Family Liaison Officer

Here at Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust, we are proud to provide expert, compassionate care for our local population. We are ranked as the third in the country for research, embedding education and training across the organisation. Our main hub is the Queen Alexandra Hospital, which is one of the largest hospitals on the south coast employing over 8,700 staff.

Our patients come from all walks of life and so do we. We hire great people from a wide variety of backgrounds because it makes our hospital stronger. If you share our values and our enthusiasm for getting it right for patients, colleagues, and our community, you will find a home at Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust.

As part of the Single Corporate Service, this role is a designated site-based role however the post holder will be part of the Corporate Service team which provides a service across both Isle of Wight NHS Trust and Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust.

As the single corporate service will be delivered across both organisations, individuals may be required to undertake business travel between sites.  The frequency and arrangements will be discussed on an individual basis and the staff mobility local agreement will apply.

NHS Band 3:  £25,760 - £27,476 pro rata, per annum ( between £10,304 - £10,990 actual salary per annum)

Contract Type:  Permanent

Hours Per Week: 15 hours per week 

Please note the working pattern will be Mondays & Wednesdays 8.30am-4.30pm, with some flexibility during team holiday/absence periods to maintain service cover.

To provide a family liaison service to our patients ensuring they are able to keep in contact with their
loved ones and carers whilst in hospital. The role is key in the support of the emotional wellbeing of
the patient, providing creative and practical means to maintain a 2 way communication with family,
loved ones and carers. As a non-clinical member of the ward teams, this role is unique in supporting
patients and their loved ones to keep in touch and enhance the patient’s experience during their
inpatient stay. It can also provide support to the administrative functions of the ward/department
and supervise, mentor and develop new FLO team members, such as new such as new FLO volunteers, along with key responsibilities for wider patient experience activities and services.

Key responsibilities include:

• Liaison call or message with patient’s loved ones to set up video call or mobile ‘phone “virtual visit”, using dedicated equipment. This will include responding to requests via email / telephone / face-to-face / internal referral system / bleep
• Supporting patients to attend family events virtually when too unwell to be discharged to attend in person e.g. attending virtual funerals, birthdays, anniversaries etc.
• Organising and supporting end of life conversations to take place where family/friends unable to travel into our hospital as requested
• Signpost patients and carers to support services, as agreed with Nurse in Charge

Please see job description for full details. 

Qualifications

Essential:

• NVQ Level 3 in Business Administration or equivalent qualification

Skills and Experience

Essential:

• Proven experience in customer service
• Good keyboard skills, with a good range of programme experience.
• Ability to communicate in written and oral English
• Ability to work with staff on all levels.
• Problem solving
• Ability to manage own workload, with a flexible and adaptable approach

Desirable:

• Previous NHS/Healthcare experience
• Experience of working in a ward environment
• Experience using Bedview and PAS

The health and wellbeing of our staff is at the forefront of everything we do. We are proud to be able to offer our staff some fantastic benefits including our on-site Nursery, access to our free Beach Hut for those long summer days, our on-site Wellness Centre including a gym and a swimming pool, access to our fantastic staff networks including LGBTQ, Race Equality and DisAbility, and awards ceremonies to recognise your achievements. We believe we can offer support to all of our staff when they need it the most.   

We welcome the unique contributions that you can bring in terms of your education, opinions, culture, ethnicity, race, sex, gender identity and expression, nation of origin, age, languages spoken, veteran’s status, colour, religion, disability, sexual orientation, and beliefs. 

For more information, please see our People and OD Strategy 2026