Senior Investigation Officer

Help us care for the people who care.

We are recruiting for a Human Resources Senior Investigations Officer to join our team at Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust.

NSFT is a large mental health trust employing staff in multiple locations across Norfolk and Suffolk. We provide mental health and learning disability services in the community and inpatient settings.

We believe that staff, who feel valued by their employers and are truly engaged, and able to provide better outcomes for our service users

We want to put our people before processes, and this role will be focused on achieving solutions to investigations. This will in turn improve the quality of our investigations whilst ensuring that we treat all staff members involved with compassion and support.

We are looking for someone to support the Trust’s drive to become a compassionate and respectful employer by managing and conducting investigations into Disciplinary, Grievance, Bullying and Harassment cases. You will take responsibility for investigations and follow the process through to completion including line managing the Investigation Officer.

We are looking for a compassionate individual who will be excited to be part of our team.

We want to recruit someone with attention to detail. Once in post you will be responsible for investigating cases by interviewing witnesses, pulling together evidence and writing consistent high quality reports with clear findings and providing this within an agreed timescale.

Communication is key. We are looking for someone who can communicate in a professional manner with a wide spectrum of people to achieve the best outcome.

However most importantly and in keeping with our trust values of vales of Positively, Respectfully and Together, we are looking for someone who has exceptional people skills as this role will involve receiving highly complex/sensitive and/or contentious information and as a result you will have to convey difficult decision whilst having to maintain professional relationships.

If you want to make a difference in people’s experience at work by putting people before process, we want you to be part of our fantastic team!
Here at NSFT we pride ourselves on being a welcoming, talented, friendly and supportive team who like nothing better than sharing experiences and learning from each other. In addition to ongoing training and development opportunities, we are committed to providing an environment in which you can thrive.
Why work for us? We have challenges as a Trust, but we have ambitious aspirations, are pushing ahead with exciting transformation work and we need dedicated individuals to support us on our journey. We have strong, established nursing networks coupled with an exceptional leadership team who will ensure you are truly cared for and cared about.
Why Norfolk and Suffolk? The people here are warm and welcoming, you’ll never be far from the beautiful coastline or Broads National Park. We’re an hour and a half away from London and have an international airport in Norwich too. Our villages, towns and cities are packed full of history, independent cafes, shops and theatres. We have excellent shopping, eating out, top ranking schooling and affordable house prices too.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• Undertake high quality and comprehensive investigations into any matters relating to potential disciplinary, grievance, bullying and harassment, including complex issues and on occasion appeals and other matters which may involve the investigation in accordance with Trust policies and guidance.
• Ensure that all aspects of employee relations investigations are dealt with in a timely and appropriate manner in accordance with set Key Performance Indicators.
• Investigate employee relations cases both clinical and non-clinical as assigned by the Commissioning Manager/ Human Resources and to plan and co-ordinate simultaneous investigations.
• Line manage and support the Investigation Officer, to oversee high quality investigation into matters relating to potential disciplinary, grievance, bullying and harassment, including complex issues and on occasion appeals and other matters which may involve the investigation in accordance with Trust policies and guidance.
• Commissioning of Admin resources to support ER investigations and ensuring the quality and accuracy of all notes/minutes produced
• Commissioning and authorising expenditure for internal and external room bookings.
• Ensure that timescales are met in accordance with the relevant policies and availability of witnesses.
• Recommend and where appropriate determine actions required to ensure investigations are completed on time and to a high standard.
• Take statements (where appropriate) from all relevant parties, receive and analyse the information gathered during the investigation, which may be detailed, complex, specialised, contradictory, highly confidential, sensitive and sometimes distressing. This may also include the need to seek specialist/ technical knowledge/ information as required.
• Prepare detailed investigatory reports, following each investigation to the required high standard and in keeping with the relevant Trust policies and guidelines.
• Maintain liaison with the relevant Commissioning Manager and ER Consultant in each case, including regular updates on progress and explaining any reason for delay.
• To represent the Trust at Employment Tribunals where appropriate, ensuring that their evidence is pertinent to the case investigation, accurate and credible.
• Maintain contact with the individual affected and their representative throughout the investigation phase, providing updates on progress and explaining any delays or changes to the expected delivery date for the investigation they are tasked to complete.
• Act on significant issues identified within the investigation process such as identifying new evidence or evidence that suggests the issue is not being managed within the most relevant policy. Liaise with the Commissioning Manager and ER Consultant as required preparing detailed reports covering the issues/concerns that have emerged.
• Present the content of the Investigation Report at formal hearings which may be complex and contentious. Where required, to present and give evidence at Employment Tribunals and or other statutory or legal processes.
• Monitor and record all employee relations activity for which the post holder is responsible on the relevant Employee Relations systems as required.
• Develop and maintain effective working relationships with managers, staff representatives, and staff based on trust and good practice, to foster a culture of positive employee relations in keeping with Trust Values, and Just Culture and Learning (People Before Process).
• Actively contribute to the development of Employee Relations Policies and procedures, eg Disciplinary, Grievance, Bullying & Harassment.
• Able to travel to different sites across the NSFT Trust.