising on the arrangements and facilitating mortuary viewings in a professional and caring manner.

To facilitate the production and distribution of the medical certificate of death through liaison with Medical Examiner Service and engagement with medical teams. The postholder will have excellent communication skills and maintain regular liaison with family, mortuary, coroner's office, and funeral directors in order that families can proceed with funeral arrangements in a timely fashion.

• Answering phones and providing practical and emotional support to bereaved relatives, offering expert guidance on death certification and funeral arrangements.
• Supporting relatives who wish to view their next of kin in the Chapel of Rest, including families of hospital deaths and those affected by sudden or tragic deaths under the coroner's jurisdiction.
• Liaising with the Medical Examiner team and clinical staff to ensure correct paperwork, booking appointments, assisting doctors with required documents and coronial referrals, and distributing completed documentation to relevant stakeholders.
• Authorising release paperwork for transfer of the deceased to the appointed funeral director.
• Registering deaths on behalf of relatives unable to attend a registration office, in line with legislation.
• Providing police constables with information required for the Coroner's G28 post-mortem form when acting as Coroner's Officer, and facilitating next-of-kin identification visits in line with Trust policy.
• Completing referrals and communicating with environmental health when the deceased has no next of kin, supporting enquiries related to hospital admission.
• Delivering bereavement education sessions at junior doctor induction and Trust study days.
• Recording all deaths daily on the Summary Care Record Application as required by the Data Provisional Notice.
• Providing cross-site cover during staff absences.

Our vision is to provide outstanding care for every patient. Patient care is at the heart of what we do at our three sites:
Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital, Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester and Andover War Memorial Hospital. Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust provides medical and surgical services to a population of approximately 600,000 people across Hampshire and parts of West Berkshire.

Our cultural ambition is to have a culture that places people at the heart of all we do, where we all belong, and where learning, improvement and excellence thrive.

We provide specialist services to people across the UK and internationally. We are one of only two centres in the UK treating pseudomyxoma peritonei (a rare form of abdominal cancer) and we are leaders in the field of tertiary liver cancer and colorectal cancer.

The trust employs more than 9,000 staff and has a turnover of over £500 million a year. As a Foundation Trust, we are directly accountable to our members through the governors. The Council of Governors represent the interests of their constituencies and influence the future plans of the Foundation Trust.

Happy to Talk Flexible Working - all requests for flexible and part time working will be considered.

Further information about the Trust and this role can be found on the Job Description and Person Specification document attached.

• Good standard of general education including English Language and Maths of GCSE grades A C
• Training in working with Bereaved relatives, deceased patients and/or the process of death certification or equivalent experience.
• Basic IT training

• Knowledge of the support required for bereaved families and the statutory requirements.
• Knowledge of good practice in relation to support for bereaved families and relatives.
• Experience with managing and resolving difficult situations with members of the public.
• Able to adapt and implement change positively.

• Experience of working within the NHS
• Experience with working with the bereaved
• Experience with…