Working for our organisation

North Bristol NHS Trust employs over 12,000 staff providing healthcare to the residents of Bristol, South Gloucestershire and North Somerset from our award-winning hospital building at Southmead. We are the regional Major Trauma Centre, and an internationally recognised centre of excellence in a range of services and major specialities. Our vision is that by enabling our teams to be the best that they can be, we will provide exceptional healthcare, personally delivered.

North Bristol NHS Trust values all people as individuals. We aim to be an anti-discriminatory organisation and are committed to building a team that represents a variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and skills. We welcome applicants from all underrepresented groups.

Detailed Job Description And Main Responsibilities

Please refer to the attached job description for full details of the main duties and responsibilities that the post holder is required to undertake.

• Provide comprehensive administrative and organisational support to the Chief Executive’s Office to help ensure the smooth running of services.
• Act as a first point of contact for internal and external enquiries, dealing with visitors, telephone calls and correspondence in a professional and confidential manner.
• Organise and support meetings, including diary management, scheduling, booking rooms, preparing agendas, circulating papers and taking accurate minutes.
• Draft, proofread and quality-check correspondence, reports, briefing notes and other formal documents for senior leaders.
• Maintain accurate electronic and paper records, ensuring information is handled securely and in line with data protection, confidentiality and governance requirements.
• Coordinate day-to-day office processes, follow up actions from meetings and respond to routine queries independently, escalating more complex issues where needed.
• Support the planning and coordination of events, travel arrangements and multi-stakeholder meetings across Group Headquarters and other sites.
• Process purchase orders, invoices and stationery requests, ensuring resources are managed efficiently and in line with procurement procedures.
• Work collaboratively with colleagues across the Executive Office, providing cross-cover during absences and supporting consistent administrative standards.
• Contribute to service improvement by supporting new systems, improving administrative processes and helping to maintain effective governance arrangements.
• Handle sensitive or sometimes distressing enquiries with discretion, empathy and professionalism.
• Manage competing priorities, use sound judgement and work independently in a busy and high-profile environment.

Person specification

Education And Qualifications

Essential criteria

• NVQ Level 3 in Business Administration or equivalent experience

Desirable criteria

• Further training in administrative practice or governance

Knowledge, Skills And Abilities

Essential criteria

• Advanced IT skills (particularly Microsoft Office)
• Strong organisational skills with exceptional attention to detail, even when working under constant interruptions.
• Minute-taking and document production skills
• Understanding of GDPR / FOI / confidentiality

Experience

Essential criteria

• Significant administrative experience in a complex organisation
• Experience producing high-quality reports, papers and correspondence

Desirable criteria

• Experience supporting senior leaders

Personal qualities

Essential criteria

• Professional, calm and diplomatic
• Ability to manage own workload and support others under pressure
• Ability to work independently, exercise sound judgment, and manage competing priorities
• Highly effective organiser with a structured approach to tasks

We hope that you will decide to join us and become part of this exciting journey, helping us to shape our future together.

As an equal opportunities employer actively working towards a diverse workforce we aim to recruit and retain a workforce which represents the rich diversity of the local population at all levels and are committed to designing our services around the needs of individual patients and those around them. Anonymous information will be used from your application to ensure we’re meeting our pledge.

The Trust is committed to investing in and caring for all our staff. We will support you in maintaining and improving your health and wellbeing, as well as your career development through management and training support - developing exceptional people for exceptional careers.

BFT is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people, and vulnerable adults.

To comply with Part 7 of the Immigration Act 2016 all applicants must be able to speak fluent English to an appropriate standard which will be assessed at Interview.

If you require sponsorship for a visa to work in the UK, to avoid disappointment, please check to ensure you are eligible under the UKVI points based system.

The Trust uses electronic new starter forms on Trac to collect personal details. Information collected is securely stored and used to set up the employee record on the ESR HR system.

By applying for this post, you are agreeing to Bristol NHS Foundation Trust transferring the information contained in this application to its preferred applicant management system. If you are offered a job, information will also be transferred into the national NHS Electronic Staff Records system.

Please be aware of scams – unless specified above, we will only communicate with you via @recruit.trac.jobs or nhs.net e-mails and we will never ask you for any payments.

Important

Please note that if you apply for a position with this Trust, you may be contacted via Trac or via email. This includes invites for job interviews. We therefore recommend that you regularly check your Trac account and email accounts. We may also contact you by texting the mobile number, if provided, on the application form.

Due to the high number of applications that are received for some posts we may close this vacancy before the advertised closing date. Therefore, please apply for this post as soon as you can, if you are interested and you meet the requirements of the Person Specification

Only those candidates who clearly demonstrate how they meet the person specification will be shortlisted for this job.

As a guide interviews should usually take place within 3 weeks of the closing date.

When providing employment reference details, please provide correct work-related email addresses so references can be sought promptly when we are looking to progress your application. Your referee must all be known to you in a line manager or professional lead capacity.