Job description

Job title:Case Manager – Screening Team

Reporting to:Head of Investigations

Job Family:Regulatory Casework

Pay Level:D

Role purpose

To support the Nursing and Midwifery Council’s (NMC) fitness to practise (FtP) work through the day to day oversight and management of appropriate cases through the initial stages of the fitness to practise process.

Toprovide daily direction and management to staff who are responsible for conducting enquiries during the screening process and investigating low severity/complexity referrals for consideration by the Case Examiners. Responsible for ensuring that cases are managed in a risk based and proportionate manner, adhering to relevant key performance indicators and quality measures, to support the NMC’s public protection function.

Key Accountabilities

General

  • Ensure an optimum balance between performance, quality and productivity in your areas of responsibility to support the end to end Key Performance Indicator (KPI).
  • Responsible for ensuring that team resource is deployed to meet agreed operational forecast assumptions.
  • Manage the workflow of the team ensuring cases are progressed in line with an agreed plan and in accordance with relevant policies and procedures.
  • Develop and monitor action plans for case progression, particularly cases at risk of breaching timescales.
  • Advise and support the team on individual cases and takes action asrequired to ensure appropriate throughput of cases.
  • Ensure that appropriate direction is provided to staff, liaising with internal lawyers as necessary.

Screening

Day to day oversight and management of screening cases within the team to ensure that enquiries are proportionate and risk based and delivered in line with relevant key performance indicators.

Specifically:

  • To ensure that the public facing interim order KPI is met through the effective management of relevant cases to support the NMC’s public protection function.
  • To ensure that cases are effectively screened by the team so that cases are proportionately managed and our resource is appropriately deployed to the investigation of cases relevant to a registrant’s fitness to practise.

Low severity/complexity investigation

Ensure that investigations are completed in a proportionate and risk based manner, adhering to relevant key performance indicators and quality standards and that they satisfy the evidential requirements of the Case Examiners.

Specifically:

  • Responsible for approving officer prepared plans and reports.

Management information

  • Compile, analyse and maintain accurate caseload information and data on team performance, identifying performance against team objectives, KPI’s, risks and any trends in performance.
  • Use management information to ensure appropriate throughput and output in line with key performance indicators.
  • Report management information, risks and trends to Head of Investigations.
  • Assist the Head of Investigations in setting, monitoring and evaluating casework targets.

Internal and external stakeholder engagement

  • Act as a point of contact for key stakeholder engagement both internal and external to the NMC on work falling in area of responsibility.
  • Resolve issues that arise within the team including complaints and escalate as appropriate to the Head of Investigations or Complaints Manager.
  • Build and maintain successful relationships to support the delivery of high quality, fit for purpose investigations.
  • Act as a ‘subject expert’ and respond promptly to requests for information from other senior NMC staff.

Quality assurance, continuous improvement and customer care

  • Be accountable for the quality of all work undertaken by the team.
  • Undertake planned and ad hoc quality reviews in compliance with the quality assurance framework.
  • Assist with the identification of quality and performance concerns and escalate to the Head of Investigations.
  • Ensure that staff undertake continuous risk assessments in each of their cases.
  • Assist the Head of Investigations with setting, monitoring and implementing quality standards, ensuring best practice.
  • Ensure continuous improvement taking into consideration, and implementing learning from audits, SERs/AIs, legal reviews, stakeholder and case examiner feedback.
  • Ensure that incidents are reported in a timely manner through the serious event review process.
  • Understand where key areas of weakness and best practice lie and use this information to improve performance.
  • Ensure that the team provides a high quality of customer service to all customers, both internal and external.
  • Take responsibility for the security of data controlled by the team and for managing disclosure within NMC policies.
  • Manage risks in relation to patient safety, customer care and NMC reputation and balance customers’ needs and expectations against our public protection responsibilities and due process in managing cases.

Standard Responsibilities

People management

  • Provide strong leadership and direction and keep performance improvement under review and ensure that performance targets and quality standards are met.
  • Manage and motivate the team, including setting of team and individual objectives, standards and expectations; monitor team performance and support effective team working and communication.
  • Provide technical support and coaching to team members to ensure that investigations are outcome focussed and proportionate.
  • Facilitate and support the team to enable them to achieve individual,department ordirectorate’s objectives.
  • Monitor the capacity within the team to efficiently deal with the caseload, identifying potential issues and solutions in a timely fashion to the Head of Investigations.
  • Provide consistent performance management by providing regular feedback.
  • Conducting formal reviews, and identifying and addressing business-focussed training and development needs.
  • Manage issues relating to conduct and capability, ensuring that such issues are dealt with in a focussed and timely manner.
  • Manages proactively the team’s annual leave and sickness, to ensure that cases and investigations within the team are well managed.
  • Recruit and select high quality staff, taking pro-active action when vacancies arise.
  • Support and implement change, including cultural change.

Other responsibilities

There are a number of standard duties and responsibilities that all employees, irrespective of their role and level of seniority within the NMC, are expected to be familiar with and adhere to.

  • Comply at all times with the requirements of health and safety regulations to ensure their own wellbeing and that of their colleagues.
  • Promote and comply with NMC policies on diversity and equality both in the delivery of services and treatment of others.
  • Ensure confidentiality at all times, only releasing confidential information obtained during the course of employment to those acting in an official capacity in accordance with the provisions of the Data Protection Act 1998 and its amendments.
  • Comply with NMC protocols on the appropriate use of telephone, email and internet facilities.
  • Comply with the principles of risk management in relation to individual and corporate responsibilities.
  • Comply with NMC policies and procedures as compiled on the organisation’s intranet.

Person specification

Job title:Case Manager – Screening Team

Qualifications and experience

  • Educated to degree level or substantial equivalent experience.
  • Demonstrable line management experience, including setting team and individual objectives, staff development, change management and strong performance management.
  • Significant experience of coaching others to achieve results,able to demonstrate a track record of managing teams in a motivational manner.
  • Proven experience of managing a team to deliver a large caseload to defined procedures, challenging targets and high quality standards
  • Significant analytical and investigative experience, not necessarily in a regulatory setting and the management of a caseload of cases under investigation.
  • Experience of the use of management information to monitor and identify adherence to targets and preparation of reports.
  • Demonstrable experience of conducting and leading proportionate investigations that meet the required quality standard.
  • Demonstrable experience of delivery of high quality customer service and proactive involvement in improving procedures.

Skills, knowledge and abilities

  • Excellent people management skills.
  • A highly effective communicator with the gravitas, seniority and credibility that commands respect from all stakeholders.
  • Highly skilled at negotiation, advising and influencing.
  • Understands and has appreciation of issues involving vulnerable people or witnesses.
  • Proven experience of delivering exemplary customer care in a challenging environment.
  • Effective written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to communicate complex and difficult messages clearly and sensitively.
  • Advanced analytical and problem solving skills.
  • Understanding of data protection, freedom of information and data security legislation and its application to casework.
  • Able to interpret complex legislation issues and able to apply knowledge to management of cases.
  • Able to work within a tight procedural framework.
  • Highly developed drafting skills.
  • Able to identify problems and present practical solutions.
  • Ensure that activities are cost effective and represent good value for money.
  • Able to plan, prioritise and work within strict deadlines.
  • Experience of using computerised management information systems to manage and monitor workflow.
  • Highly computer literate and numerate.

Personal qualities

  • Pro-active, can do attitude that motivates and engages staff.
  • Positive and flexible in the face of challenging situations.
  • A self-starter who is able to work with minimum supervision.
  • Highly motivated with a flexible approach.
  • A collaborative approach to team working.
  • A commitment to and an understanding of the importance of equality and opportunity within the environment that the NMC operates.
  • A willingness to continually develop levels of knowledge.
  • Able to show sensitivity and tact when addressing customer needs and dealing with confidential information.

Fitness to PractiseApril 2016Page 1 of 6