Job summary
- Main area
- Offender Healthcare
- Grade
- Band 3
- Contract
- Permanent
- Hours
- Full time - 37.5 hours per week (8am to 4:30pm Monday to Friday)
- Job ref
- 277-7143610-SWALE
- Employer
- Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- HMP Swaleside
- Town
- Eastchurch, Isle of Sheppey
- Salary
- £26,625 - £27,674 pa inc, pa RRP
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 16/05/2025 23:59
Employer heading

Administrative Assistant
Band 3
Job overview
We are looking for a organised, well motivated, team player to join our administration team at HMP Swaleside.
Are you ready to unlock your potential within a challenging, creative and fast paced work environment? Do you want to escape your current job role and work with people to build positive and productive lives, whatever their past? Now is the time to break into offender healthcare and develop your career.
Our healthcare team have a real impact on promoting health and well-being to those in prison and we pride ourselves on using skills and strategies that instil hope for patients future resettlement back into the community. We directly deliver Mental Health, Physical Health, Pharmacy and Clinical Substance Misuse in an integrated healthcare delivery model to provide effective and responsive care to improve wellbeing and support better outcomes in the future. As an Admin Assistant you will provide support and assistance to all the integrated healthcare team by working as part of our dedicated admin team.
You will enjoy all the benefits of NHS AfC employment (inc pension) with the opportunity to work within a forward-thinking service, who encourage career and personal development to all staff to increase their skills and knowledge.
Main duties of the job
To provide an integrated comprehensive secretarial and administrative support service to the integrated health care services.
This post is based at HMP Swaleside, but will require close working relationships with colleagues at nearby Kent prisons HMP Elmley and HMP Standford Hill, and cross-cover may occasionally be required.
Working for our organisation
Oxleas offers a wide range of NHS healthcare services to people in community and secure environment settings. Our services include community health care such as district nursing and speech and language therapy, care for people with learning disabilities and mental health care such as psychiatry, nursing and therapies. Our multidisciplinary teams look after people of all ages and we work in close partnership with other parts of the NHS, local councils and the voluntary sector and through our new provider collaboratives. Our 4,300 members of staff work in many different settings including hospitals, clinics, prisons, secure hospitals, children’s centres, schools and people’s homes.
We have over 125 sites in a variety of locations in the South of England. In London we operate within the Boroughs of Bexley, Bromley Greenwich and into Kent. We manage hospital sites including Queen Mary’s Hospital, Sidcup and Memorial Hospital, Woolwich, as well as the Bracton Centre, our medium secure unit for people with mental health needs. We are the largest NHS provider of prison health services providing healthcare to prisons within Devon, Dorset, Bristol, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire, Kent and South London. We are proud of the care we provide and our people.
Our purpose is to improve lives by providing the best possible care to our patients and their families. This is strengthened by our new values:
- We’re Kind
- We’re Fair
- We Listen
- We Care
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
· Undertaking copy/audio typing and word processing support to the team for the provision of required client related reports, letters, discharge summaries etc, including legal documentation, whilst prioritising work-load and meeting deadlines.
· Dealing with incoming correspondence on a daily basis, distributing and taking appropriate action as necessary and ensuring urgent items are brought to the attention of a member of the team.
· Preparing and presenting any statistical returns as necessary.
· Undertake any administrative procedures required to support the team, e.g. arrange medical staff & practitioner rota’s organise meetings.
· Implementing and maintaining effective client filing systems, ensuring client records are safe, confidential, up to date and accessible.
· Attending and participating in meetings.
· Minute meetings e.g. case conferences/professional meetings and team meetings as required, distributing as appropriate and taking administrative follow-up acting on own initiative.
· Undertaking administrative duties, e.g. diary management, photocopying, faxing, monitoring stationery/clinical items and ordering as necessary.
· Using electronic clinical record system (SystmOne), email, intranet, Internet and Microsoft packages as required.
· Handling both routine and urgent matters using initiative and with minimal supervision.
· Participating in supervision and PDR/appraisal.
· Undertaking any other duties commensurate with the level of the post as required, ensuring efficient and effective running of the department/section.
Leadership:
This role is accountable to the Admin Team Leader.
Responsible for Personal Development and Supervision
Communication:
Liaison and telephone contact with all statutory and non-statutory agencies, healthcare practitioners, GPs, consultants and solicitors etc., within prisons, hospitals and community health settings as required. To act as first point of contact for incoming calls, taking accurate, detailed messages as necessary ensuring these are passed on to the appropriate personnel.
Providing and receiving complex and sensitive information.
Proactively communicating with colleagues on workload issues, annual leave arrangements and administration issues.
Maintain sound working relationships and communication with all colleagues within Oxleas.
Custodial Responsibilities:
Assume personal responsibility for the security of issued keys.
Understand and comply with prison orders, procedures, and instructions in your area of work.
Comply with all security requirements.
Respond to any situation or circumstance that might indicate a threat to security of the establishment or to the safety of an individual, completing Incident, Security, Injury, or other reports as appropriate.
Report breaches of order and discipline including reporting and recording untoward incidents according to local protocol.
Contribute to effective risk assessment and management procedures.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION, PLEASE READ:
All applicants must be willing to undertake National Security Vetting in order to work in a Prison Setting. This will be completed as part of the pre-employment checks through Oxleas and the prison vetting team.
You will need to provide:
- Proof of right to work documentation
- Proof of ID, needs to include 1 photographic ID
- Proof of address documentation
- Non-UK passport holders will need to have correct documentation (right to work in the UK) and a Home office Share code.
Address History:
5 years address history will be needed.
Applicants that are not UK Passport holders who provide less than 5 years UK address history will need to provide a Police Certificate which must be in English from where they resided previously.
Applicants who are UK Passport holders who have lived abroad for a period of more than six months during the last three years will need to provide a certificate of good conduct or an overseas police check in English from the countries resided in or visited.
In order to assist you in obtaining a Police Certificate, guidance can be sought from:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/criminal-records-checks-for-overseas-applicants
If the country you have resided in is not listed here, you can obtain the necessary information by contacting the relevant Embassy or High Commission for that Country. Their contact details can be found on the Foreign & Commonwealth Office website (http://www.fco.gov.uk/en).
Person specification
Education/Qualifications
Essential criteria
- GCSE Level English Language or equivalent
- NVQ 3 or equivalent, relevant certification or equivalent experience, skills, and knowledge
- IT skills such as, Excel, and Microsoft word.
Skills
Essential criteria
- Computer literacy/internet/intranet/e-mail skills
- Operating all other Office Equipment
- Knowledge of Microsoft Packages
- Communicating effectively both in writing and verbally
Experience
Essential criteria
- Minimum 2 years’ secretarial experience
- Touch typing/audio typing
- Dealing with a wide range of people
Applicant requirements
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.
Documents to download
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Clare Denny
- Job title
- Recruitment & Retention Resourcing Officer
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Telephone number
- 07504877653
List jobs with Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust in Administrative Services or all sectors