Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board (ICB) has been
selected to take part in one of four national Fit Note Reform Pilots
commissioned by the Department for Work and Pensions, helping to test a new
approach that aims to improve support for people whose health affects their
ability to work. The pilot is designed to address a recognised challenge within
the current system, where fit notes often focus on certifying sickness absence
rather than providing practical support to help people remain in work or return
to work safely.
MBPCC is delivering one of these pilots taking fit note generation out
of practices within the Barrow and Mid Furness PCN areas. Patients will be
referred directly from general practice into a new service called Enable where
they will be offered a personalised Workability Plan setting out what they can
do, the adjustments that would help, and the support available to them to aid
them return to work.
The Referral and Pathway Administrator runs the operational spine of
that pathway. Every patient enters the service through this role and leaves it
through this role. The post holder receives, logs and verifies referrals,
confirms eligibility against the agreed criteria, issues and monitors
pre-contact questionnaires, books and rebooks appointments, chases missing
information and non-attendance, distributes completed Workability Plans to
patients and, with consent, to their employers, codes activity accurately in
EMIS and closes cases.
Assist in reviewing and process patient
questionnaires, forms, and assessments in accordance with agreed protocols and
pathways.
Identify and escalate responses requiring urgent
clinical review to the appropriate healthcare professional.
Support the management of digital patient pathways,
including online consultations, questionnaires, and caseload management
Receive referrals from participating practices through
the agreed referral routes and acknowledge them within the agreed service
standard.
Identify incomplete, duplicate, or incorrectly routed
referrals and resolve them.
Maintain the referral inbox ensuring nothing sits
unactioned beyond the agreed turnaround.
Check each referral against the documented pilot
eligibility criteria, including practice registration, age, employment status
and any exclusion criteria in force.
Record the eligibility decision and the reason for it
against every referral, including those found ineligible, so that the
evaluation can account for the whole referred population.
Morecambe Bay Primary Care Collaborative is the largest employer
of Primary Care colleagues in South Cumbria, we are a not-for-profit Community
Interest Company, and work to support, guide and underpin primary medical care
across Lancashire and South Cumbria.
We deeply value education and learning, hosting the Lancashire
and South Cumbria Training Hub. We have a great team on our board that guide
our organisation, and you will be supported to excel in your role.
Job description
Job responsibilities
Post: Referral
and Pathway Administrator
Service: MBPCC
Enable Service
Responsible to: Service
Lead
Hours: 37.5 per week
Salary: £14.00 per hour (£18.20 per hour enhanced rate for Saturday
Working)
Contract Type Fixed term 12 months
Base: Hybrid and flexible with home working occasional
Barrow and
Mid Furness PCN sites
2. SERVICE
CONTEXT
The pilot operates across Barrow and Mid Furness
Primary Care Networks and is delivered by Morecambe Bay Primary Care
Collaborative on behalf of participating practices.
The team is multidisciplinary, combining clinical
assessment with non-clinical work
Participation is voluntary. Patients consent to take
part, and separately consent to any information being shared with their
employer.
All information flows operate under an agreed Data
Sharing Agreement. The post holder handles highly sensitive personal, health
and employment information throughout.
The pilot is time limited and processes will change
during the year as the service tests and refines its model.
3. KEY WORKING RELATIONSHIPS
Internal: Service Lead day to day management,
absence and sickness, appraisals
Internal: Clinical Lead, clinical assessment team,
wider MBPCC colleagues.
External: patients and their families; referring GPs,
practice managers and practice administrative teams; employers, line managers
and HR contacts; wider support services to which patients are signposted.
4. SCOPE AND BOUNDARY OF THE ROLE
The post holder does not
assess, advise on or interpret any patients health.
5. MAIN DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Clinical Administration
& Patient Triage
Assist in reviewing and process patient
questionnaires, forms, and assessments in accordance with agreed protocols and
pathways.
Identify and escalate responses requiring urgent
clinical review to the appropriate healthcare professional.
Support the management of digital patient pathways,
including online consultations, questionnaires, and caseload management
Liaise with clinicians and administrative teams to
ensure timely follow-ups
Referral receipt,
logging and verification
Receive referrals from participating practices through
the agreed referral routes and acknowledge them within the agreed service
standard.
Verify referral details
Identify incomplete, duplicate, or incorrectly routed
referrals and resolve them.
Maintain the referral inbox ensuring nothing sits
unactioned beyond the agreed turnaround.
Receive telephone calls from patients and practices
Eligibility checking
Check each referral against the documented pilot
eligibility criteria, including practice registration, age, employment status
and any exclusion criteria in force.
Record the eligibility decision and the reason for it
against every referral, including those found ineligible, so that the
evaluation can account for the whole referred population.
Patient contact
questionnaires
Issue the agreed patient questionnaires to eligible
patients through EMIS, selecting the correct template and delivery method for
each patient.
Confirm the questionnaire has been delivered
successfully and follow up where delivery has failed, including identifying
patients who cannot receive digital communications and arranging an
alternative.
Chase outstanding returns using the agreed contact sequence
and record every attempt.
Check returns for completeness, flagging missing
required fields, and route completed returns to the clinical team ahead of the
appointment.
Escalate immediately, under the agreed protocol, any
return containing an indicator of risk, distress or safeguarding concern.
Appointments,
non-attendance and reviews
Book, confirm, reschedule and cancel appointments
across the clinical teams, matching patients to the correct practitioner,
appointment type and length.
Issue appointment confirmations and reminders through
the agreed channels.
Manage cancellations and non-attendance, contacting
patients who miss appointments in line with the agreed contact policy and
offering a rebooking.
Apply the agreed policy on repeated non-attendance,
including the number and method of contact attempts before a case is closed,
and record each attempt.
Schedule review appointments at the intervals set out
in the patients Workability Plan, and track those falling due.
Workability Plans and
correspondence
Issue completed Workability Plans to patients through
the agreed channel, promptly after the assessment.
Verify recorded consent before issuing any Workability
Plan or correspondence to an employer, and check that the version and recipient
are correct.
Maintain accurate employer contact records and ensure
correspondence reaches the correct named recipient.
Record the date, recipient and version of everything
issued, so that the service can evidence what was sent, to whom, and when.
Escalate any query about the content of a Workability
Plan to the assessing clinician and never amend clinical content.
Handle employer enquiries courteously and within the
boundaries of consent, escalating anything beyond process and logistics.
Patient contact and
missing information
Contact patients by telephone, text, email or letter
to obtain missing information, confirm details, chase questionnaires and
arrange appointments.
Communicate sensitively with people who may be unwell,
anxious about their job or in financial difficulty.
Recognise when a call should be handed to a clinician
and do so without delay.
Record all patient contact accurately, including
unsuccessful attempts.
Maintain the accessibility of the service, arranging
interpreting, accessible formats and alternative contact methods where needed.
EMIS coding, records and
data quality
Maintain accurate, contemporaneous and complete
records in EMIS.
Understand that coding drives the management
information and national evaluation data set, and that gaps or miscoding
directly weaken the pilot evidence.
Run and check routine data quality reports, identify
and correct errors and omissions, and escalate systematic problems
Support the production of management information and
performance reporting, including activity, turnaround, non-attendance and
closure data.
Case closure
administration
Close cases in line with the agreed closure criteria,
including completion of the pathway, patient withdrawal, ineligibility,
non-contactable patients and repeated non-attendance.
Record the closure reason accurately against the
agreed categories.
Issue any closure correspondence to the patient, the
referring practice and, where consented, the employer.
Ensure that no case is closed where an escalation,
review or outstanding clinical action remains open.
This role is not expected to make decisions on which
cases to close, this is at the direction of the appropriate clinician.
Service support and
improvement
Contribute to the design and refinement of
administrative processes, templates, letters and trackers as the pilot
develops.
Maintain and update administrative standard operating
procedures so that the process is documented and transferable.
Provide administrative support to team meetings and
MDTs (multidisciplinary team meetings), including scheduling, papers and action
notes.
Provide cover for administrative colleagues within the
pilot as required.
Hybrid / Remote Working
& Service Delivery
Effectively manage workload while working
independently within a remote or hybrid environment.
Maintain high standards of confidentiality,
information governance, and data security when working remotely.
Attend virtual meetings, training sessions, and team
discussions as required.
Monitor shared inboxes, task lists, and
workflow/caseload systems to ensure service targets are met.
Administrative Support
Develop and maintain administrative processes to
improve efficiency and service delivery.
Support reporting, data collection, audits, and
quality improvement initiatives.
Assist with training and mentoring of new
administrative staff where required.
WORKING ARRANGEMENTS
This is a fixed term post for 12 months, funded
through the national pilot. Continuation beyond the pilot period cannot be
guaranteed but is anticipated
A flexible approach to working is expected. The role
combines site-based and home working, and the balance will vary with service
demand.
Home working is supported for administrative activity
and patient telephone contact, subject to a suitable, private and secure home
working environment and compliance with information governance requirements.
Home working is an operational arrangement, not a contractual entitlement.
Patient telephone contact must not take place where
the conversation can be overheard.
Occasional travel between Barrow and Mid Furness sites
will be required.
The post holder will be expected to work in a rapidly
evolving service where processes, systems and documentation change during the
pilot period.
Some flexibility over working hours may be needed to
accommodate patients who are in work and employers who are only available
outside core hours such as Saturday working.
