Governance Officer

The Governance Officer will take responsibility for the management of the complaints and feedback process, incident and risk,and coordination of legal and inquest-related activities. This role is critic alto maintaining effective compliant governance operations. The post holder will support the development of a culture committed to transparency, responsiveness,and continuous improvement.

This is a hybrid role requiring a combination of office-based and remote working. The successful candidate will be expected to work from the office 2-3 days per week, with the remaining days worked remotely, subject to operational requirements.

The Governance Officer will support the delivery of effective governance arrangements across PELC by managing complaints, incidents, risks, and patient feedback processes. The post holder will coordinate investigations, support legal and inquest activities, prepare governance reports and committee papers, and ensure actions arising from governance activities are tracked to completion. They will also support PSIRF processes, maintain governance records and inboxes, and contribute to quality improvement, patient safety, and organisational learning.

PELC is a not-for-profit social enterprise that was formed in 2004 by a group of local GPs who wished to share resources to provide quality Out-of-Hours GP services for their local communities. Today, PELCs services extend across North East London, covering a population of over 2 million people in the region and employing more then 200 people. The range of integrated and urgent care services we provide includes Primary Care Out of Hours Services, Homeless Service, and the Urgent Care Centre at, Queens Hospital, Romford, King George's Hospital, Barking Community Hospital and Harold Wood Community Centre.

The formal structure of PELC is that of a Registered Society with a membership drawn from GPs, healthcare commissioners, patients and staff. The organisation reinvests all profits into improving its services, there are no shareholders. We have an extensive range of skills within our team including GPs, nurses, allied health professionals, reception staff, highly trained service co-ordinator , drivers and admin staff.

We work collaboratively with commissioners and local NHS healthcare providers to provide integrated, high-quality care to the patients we serve.

We offer a supportive and friendly working environment including excellent training and although we are NOT an NHS employer, we provide automatic enrolment into the NHS Pension Scheme.

• Identify and elevate risks arising from complaints and feedback for inclusion in the organisational risk register, ensuring alignment with internal protocols and managerial oversight.
• Coordinate reports to the Integrated Governance Committee (IGC), write minutes for the meeting, share meeting papers in a timely manner and follow up on actions from the meeting.
• Prepare Risk meeting papers, share meeting papers in a timely manner and follow up on actions from the meeting.
• Maintain management of risk documentation and contribute to risk mitigation process.

• Oversee the end-to-end complaints and feedback process, including:
• Acknowledgement of complaints
• Gathering staff statements and relevant clinical records
• Updating complaint records in the Datix system
• Draft responses to simple complaints and coordinate response preparation for complex clinical cases in collaboration with relevant leads.
• Record outcomes of investigations, identify learning, and ensure that all resulting actions are logged and tracked to completion.
• Organise and take minutes for second-stage complaints meetings.
• Respond to Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) requests in coordination with the line manager and relevant operational leads.
• Manage the governance feedback inbox, ensuring effective triage and timely escalation of issues.
• Maintain a live tracking log of complaints, risks, and feedback actions to ensure resolution and learning are consistently implemented
• Key responsibilities include producing high-quality governance reports, managing complaint- second-stage complaints procedures, and ensuring the accurate and timely submission of documentation to internal and external as required

• Prepare Incident review meeting papers, share meeting papers in a timely manner and follow up on…