Job Overview Work Pattern: Between 8:00am and 5:00pm, Monday to Friday - final arrangements will be discussed at interview.
Location: Based across both Ormskirk District General Hospital and Southport District General Hospital.
We're excited to offer a fantastic opportunity for an Access Team Leader to join Mersey West Lancashire NHS Trust, supporting our teams across the Southport and Ormskirk sites.
This is a key role for a motivated, proactive individual who thrives in a fast paced environment. We're looking for someone who brings strong leadership qualities, excellent communication skills, and a positive, solutions focused approach. As Access Team Leader, you'll guide and support the Access Team to deliver high quality service, meet performance targets, and ensure a smooth and efficient patient access journey.
Interviews will take place on 11th August, 2026.
Main Duties of the Job You will play a key role in leading, motivating, and developing the Access Team, providing clear guidance, effective training, and confident leadership to help every team member perform at their best. This is a fast paced and rewarding role, ideal for someone who brings energy, enthusiasm, and a flexible, can do approach to meeting the needs of the service.
You will oversee the day to day operations of the team, ensuring smooth workflows, strong communication, and a consistently high standard of service. Building positive relationships and fostering a supportive team culture will be central to your role, alongside delivering an excellent patient experience in line with Trust expectations.
Working for Our Organisation Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust serves a population of over 600,000 with a workforce of over 9000 dedicated and skilled staff across 21 sites.
We strongly believe that the communities we serve should all have access to Five Star Patient Care.
Our services:
Acute Care Providing emergency and maternity services at Whiston, Southport and Ormskirk hospitals, and medical and surgical specialties across all our sites.
Primary Care Providing primary care services at Marshalls Cross Medical Centre situated in St Helens Hospital.
Community Services Providing adult community services for St Helens and a wheelchair service in Chorley, South Ribble, and West Lancashire. Our inpatient unit at Newton Community Hospital is where patients needing acute hospital beds can continue rehabilitation, freeing up space for more unwell patients. We also provide urgent care at our Urgent Treatment Centre located in St Helens town centre.
Specialist Regional Services We provide the Mersey Regional Burns & Plastic Surgery Unit at Whiston Hospital and the Spinal Injuries Unit at Southport Hospital to more than 4 million people across the whole of Merseyside, West Lancashire, Cheshire, Isle of Man and North Wales.
Achievements:
- Rated Outstanding by CQC Inspection August 2018
- Top 100 places to work in the NHS (NHS Employers & Health Service Journal)
- National Preceptorship Accreditation (2023) for Nursing & AHP Preceptorship Programme
Detailed Job Description and Main Responsibilities What You'll Bring
- A confident, professional approach, with the ability to engage effectively with a wide range of people in a fast paced, high profile environment
- Strong communication skills, whether face to face, over the phone, or in writing, with the ability to adapt your style to suit the situation
- Proven decision making skills, with the ability to prioritise effectively when faced with competing demands
Our Values
- We are Kind
- We are Open
- We are Inclusive
Qualifications
- NVQ level 4 in administration or relevant other subject or equivalent level of knowledge
- Educated to at least GCSE level with 5 grade at C or above or equivalent experience
- European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL)
Knowledge and Experience
- Good knowledge of Administrative Systems
- Previous supervisory and staff management experience
- Knowledge of 18 week RTT and cancer targets
- Experience of dealing with customers
- Experience of dealing with complaints
- Previous NHS experience
- Knowledge of Medway or other Patient Administrative System
- Experience of scheduling outpatient and inpatient appointments
- Experience of managing reception desks
Skills
- Ability to train and motivate staff
- Ability to use own initiative when dealing with staff and patients issues
- Good organisational skills
- Ability to maintain a high level of discretion, diplomacy and tact at all times.
- Ability to prioritise own workload
- Ability to recognise and solve problems and identify when further action is required
- Excellent interpersonal skills with ability to use tact and diplomacy.
- Detail oriented and able to meet deadlines
- Good understanding of confidentiality
- Good verbal and written communication and telephone skills
Other
- Combination of sitting standing and walking throughout the day.
- Frequent interruptions throughout the day when dealing with patient and staff queries.
- Ability to remain calm and work effectively in pressure situations.
- Daily requirement to deal with distressed patients and staff.
- Occasional requirement to deal with verbal aggression from patients and staff.
- Use of VDU throughout the day.
E Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion We actively cultivate a professional environment of fairness, equality, dignity, and respect for all individuals. We welcome individuals from all backgrounds and value the unique skills, perspective, and experience you bring. We are grounded in the belief that diversity enhances our collective strength, fostering innovation and excellence within our workforce. We welcome all applications irrespective of people's race, disability, gender, sexual orientation, religion/belief, age, gender identity, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy/maternity and in particular those from under represented groups.
As a Disability Confident Leader, we commit to offering an interview to all disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for the job (the essential criteria) listed in the personal specification. If you wish to apply under this Guaranteed Interview Scheme, please indicate this on the online application form.
We also commit to offering an interview to all armed forces veterans who meet the minimum criteria for the job (the essential criteria) listed in the personal specification. If you wish to apply under this Guaranteed Interview Scheme, please indicate this on the online application form.
The Trust operates anonymous shortlisting where no personal information about you, including your name or personal details are shared with the recruiting manager. No equality information is shared at any time during the recruitment process with the recruiting manager or other people involved in the decision making process.
The equality monitoring information you provide is used in the following situations: to review our recruitment practices; where a job is limited to a specific person to verify their eligibility to apply; and to offer disability reasonable adjustments to the recruitment process.
Certificate of Sponsorship Following the recent update on UK immigration policy for those on a Health and Care Visa or Skilled Worker Visa, please click here to check your eligibility before applying for this post as we may be unable to provide sponsorship.
eVisa Update For successful candidates on selected work and study visa routes, who have completed and paid for their applications will no longer receive a visa vignette in passport as evidence of their permission to enter the UK.
Instead, you will be issued with an eVisa only, which is accessed by creating a UKVI account.
Before travelling to the UK, we advise applicants to:
- Understand how to generate an eVisa share code
Disclosure and Barring Service Check If this post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
Please note if applicable, applicants will be required to pay for their DBS check. Costs are deducted from salary following appointment.
If you have not already done so, you are therefore encouraged to enrol for the DBS Update Service to which a small annual fee of £13 per year applies.
Flexible Working We actively support flexible working patterns throughout MWL. Changes made to the NHS Terms and Conditions of Service Handbook mean that:
- All employees have the right to request flexible working from day one of employment.
- There is no limit on the number of requests they can make.
- Employees have the right to make requests, have them considered, regardless of the reason.
At Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, we will consider requests for flexible working. We would also encourage you to also discuss flexible working options at interview stage.
Working for Team MWL Staff recognition is especially important to us; as well as performance reviews and appraisals, we recognise staff through Employee of the month. Along with supporting you to achieve your career goals we offer a generous pension scheme, unsocial hours payments (where applicable) . click apply for full job details