About this role
Job summary
Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board (ICB) has been selected to take part in one of four national Fit Note Reform Pilots commissioned by the Department for Work and Pensions, helping to test a new approach that aims to improve support for people whose health affects their ability to work. The pilot is designed to address a recognised challenge within the current system, where fit notes often focus on certifying sickness absence rather than providing practical support to help people remain in work or return to work safely.
MBPCC is delivering one of these pilots taking fit note generation out of practices within the Barrow and Mid Furness PCN areas. Patients will be referred directly from general practice into a new service called Enable where they will be offered a personalised Workability Plan setting out what they can do, the adjustments that would help, and the support available to them to aid them return to work.
The Referral and Pathway Administrator runs the operational spine of that pathway. Every patient enters the service through this role and leaves it through this role. The post holder receives, logs and verifies referrals, confirms eligibility against the agreed criteria, issues and monitors pre-contact questionnaires, books and rebooks appointments, chases missing information and non-attendance, distributes completed Workability Plans to patients and, with consent, to their employers, codes activity accurately in EMIS and closes cases.
Main duties of the job
Clinical Administration & Patient Triage
Assist in reviewing and process patient questionnaires, forms, and assessments in accordance with agreed protocols and pathways.
Identify and escalate responses requiring urgent clinical review to the appropriate healthcare professional.
Support the management of digital patient pathways, including online consultations, questionnaires, and caseload management
Liaise with clinicians and administrative teams to ensure timely follow-ups
Referral receipt, logging and verification
Receive referrals from participating practices through the agreed referral routes and acknowledge them within the agreed service standard.
Verify referral details
Identify incomplete, duplicate, or incorrectly routed referrals and resolve them.
Maintain the referral inbox ensuring nothing sits unactioned beyond the agreed turnaround.
Receive telephone calls from patients and practices
Eligibility checking
Check each referral against the documented pilot eligibility criteria, including practice registration, age, employment status and any exclusion criteria in force.
Record the eligibility decision and the reason for it against every referral, including those found ineligible, so that the evaluation can account for the whole referred population.
About us
Morecambe Bay Primary Care Collaborative is the largest employer of Primary Care colleagues in South Cumbria, we are a not-for-profit Community Interest Company, and work to support, guide and underpin primary medical care across Lancashire and South Cumbria.
We deeply value education and learning, hosting the Lancashire and South Cumbria Training Hub. We have a great team on our board that guide our organisation, and you will be supported to excel in your role.
Job description Job responsibilities
Post: Referral and Pathway Administrator
Service: MBPCC Enable Service
Responsible to: Service Lead
Hours: 37.5 per week
Salary: £14.00 per hour (£18.20 per hour enhanced rate for Saturday Working)
Contract Type Fixed term 12 months
Base: Hybrid and flexible with home working occasional Barrow and Mid Furness PCN sites
2. SERVICE CONTEXT
The pilot operates across Barrow and Mid Furness Primary Care Networks and is delivered by Morecambe Bay Primary Care Collaborative on behalf of participating practices.
The team is multidisciplinary, combining clinical assessment with non-clinical work
Participation is voluntary. Patients consent to take part, and separately consent to any information being shared with their employer.
All information flows operate under an agreed Data Sharing Agreement. The post holder handles highly sensitive personal, health and employment information throughout.
The pilot is time limited and processes will change during the year as the service tests and refines its model.
3. KEY WORKING RELATIONSHIPS
Internal: Service Lead day to day management, absence and sickness, appraisals
Internal: Clinical Lead, clinical assessment team, wider MBPCC colleagues.
External: patients and their families; referring GPs, practice managers and practice administrative teams; employers, line managers and HR contacts; wider support services to which patients are signposted.
4. SCOPE AND BOUNDARY OF THE ROLE
The post holder does not assess, advise on or interpret any patients health.
5. MAIN DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Clinical Administration & Patient Triage
Assist in reviewing and process patient questionnaires, forms, and assessments in accordance with agreed protocols and pathways.
Identify and escalate responses requiring urgent clinical review to the appropriate healthcare professional.
Support the management of digital patient pathways, including online consultations, questionnaires, and caseload management
Liaise with clinicians and administrative teams to ensure timely follow-ups
Referral receipt, logging and verification
Receive referrals from participating practices through the agreed referral routes and acknowledge them within the agreed service standard.
Verify referral details
Identify incomplete, duplicate, or incorrectly routed referrals and resolve them.
Maintain the referral inbox ensuring nothing sits unactioned beyond the agreed turnaround.
Receive telephone calls from patients and practices
Eligibility checking
Check each referral against the documented pilot eligibility criteria, including practice registration, age, employment status and any exclusion criteria in force.
Record the eligibility decision and the reason for it against every referral, including those found ineligible, so that the evaluation can account for the whole referred population.
Patient contact questionnaires
Issue the agreed patient questionnaires to eligible patients through EMIS, selecting the correct template and delivery method for each patient.
Confirm the questionnaire has been delivered successfully and follow up where delivery has failed, including identifying patients who cannot receive digital communications and arranging an alternative.
Chase outstanding returns using the agreed contact sequence and record every attempt.
Check returns for completeness, flagging missing required fields, and route completed returns to the clinical team ahead of the appointment.
Escalate immediately, under the agreed protocol, any return containing an indicator of risk, distress or safeguarding concern.
Appointments, non-attendance and reviews
Book, confirm, reschedule and cancel appointments across the clinical teams, matching patients to the correct practitioner, appointment type and length.
Issue appointment confirmations and reminders through the agreed channels.
Manage cancellations and non-attendance, contacting patients who miss appointments in line with the agreed contact policy and offering a rebooking.
Apply the agreed policy on repeated non-attendance, including the number and method of contact attempts before a case is closed, and record each attempt.
Schedule review appointments at the intervals set out in the patients Workability Plan, and track those falling due.
Workability Plans and correspondence
Issue completed Workability Plans to patients through the agreed channel, promptly after the assessment.
Verify recorded consent before issuing any Workability Plan or correspondence to an employer, and check that the version and recipient are correct.
Maintain accurate employer contact records and ensure correspondence reaches the correct named recipient.
Record the date, recipient and version of everything issued, so that the service can evidence what was sent, to whom, and when.
Escalate any query about the content of a Workability Plan to the assessing clinician and never amend clinical content.
Handle employer enquiries courteously and within the boundaries of consent, escalating anything beyond process and logistics.
Patient contact and missing information
Contact patients by telephone, text, email or letter to obtain missing information, confirm details, chase questionnaires and arrange appointments.
Communicate sensitively with people who may be unwell, anxious about their job or in financial difficulty.
Recognise when a call should be handed to a clinician and do so without delay.
Record all patient contact accurately, including unsuccessful attempts.
Maintain the accessibility of the service, arranging interpreting, accessible formats and alternative contact methods where needed.
EMIS coding, records and data quality
Maintain accurate, contemporaneous and complete records in EMIS.
Understand that coding drives the management information and national evaluation data set, and that gaps or miscoding directly weaken the pilot evidence.
Run and check routine data quality reports, identify and correct errors and omissions, and escalate systematic problems
Support the production of management information and performance reporting, including activity, turnaround, non-attendance and closure data.
Case closure administration
Close cases in line with the agreed closure criteria, including completion of the pathway, patient withdrawal, ineligibility, non-contactable patients and repeated non-attendance.
Record the closure reason accurately against the agreed categories.
Issue any closure correspondence to the patient, the referring practice and, where consented, the employer.
Ensure that no case is closed where an escalation, review or outstanding clinical action remains open.
This role is not expected to make decisions on which cases to close, this is at the direction of the appropriate clinician.
Service support and improvement
Contribute to the design and refinement of administrative processes, templates, letters and trackers as the pilot develops.
Maintain and update administrative standard operating procedures so that the process is documented and transferable.
Provide administrative support to team meetings and MDTs (multidisciplinary team meetings), including scheduling, papers and action notes.
Provide cover for administrative colleagues within the pilot as required.
Hybrid / Remote Working & Service Delivery
Effectively manage workload while working independently within a remote or hybrid environment.
Maintain high standards of confidentiality, information governance, and data security when working remotely.
Attend virtual meetings, training sessions, and team discussions as required.
Monitor shared inboxes, task lists, and workflow/caseload systems to ensure service targets are met.
Administrative Support
Develop and maintain administrative processes to improve efficiency and service delivery.
Support reporting, data collection, audits, and quality improvement initiatives.
Assist with training and mentoring of new administrative staff where required.
WORKING ARRANGEMENTS
This is a fixed term post for 12 months, funded through the national pilot. Continuation beyond the pilot period cannot be guaranteed but is anticipated
A flexible approach to working is expected. The role combines site-based and home working, and the balance will vary with service demand.
Home working is supported for administrative activity and patient telephone contact, subject to a suitable, private and secure home working environment and compliance with information governance requirements. Home working is an operational arrangement, not a contractual entitlement.
Patient telephone contact must not take place where the conversation can be overheard.
Occasional travel between Barrow and Mid Furness sites will be required.
The post holder will be expected to work in a rapidly evolving service where processes, systems and documentation change during the pilot period.
Some flexibility over working hours may be needed to accommodate patients who are in work and employers who are only available outside core hours such as Saturday working.
Person Specification
Knowledge and skills Essential
-Accurate data entry with strong attention to detail, and an understanding of why accuracy matters to patients and to the evaluation. -Confident use of Microsoft 365, including Outlook, Word, Excel and Teams. -Ability to apply written criteria consistently and to recognise when a case falls outside them. -Clear, courteous and professional written and verbal communication. -Ability to organise, prioritise and work methodically under pressure and interruption. -Understanding of confidentiality, consent and information governance, and of the limits of what may be shared with an employer. -Understanding of the boundary between administrative and clinical responsibility, and willingness to hold it. -Basic understanding of safeguarding and the duty to escalate concerns.
Desirable
-Working knowledge of clinical coding and of SNOMED or similar code sets. -Intermediate Excel skills, including filtering, sorting and basic formulae. -Awareness of the national fit note reform policy context and the Workability Plan model. -Understanding of the health inequalities and accessibility issues affecting the local population.
Experience Essential
-Significant administrative experience in a busy office, healthcare or customer facing environment. -Experience of managing a personal workload against deadlines and service standards with minimal supervision. -Experience of direct contact with members of the public by telephone, including people who may be upset or frustrated. -Experience of handling confidential or sensitive information. -Experience of following documented procedures and knowing when to escalate.
Desirable
-Experience of working in general practice, primary care or another NHS setting. -Experience of using EMIS Web, including coding, templates, searches and Florey or other questionnaire tools. -Experience of referral management, booking systems or waiting list administration. -Experience of contacting patients about appointments or non-attendance. -Experience of producing or checking routine reports or management information.
Qualifications Essential
-Good standard of general education, including GCSE English and Maths at grade 4/C or above, or equivalent demonstrable literacy and numeracy. -NVQ Level 3 in Business Administration or Customer Service, or equivalent qualification or demonstrable equivalent experience. -Willingness to undertake pilot specific training, including safeguarding, escalation and EMIS.
Desirable
-NVQ Level 4, ECDL or equivalent IT qualification. -Training in customer service, complaint handling or difficult conversations. -Information governance or data quality training.
Disclosure and Barring Service Check This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such 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.
Employer details Employer name Morecambe Bay Primary Care Collaborative
Address The Strand
Barrow in Furness
Cumbria
LA14 2HG
United Kingdom
Employer's website https://mbpcc.co.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)