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Job overview

Bereavement Services are looking to appoint a Bereavement Support Officer to work in the Bereavement Office to cover both the office at Central site and the Northern site on a Rota basis and possible weekends.

The successful applicant will essentially be a people person - caring, methodical, calm under pressure, IT literate, team player. Good interpersonal and telephone skills are essential as the job involves daily contact with bereaved families, and the ability to work as part of a team is essential. The office is very busy, mentally taxing, and sometimes emotionally demanding.

The successful candidate will need to work very closely with the Medical Examiner Officer’s, Coroner’s office and Registrar’s offices to ensure that statutory and mandatory paperwork is completed correctly, ensuring that bereaved families are given a service of compassionate excellence.
The duties include using a computerised system to the accurate completion of statutory records.

Good literacy, numeracy and keyboarding skills are essential. Applicants need to be well organized, logical, and able to cope with and understand people emotions at one of the most stressful times in a person’s life.

Main duties of the job

Undertake administration functions for the department, such as data input, photocopying, filing, letter writing, etc.

 Act as first point of contact for both internal and external stakeholders regarding deceased patients.

Communicate with distressed or potentially aggressive relatives and family members in a professional, courteous, and sensitive manner, using tact, empathy and diplomacy, seeking to overcome any barriers to understanding where relevant to achieve a satisfactory outcome. 

Carry out meetings by telephone or in person with the recently bereaved, providing information booklets, advice, support, and guidance about death registration, making funeral arrangements, claiming benefits and any other queries or problems which may arise. 

To ensure that all deceased patients’ property is properly documented and stored appropriately in a timely fashion, in accordance with departmental guidelines and processes. 

Ability to respond sensitively and empathically to queries and complaints from members of the public, funeral directors, bereaved families, escalating to the manager when required. 

To ensure that office telephones are answered promptly, and enquiries dealt with in a polite and courteous manner. 

Working for our organisation

You will be working for an organisation which values and respects all of its staff and the community it serves. The Trust is a leader in the NHS and research sectors and provides excellent benefits for its staff. This includes commitments to professional development but also many policies to support employees in balancing their personal and professional lives.

The Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is one of the largest NHS teaching trusts in the country. It provides a wide range of general and specialist clinical services and is a base for medical education, training, and research.

The care and support that people receive at the time of their bereavement can affect the whole bereavement process. The Trust has put in place systems, policies and practices to ensure they provide the best possible bereavement service for those whose loved ones have died in hospital.

Our Bereavement Support Officers are integral to the delivery of an efficient and effective administration service within the department. They are responsible for co-ordinating all of the paperwork that needs to be completed after death, such as the medical certificate of cause of death and any necessary cremation forms. They will talk with medical and nursing staff, funeral directors, the coroner’s office and the register office and various other outside agencies and the deceased patients relatives.