Working together to achieve the healthiest
life possible for everyone in Ayrshire and Arran
Candidate
information pack
Visit our website: www.nhsaaa.net
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Post Title:
Senior Technical Specialist (Telecoms)
Job Reference Number:
C/085/15R1
Closing Date:
Thursday 21 January 2016
Process for Submitting Application Form:
You can apply using the online application form on the SHOW website –
www.jobs.scot.nhs.uk Alternatively your completed application form can be
returned to julie.craig@aapct.scot.nhs.uk or to the Department of O&HRD, 63A
Lister Street, University Hospital Crosshouse, Kilmarnock, KA2 0BE
Please note: if applying using the online application facility on the SHOW
website, the text in the supporting statement section is limited and overlong
statements may be cut off. Please try to limit this section to the length of two
A4 pages.
Section one: Why work in Ayrshire?
Ayrshire is situated in the south-west of Scotland on the Firth of Clyde, and is
characterised by 80 miles of varied coastline, picturesque beaches, rolling green hills
and islands.
Just a 30-minute drive from Glasgow city centre, Ayrshire is an ideal location for
those who want to enjoy city life, with all the benefits of living in a semi-rural area.
Ayr, Irvine and Kilmarnock are the largest towns. However, there are many rural
towns, villages and communities throughout the area should you wish to relocate to
Ayrshire. Whether you decide to locate to Ayrshire or a neighbouring area, you will
find that property prices are more affordable than in other parts of the UK.
Local educational standards are very high at primary and secondary level. However,
private education is also available in the area. See below for more information on
local authority services:
East Ayrshire Council – www.east-ayrshire.gov.uk
North Ayrshire Council – www.north-ayrshire.gov.uk
South Ayrshire Council – www.south-ayrshire.gov.uk
Alternatively, working in Ayrshire provides an easy commute from both Glasgow and
the wider central belt. There is an excellent network of both rail and bus links
throughout Ayrshire to Glasgow and beyond. There are UK and international flights
available from Glasgow Airport, as well as a range of services from Glasgow
Prestwick Airport.
Ayrshire provides a wide range of excellent recreational activities: whether you are
interested in history and heritage, outdoor pursuits, events and festivals, or simply
food and drink, there is something for everyone.
Ayrshire boasts more than 40 quality golf courses, including two Open
Championship courses at Turnberry and Royal Troon.
For more information on the range of recreational activities in Ayrshire, visit
www.visitscotland.com
Section two: NHS Ayrshire & Arran as an employer
NHS Ayrshire & Arran recognises that our staff are vital to delivering our purpose,
values and commitments and to achieving our strategic objectives.
Our purpose
Working together to achieve the healthiest life
possible for everyone in Ayrshire and Arran
Our values
Caring
Safe
Respectful
Our aim is to create an organisation where people want to work and strive to deliver
excellence each day; where staff wellbeing and personal resilience is supported;
where careers are interesting and developed; where staff are encouraged to reach
their full potential; and where staff feel their contribution is recognised and valued.
To do this, we need to attract, develop, support and retain our staff and enhance
their work experience. This will directly contribute to our aspiration to deliver
excellent high quality services to every person every time.
We believe the unique factors that help to define us as an employer are:
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our friendly and supportive environment;
our commitment to staff engagement and effective team working;
our track record in creativity and innovation and our ability to successfully
implement change and redesign;
our track record in supporting our staff’s learning, development and career
aspirations, from an initial comprehensive three-day corporate induction
programme to the availability of a wide range of internal training programmes;
our commitment to supporting flexible working through a wide range of family
friendly policies; and
our commitment to support and improve our staff’s health, safety, wellbeing
and resilience. We do this by implementing our Staff Health, Safety and
Wellbeing Strategy, and in our work towards achieving and maintaining the
Health Working Lives Gold Award. In addition, our Staff Care and
Occupational Health Service provide a range of support and interventions to
our staff.
The organisation has a statutory responsibility to ensure the Staff Governance
Standard is embedded and adhered to as part of the governance framework –
staff, financial, information and clinical governance – in which NHS Boards
operate. The Staff Governance Standard requires all NHS Boards to
demonstrate that staff are:
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well informed;
appropriately trained and developed;
involved in decisions;
treated fairly and consistently, with dignity and respect in an environment
where diversity is valued; and
provided with a continuously improving and safe working environment,
promoting the health and wellbeing of staff, patients and the wider
community.
During 2013, we consulted with our staff to select the key values and behaviours
which they believed were essential to create a safe, effective and person-centred
working environment which benefits patients, staff and carers. This allowed us to
develop our purpose, values and commitments. We passionately believe in creating
a culture which is open, fair and just.
Section three: Delivering our services
Acute Services
Emergency and elective hospital services are provided by our acute services, which
includes inpatient, outpatient and day case care. There are two district general
hospitals within Ayrshire: University Hospital Ayr and University Hospital
Crosshouse. These hospitals provide a wide range of acute services:
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University Hospital Ayr
University Hospital Ayr provides medical and surgical services on an inpatient,
day case and outpatient basis. It is the main Accident and Emergency service
for South Ayrshire. It provides a number of Ayrshire-wide services including
Vascular Surgery, Ophthalmology and Audiology.
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University Hospital Crosshouse
University Hospital Crosshouse provides medical and surgical services on an
inpatient, day case and outpatient basis. It is the main Accident and
Emergency service for East and North Ayrshire. Inpatient paediatrics, the
Ayrshire Maternity Unit and the main Laboratories for Ayrshire are on the
Crosshouse site.
Community, mental health and learning disabilities services
Following the introduction of Health and Social Care Integration, the operational
delivery for the range of community healthcare services and mental health and
learning disabilities services is through the newly created Health and Social Care
Partnerships and the Integrated Joint Boards:
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East Ayrshire Health and Social Care Partnership
North Ayrshire Health and Social Care Partnership
South Ayrshire Health and Social Care Partnership
Community Services
General medical and dental services are provided throughout Ayrshire and Arran by
general practitioners, dentists, community pharmacies and optometry practices.
Community nurses, health visitors and Allied Health Professionals are all involved in
providing care within our local communities.
Out-of-hours general medical services are provided by Ayrshire Doctors On Call
(ADOC) within the community.
Mental health and learning disability services
Inpatient mental health services, including the Intensive Psychiatric Care Unit, are
largely delivered at Ailsa Hospital in Ayr with further mental health inpatient services
provided at University Hospital Crosshouse
Learning disability services are provided from Arrol Park in Ayr. Elderly mental
health inpatient services are provided from Ayrshire Central Hospital in Irvine, and
East Ayrshire Community Hospital in Cumnock. Community based services are
provided throughout Ayrshire for the range of clinical groups: adults, child and
adolescent, elderly and addiction services.
For more information on the full range of clinical services provided by NHS
Ayrshire & Arran, visit our website www.nhsaaa.net
Section four: Post Details
1. Job Identification
Job Title:
Senior Technical Specialist (Telecoms)
Responsible to:
Head of eHealth Infrastructure Services
Department(s):
eHealth and Infrastructure Services Department
Directorate:
Corporate Support Services
Job Reference:
C/085/15R
No of Job Holders:
1
Last Update:
01/04/2015
2. Job Purpose
Responsible for the strategic planning, development and operational management of all
telecoms services across the organisation. Responsible for the implementation of the telecoms
elements of the eHealth Strategy.
3. Dimensions
Staff
Direct management responsibility for 3 wte staff
Budget
Revenue budget in excess of £50,000
Capital Budget typically in excess of £100,000
Client Group
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All NHS Ayrshire & Arran users of Voice Systems
Approx 10,000 users across all hospitals, GP Practice, Pharmacy, Dental, Community Clinic
and Health Centre Sites
Technology
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Telephone PBXs
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Handsets
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Voicemail Systems
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Pager Systems
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Mobile Phones
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VOIP Systems
4. Organisational Position
5. Role of Department
Deliver effective operational Knowledge Management & eHealth services across NHS Ayrshire
& Arran, based on the application of new technologies and effective ways of working, to support
and enable the modernisation of services. Develop the technical infrastructure (servers,
desktops, local and wide-area networks and voice networks including VOIP) to enable the
sharing of information and knowledge across NHS Ayrshire & Arran in a secure managed
environment. Define, promote and lead the development and deployment of a Knowledge
Management and eHealth strategy, within and beyond NHS Ayrshire & Arran. Develop and
extend information literacy across the organisation by developing information sources,
extending access and ensuring that appropriate training and development programmes are
provided for staff throughout NHS Ayrshire & Arran. Provide support and professional advice on
Information Technology; Information Management; Health Intelligence; Library Services;
Knowledge Management, Data Protection and Information Governance.
6. Key Result Areas
Project Work
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Provide technical project management and training on the installation of new and
replacement telephone systems
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The provision of appropriate specialist technical and professional advice to managers and
staff within the departments
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The post holder provides significant input into evaluating systems, providing costs and
purchase of physical assets for telephone systems and telephone
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Provide information in relation to the supply of new and upgraded telephone systems on
various Hospital and GP sites throughout NHS Ayrshire and Arran. This involves analysis of
complex information and will involve significant interaction with customers at all levels within
the organisation. It will include supplying detailed reports on planning, costs involved,
equipment purchased and reasons for these recommendations
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Where 3rd parties (i.e. service providers) are involved the jobholder will be expected to liaise
with them in the implementation process, looking after the interests of NHS Ayrshire and
Arran ensuring cost efficiency and protecting and ensuring the continuity of service
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Participating in meetings and communicating, verbally and electronically with all levels of
staff within the organisation and service providers on the configuration and management of
the various systems. This includes planning and delivering strategies to ensure availability
for future expansion and ensuring a quality of service is provided
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Regularly researching new services to determine if these would be beneficial to the
organisation and develop the system to the service needs
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Responsibility for receiving, logging,
communications wiring contractors
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Advising users of costs for moves and changes. This can be from as little as providing a
new extension to relocating entire departments’ or buildings’ telephones
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scheduling,
costing
and
issuing
jobs
for
Line management and development of Telecoms Manager
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Responsible for allocating faults to the relevant personnel through fault management
software and taking responsibility for dealing with the more complex faults that arise
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Responsible for locating and rectifying faults or passing to relevant maintainer of the system
accurately and timeously
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Keep up to date documentation for all telephone and data information on the 83 locations
covered under the maintenance contracts. Ensure that the appropriate information is
available to all staff in the department including on-call staff in order to help resolve problems
that arise
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Ensure that all contractors are managed effectively and appropriately and meet the Health &
Safety requirements of the Board
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In conjunction with the Procurement Department and via the Boards SFI’s ensure that
tenders/quotes are issued to the appropriate contractors for work/systems. Thereafter
evaluate and provide recommendations on successful tender/quote
Systems
Responsible for the day to day management and programming of the following telephony
systems within NHS Ayrshire & Arran:
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Voicemail Systems – Programming of the various voicemail systems used within NHS
Ayrshire and Arran involves setting up new mailboxes, resetting passwords, installing
desktop notification for users and programming advanced mailbox functions i.e. so mailboxes
can have more than one user or more than one function. Ensuring that all mailboxes are
operational and the system runs efficiently
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Telephony Management Tools – Responsible for using telephony management tools to
access the various telephone systems on the network on a daily basis. These tools are also
used to locate and rectify faults within the telephone system. The tools are also used to
move and swap extension numbers from one location to another without involving 3 rd party
contractors, program the system to allow users of the phone system to have class of
service/restriction requested (e.g. local, national or international access etc), the post-holder
is responsible for allocating the class of service and the class of restriction to the users. To
create new classes of service and program features in the phone system for telephone users
in accordance with new technology and changes in practice. Also to locate the extension
number within the telephone system, then locate cabling position on the wiring frame,
plugging into the frame to see for example if the extension has a dialling tone, or remotely
clear features on phone. Setting up of videoconference links using different audio-visual
equipment and ensuring the equipment is functioning correctly.
Training and Staff Management
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Responsible for developing end user training solutions
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Responsible for line management of 1 Telecoms Technical Specialist
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Responsible for the training and development of technical staff within the wider eHealth &
Infrastructure Services Department
7a. Equipment and Machinery
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Full range of Microsoft Office systems and document management systems
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Telephony equipment
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CISCO network switches
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Testbed equipment
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PCs, laptops, printers
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Mobile phone
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Considerable daily use of many Microsoft products including MS Exchange, MS Word, MS
Excel, MS Access, MS PowerPoint and MS Project
7b. Systems
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Those identified in sections 3 and 7a
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Report writing software
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Presentational software
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All Microsoft systems – Outlook for day to day own use,
applications when dealing with users issues
all other relevant Microsoft
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Pecos E-procurement system and manual purchasing and requisition systems
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WAN/LAN network monitoring tools
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Telephony monitoring tools
8. Assignment and Review of Work
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Work is assigned by the Head of Infrastructure Services in line with local and national eHealth
and Voice Strategies, although much work will be self initiated and therefore there is a high
degree of autonomy
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The review of work is undertaken by the Head of Infrastructure Services on a regular and
informal basis, and formally through annual appraisal meetings
9. Decisions and Judgements
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The post-holder is required to work on their own initiative within the context of agreed objectives
and professional policies.
The post-holder is the lead technical specialist advisor to the eHealth Department on all
technical Telecoms matters.
The post-holder is expected to interpret technical, professional and administrative Telecoms
policies and take appropriate action within minimum guidelines and setting standards for
others.
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The post holder is expected to anticipate problems within their area of professional expertise
and resolve or escalate these accordingly. The decision as to whether the problem should
be resolved in house or by a third party maintenance contractor is made by the post holder
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The post holder will proactively manage potential problems by using specialised knowledge
relating to security issues, network issues and storage and capacity issues amongst others
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There will be occasions when national guidance is given regarding security or support issue
which the postholder will take responsibility for communicating or actioning
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In relation to on call duty the post holder is responsible for prioritising calls as required and
working autonomously to mange eHealth telecoms related problems to resolution and
escalating where appropriate to third party suppliers
In delivering the majority of the key results previously listed, the post-holder has full discretion in
prioritising, scheduling and executing the many individual tasks involved, except where a task is
the subject of a documented procedure, this taking precedence
10. Most Challenging/Difficult Parts of the Job
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Working within a highly technical and changing environment
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Working within a pressurised environment providing critical infrastructure and systems
support where risk management is paramount.
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Identify, implement and review improvements and cost savings in relation to software
systems and equipment to ensure that the Board keeps abreast of technological advances
which would result in improved communications
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Keeping abreast of new technologies and
environments relating to telecommunications
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Dealing with end users in sometimes stressful situations this relates to giving information in a
non-technical but helpful and competent manner
be competent to deal with new technical
Concentration required when analysing complex technical issues, writing technical reports
and assisting in the development of strategies
 Dealing with staff performance and disciplinary issues.
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Constant telephone interruptions
The ability to “think on your feet” and re-prioritise tasks when necessary while remaining
calm under pressure
Analysing highly technically complex problems, data and information
11. Communications and Relationships
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Internal to department – Directors, Senior Management, colleagues and Project Manager
about telecoms. issues, necessary escalation, service management issues
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Close working relationship with the Telecoms Manager regarding new services and
departmental/individual user requirements
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External to department – stakeholder user groups and end users ranging from secretarial
staff to GP’s and Consultants about Telecoms issues, impact on users working arrangements
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External – Negotiate with external organisations over service issues e.g. 3 rd party support
Service Level Agreements
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National technical groups to ensure convergence of local strategies
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Other technical managers within other NHS organisations
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Establishing and maintaining regular written and in-person communications with all levels of
staff
The post holder is also required to communicate complex technical information in a user
friendly manner to non technical managers
12. Physical, Mental, Emotional and Environmental Demands of the Job
PHYSICAL EFFORT/SKILLS:
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Able to lift and handle heavy technical hardware on a regular basis
Driving skills
Keyboard skills
MENTAL EFFORT/SKILLS:
Ability to perform general mathematical calculations for the purpose of creating business
cases, budgets, etc
 Intense concentration, occasionally prolonged for strategy and report writing and technical
reading, problem solving and system breakdown
 Unpredictable work pattern
 Logical thinking
 Ability to effectively prioritise and execute tasks in a high-pressure environment.
 Proven analytical, evaluative, and problem-solving abilities
 Ability to prioritise
 Keen attention to detail
 Dealing with complex technical issues against deadlines
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EMOTIONAL EFFORT/SKILLS:
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Excellent interpersonal skills.
Exceptional customer service orientation.
Informing users of issues which may affect their productivity
Empathy with colleagues and users
Dealing with stressful, angry users
ENVIRONMENTAL WORKING CONDITIONS:
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Mainly office based
Travelling to meetings
Occasionally unpleasant conditions, exposure to dust and noise
PBX rooms with hospitals and clinics
13. Knowledge, Training and Experience Required to do the Job
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Relevant degree or evidence of equivalent experiential knowledge
Highly developed specialist knowledge underpinned by theory and experience
Certifications in hardware manufacturer’s training courses
Relevant work related experience
In depth specialist knowledge of Telephony systems
Professional qualifications
Proven experience in Telecoms infrastructure planning and development
Strong technical knowledge of network and PC operating systems
Strong technical knowledge of current voice hardware, protocols, and standards
Proven experience in telephony support
Excellent understanding of the organisation’s goals and objectives
In-depth knowledge of applicable data privacy practices and laws
Strong understanding of project management principles
Person Specification
Qualifications & Training – Essential Criteria
Relevant Degree or evidence of equivalent experiential knowledge
Qualifications & Training – Desirable Criteria
Evidence of Manufacturers’ Training Courses
Experience – Essential Criteria
Relevant work related experience
Experience – Desirable Criteria
Understanding of project management principles
Knowledge – Essential Criteria
Knowledge of different manufacturer’s equipment and troubleshooting of it
Knowledge – Desirable Criteria
Knowledge of Cisco Networking equipment for VOIP integration
Competencies & Skills – Essential Criteria
Management of Voicemail Systems
Management of PBXs
Competencies & Skills – Desirable Criteria
Ability to work as part of a team
Personal Characteristics and Other – Essential Criteria
Ability to work as part of a team
Strong communicator
Personal Characteristics and Other – Desirable Criteria
Strong communicator