Complaints Investigation Officer
At a glance
- Band
- Band 6
- Contract
- Permanent
- Pattern
- Part-time, Flexible working
- Hours / week
- 18.75
- Posted
- 03/09/2026
- Closes
- 21/09/2026
Sponsorship verdict
This contract type is not eligible for Skilled Worker sponsorship.
NHS Trusts cannot issue a Certificate of Sponsorship for part-time, bank, locum, zero-hours, job-share or short fixed-term (under 12 months) contracts under current Home Office rules. This applies even when the wider Trust holds a Skilled Worker licence.
Role summary
This role involves investigating complaints related to care, treatment, and support to improve service safety and quality. The officer will conduct timely investigations, establish facts, identify learning points, and coordinate the Trust's response, ensuring high-quality letters are produced within deadlines. It requires collaboration with complainants, Trust staff, and the Patient Experience Team.
Essential criteria
- Post Graduate Diploma in risk management procedures or equivalent level experience.
- Specialist knowledge of Health & Social Care regulations, policies and procedures gained through knowledge or relevant experience.
- Risk Management and Complaints Handling qualification or equivalent gained through experience.
Desirable criteria
- Completed the trust complaints investigating officer training.
- Knowledge and Skills
- Specialist knowledge of NHS Complaints Procedure and organisational policy and procedures in relation to the management of complaints and other frameworks for the investigation of complaints.
- Detailed working knowledge of risk management policies and regulations pertaining to experience, safety and risk
- Awareness of Mental Health and Mental Capacity Acts, Health and Safety legislation, Information Governance requirements, Data Protection Act, Human Rights Act and Equality and Diversity Issues
- Good communication skills, including an approach which is supportive, sensitive and empathic with those involved in, or affected by, complaints, incidents and near misses
- Good communication skills with all levels of staff across professions and with partner agencies
- Confident and effective when dealing with difficult issues with staff in a group setting
- Ability to influence key stakeholders within complex organisational structures
- Excellent analytical skills required in relation to reviewing assessment, service responses and all aspects relating to complaints, clinical effectiveness and quality governance
- Ability to prioritise competing demands on a daily basis and respond accordingly
- Ability to plan, implement and monitor own workload
- Proactive and able to work under own initiative without direct supervision
- Ability to work under pressure and to tight deadlines as required
- Good computer skills (including word and excel)
- Letter / report writing experience
- Excellent standard of written English
- Experience of undertaking complaints investigations and the preparation response letters.
- Quality governance experience in relation to experience, safety and risk (including review of complaints)
- Post Graduate Diploma in risk management procedures or equivalent level experience.
- Specialist knowledge of Health & Social Care regulations, policies and procedures gained through knowledge or relevant experience.
- Risk Management and Complaints Handling qualification or equivalent gained through experience.
- Completed the trust complaints investigating officer training.
- Knowledge and Skills
- Specialist knowledge of NHS Complaints Procedure and organisational policy and procedures in relation to the management of complaints and other frameworks for the investigation of complaints.
- Detailed working knowledge of risk management policies and regulations pertaining to experience, safety and risk
- Awareness of Mental Health and Mental Capacity Acts, Health and Safety legislation, Information Governance requirements, Data Protection Act, Human Rights Act and Equality and Diversity Issues
- Good communication skills, including an approach which is supportive, sensitive and empathic with those involved in, or affected by, complaints, incidents and near misses
- Good communication skills with all levels of staff across professions and with partner agencies
- Confident and effective when dealing with difficult issues with staff in a group setting
- Ability to influence key stakeholders within complex organisational structures
- Excellent analytical skills required in relation to reviewing assessment, service responses and all aspects relating to complaints, clinical effectiveness and quality governance
- Ability to prioritise competing demands on a daily basis and respond accordingly
- Ability to plan, implement and monitor own workload
- Proactive and able to work under own initiative without direct supervision
- Ability to work under pressure and to tight deadlines as required
- Good computer skills (including word and excel)
- Letter / report writing experience
- Excellent standard of written English
- Experience of undertaking complaints investigations and the preparation response letters.
- Quality governance experience in relation to experience, safety and risk (including review of complaints)
Useful to know
Agenda for Change 2024/25 pays Band 6 at £37,338 – £44,962 a year, across England.
This advert: £39,959 – £48,117 — outside the standard scale; check for HCAS/London weighting.
Posted 4d ago · Closes in 15d
Plenty of time to prepare a strong application.
Full advert · preview
Devon Partnership NHS Trust
Complaints Investigation Officer
The closing date is 21 September 2026
Job summary
We are seeking to
recruit a part-time Complaints Investigation Officer (18.75 hours per week).
The ideal
candidate will possess relevant experience and demonstrate the ability to
collaborate effectively with a variety of people in order to conduct thorough
investigations.
This position involves liaison with complainants, staff across the Trust, and
members of the Patient Experience Team. The successful applicant will be
expected to work efficiently and deliver high-quality, evidence-based responses for complex cases within set timelines to address areas of concern.
Main duties of the job
- To investigate
the care, treatment and support in place when complaints have been made in
order to inform improvement in the safety and quality of services provided by
the Trust.
- To facilitate
timely and inclusive case specific investigations; to establish the facts,
identify possible contributory or causal factors, highlight resultant learning,
consider improvements required and recommendations from the reports of reviews
undertaken.
- To undertake
complaints investigations as set out in the Local Authority Social Services and
National Health Service Complaints (England) Regulations 2009.
- Liaise with
those affected by complaints and their carers (meeting with
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