Job summary
- Main area
- Employee Relations
- Grade
- NHS AfC: Band 8a
- Contract
- Permanent
- Hours
- Full time - 37.5 hours per week
- Job ref
- 275-2610-CEF-BPRes
- Employer
- Medway NHS Foundation Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- Medway Maritime Hospital
- Town
- Gillingham
- Salary
- £57,528 - £64,750 per annum pro rata
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 09/11/2026 23:59
Employer heading
Resolutions Business Partner
NHS AfC: Band 8a
Do you have the ambition and vision to deliver the Best of Care by the Best People?
Here at Medway, we pride ourselves on working together as one to ensure that our shared vision of Better, Best, Brilliant is achieved
Our Trust is a great choice for people who want to develop their career in an ambitious and dynamic environment; our employees are able to choose the coverage and supplemental benefits that best fit their needs and those of their families. This includes the promotion of flexible working opportunities across the Trust, we are able to give our employees flexibility on where, when and the hours they work.
Our culture and values are what drives Medway NHS Foundation Trust and is the heartbeat of who we are as an organisation. It is important that you understand and to refer to our values when you are completing your application and always reflect our values throughout your employment with the Trust.
Job overview
Resolutions Business Partner
Division: Corporate
Care Group: Employee Relations
Band: 8a
Salary: £57,528 - £64,750 per annum pro rata
We are recruiting for a Resolutions Business Partner who shares our ambition and vision to deliver the Best of Care by the Best People and has the drive to take us forward, by ensuring that the Trust continues to be the first choice for patients and our staff.
A unique opportunity has arisen to be a key part of our centralised Resolutions team.
Working closely with BP and ER teams, the Resolutions team are focused on delivering a timely and efficient investigations service, working independently to undertake disciplinary and grievance investigations in line with best practice and just culture principles. The team also lead on driving forward positive resolution to staff issues and concerns, supporting staff and managers explore a range of resolution options. The team will be trained in undertaking facilitation and mediation to support the successful and early resolution of issues, to avoid formal process and escalation of issues.
The Resolutions Business Partner manages the team alongside handling some of the Trust's most complex and challenging cases and leading on reporting and service improvement work. This is a really challenging and rewarding role for an experienced ER professional with strong knowledge of employment law, just culture and best practice.
Informal conversations are welcomed ahead of submitting an application.
Main duties of the job
-
To project manage and to undertake complex investigations in relation to Disciplinary, Grievance, Bullying and Harassment and other HR issues.
To plan, prioritise and manage the competing workloads and deadlines to ensure informal resolution of cases where appropriate and that all formal investigations are completed in accordance with Trust policies and best employment law practice, according to agreed deadlines and monitor KPIs.
To be flexible in planning and managing the workload of the department to ensure all investigations are completed in according to deadlines and in line with Trust policies and employment legislation and to Trust values.
Working for our organisation
Do you have the ambition and vision to deliver our mission of the Best of Care by the Best of People providing excellent care, every time?
Here at Medway, we pride ourselves on working together as one to ensure that our shared vision is achieved for our patients.
As a key partner in the healthcare of our local population, we are keen to deliver this as an outcome of our Trust-wide strategy – Patient First. Using an Operational Excellence approach to align our priorities and operational management structures, we are just over a year and half into our Patient First deployment. We are looking for creative, skilled people to join our Transformation Team and further support us on this journey.
Our culture and values define us here at Medway NHS Foundation Trust and are the heartbeat of who we are as an organisation.
Our BEST values underpin Patient First and are at the core of the care we give to our patients, the support we offer to our staff and our overall leadership approach:
B – Bold
E – Every person counts
S – Sharing and open
T - Together
Our Trust is a great choice for people who want to develop their career in an ambitious and dynamic environment; our employees are able to choose the coverage and supplemental benefits that best fit their needs and those of their families. This includes the promotion of flexible working opportunities across the Trust.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Key Responsibilities:
- Providing expert advice to Line Managers and HRBP teams on managing facilitated conversations and conflict coaching.
- Undertake complex investigations at a senior level within the organisation, using initiative in dealing with complex issues that arise and working with minimal supervision.
- Provide regular reports to Directorate Managers and HR Business Partners on the process of investigations.
- Ensure a standardised model for investigation reports, including style, content, quality, confidentiality, timescales, etc
- Prepare investigation reports including all relevant evidence in advance of formal hearings, as per Trust policy timelines, and oversee the final preparation of reports by colleagues to ensure all reports are written to a high standard and in accordance with the principles of employment law.
- Attend formal hearings and present the management statement of case to the panel.
- Ensure that all investigations are carried out in sufficient depth to elicit all relevant information to allow the Trust to make and informed decision.
- Ensure that all formal hearings are convened in accordance with the Trust Policies and Procedures and to Trust values, ensuring minimal risk of escalation to Employment Tribunal
- Work in partnership with Trade Union or staff representatives, where appropriate to discuss resolution of cases when necessary to a mutually beneficial conclusion.
- Use specialist knowledge of investigations and employment law to help develop and update the Trust Policies to ensure best practice.
- Develop and update employee relations policies drawing on case management experience and relevant employment law to improve the efficiencies of procedures. Implement and promote new and revised People policies and procedures.
- Identify potential areas of concern and risks with investigations and ensure that appropriate management or team action is taken to rectify the issue.
- Communicate sensitively and diplomatically with all staff involved in the investigation ensuring that investigations are carried out in a professional manner to Trust values.
- Monitor trends around ethnicity, disability, gender and age, highlighting any areas of concern or disparity and formulate remedial action plans.
- Maintain and update own knowledge of local and national People issues and employment legislation, keeping abreast of latest developments ensuring knowledge is shared with colleagues and management and acted on as appropriate.
- Working in partnership with OD colleagues to develop and deliver training interventions supporting the development of core competencies in resolution options, including facilitation, conflict coaching, resilience
- Ensuring that the use of charters and guides in place for Investigation Officers, Case Managers, Panel Members and HR Support is developed and updated where necessary and in accordance with any best practice of employment law changes.
- Acting as HR support to panel members on a range of Employee Relations cases, providing specialist advice and guidance on complex HR issues.
- Establishing effective networks and partnerships with the HRBP and ER teams to build effective working relationships and enable the delivery of people strategies and plans.
Person specification
Qualifications
Essential criteria
- Educated to Masters Level or equivalent
- Postgrad Diploma in HRM or employment law, CIPD level 7
- Mediation or Investigator qualification, or commitment and ability and complete within 12 months
Knowledge
Essential criteria
- Significant experience working in a role handling ER Investigations
- Up to date knowledge of Employment Legislation
- Understanding of Just Culture principles
Experience
Essential criteria
- Supporting / undertaking ER investigations, including discrimination
- Dealing with complex ER matters, including grievances and conflict resolution
- Building and managing teams
- Experience of report writing
- Partnership working with Trade Unions
- Designing and delivering training
Employer certification / accreditation badges
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Applicant requirements
You must have appropriate UK professional registration.
The postholder will have access to vulnerable people in the course of their normal duties and as such this post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service to check for any previous criminal convictions.
Application numbers
Documents to download
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Hannah Costanza
- Job title
- Head of People Services
- Email address
- [email protected]
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