Administrative and Customer Service

Administrators and Customer Service Practitioners have a highly transferable set of knowledge, skills and behaviours that can be applied in all sectors.  NHS services need to be well-organised and administration is a big part of this. Both roles utilise skills in time management, organisation and communication.

As an administrator you will contribute to the efficiency of a department, through support of functional areas, working across teams and resolving issues as requested, updating processes, policies and any documentation to include word, excel, EPIC, outlook etc.  Depending on your chosen area this may include the typing of clinic letters, updating spreadsheets, assisting with diary management, ordering through our procurement department and arranging for invoices to be paid. The flexibility and responsiveness required allows the apprentice to develop a wide range of skills.

In a customer service role you might work as a Contact Centre Agent, Booking Clerk or Receptionist. These roles are usually the first point of contact for anyone who contacts the hospital. You may be dealing with patients or relatives, other hospital staff, or other stakeholders such as external health services or suppliers to the hospital providing face-to-face communication, telephone correspondence and emails. You may also book patients in for appointments, book patient transport and assist with other administrative duties. In a higher level role you will be an advocate of customer service who acts as a referral point for dealing with more complex or technical customer requests, complaints, and queries. You are often an escalation point for complicated or ongoing customer problems.

Once you have completed your apprenticeship you could apply to stay in administration, perhaps by becoming a Personal Assistant, Medical Secretary or an Administrative Assistant and then progress your career to become an Admin Manager or Team Leader, amongst other opportunities.

Application: These roles are recruited to regularly throughout to year when there is a service need. They are also available for existing staff. Should you in interested in working within Administrative Services please see our Current Vacancies page.

Finance & Payroll Roles

The NHS has to be sure that its finances are well run. Finance staff may be based in office areas within the hospital or offsite. You will work closely with admin staff and others in the wider healthcare team. You may also work with clinical and non-clinical managers. Most finance staff have little or no contact with patients. You will be dealing with the day to day queries from departments, assisting with or producing  the upload of figures for month end, assist with producing reports, handling payments for goods, arrange payment of invoices or supporting the payroll function of finance.

You may work as an Accounts/Finance Assistant being responsible for assisting the team of accountants with junior accounting duties.  An Accounts/Finance Assistant’s work could include basic bookkeeping activities, working with sales and purchase ledgers, running calculations to ensure that records and payments are correct, recording of cash and data entry. You will understand how accounting systems and processes allow CUH to keep track of all types of financial transactions, know a range of routine accounts reports and their use within the finance function and understand the basics of internal control within the organisation. An apprenticeship will require you to undertake a relevant financial qualification such as AAT or ACCA as part of this role.

If you work within the Payroll department the main duties may include: gathering, creation and processing of payroll-related information to ensure employees are paid on time and accurately. This will be via payroll software, though its use must be accompanied by the ability to perform this manually.  Compliance with legislative and contractual obligations, internal and external reporting of payroll information to deadlines must be done with effective and appropriate communication with employees and relevant stakeholders and working to relevant ethical and professional standards in a legislative and regulatory environment

Application: These roles are recruited to around once every two years when there is a vacancy. For all current vacancies go to our Current Vacancies page.