Bereavement & Coronial Support Officer

Bereavement & Coronial Support Officer (2 posts)

• Medico Legal Centre, Watery Street

• Bereavement Services, City Road

The Medico-Legal Centre is situated at Watery Street, near Shalesmoor/Kelham Island. It is purpose-built to provide facilities and services required for the investigation of sudden or unexpected death. It comprises the public mortuary, offices, and courts of HM Coroner for South Yorkshire (West) jurisdiction, which covers Sheffield and Barnsley. This service is run by a mixture of local authority, South Yorkshire Police, and judicial staff.

The Centre is dedicated to providing a high standard of service to the bereaved and is recognised as a model of good practice in this field of work. Everyone working at the Medico-Legal Centre is committed to dealing with the technical and legal side of the investigation of sudden death in a professional, dignified, and sympathetic manner. The centre manages some 24,000 telephone calls a year as well as visitors, from bereaved family members, professionals such as doctors, lawyers and expert witnesses attending court, funeral directors, and other agencies as well as the general public.

Bereavement Services is committed to providing the best possible service to bereaved families of Sheffield and surrounding areas. They manage and maintain 16 cemeteries carrying out over 1500 burials per year across the city. The two crematoriums, City Road and Hutcliffe Wood, conduct over 2700 cremations per year. The team also provide ad-hoc support to the City’s 3 chapels. The main office is situated at City Road Cemetery where callers and visitors are treated with dignity, respect and in a professional manner.

Both services strive to maintain the core values of the council by ‘being open and honest’, ‘working together to get things done’ and, most importantly maintaining our own mantra ‘that people are at the heart of what we do’.

An exciting and challenging opportunity has arisen for an enthusiastic, empathic, efficient, proactive, person to join our teams. The roles are key in supporting service delivery and improving outcomes for the bereaved of Sheffield and Barnsley.

We are looking for motivated self-starters who have excellent customer service and interpersonal communication skills as the ability to work with, and support, multi agencies is paramount. You need to be able to work using your own initiative as well as have the ability to be a good team player; be flexible and resourceful; know how to prioritise your workload and meet deadlines; own a problem or task through to completion; demonstrate good planning, organisation and speak to the bereaved in a sympathetic and empathic manner. As first point of contact to the services, you will need to demonstrate professionalism, empathy, sensitivity and be able to manage several concurring tasks, sometimes under pressure.

There is also a requirement to be familiar with, and competent at using, Microsoft Offices packages.

Key requirements are being able to manage difficult conversations, being sensitive and empathic to the needs of the bereaved and reacting positively to change and embrace new ideas.

Most of all you need to demonstrate energy and commitment to providing a professional service.

Full-time employees work 37 hours for 52 weeks of the year and we offer a generous holiday entitlement. We are open to discussions about a wide range of flexible working opportunities which benefit you and the Council, including reduced hour contracts, working part time or as a job share.

We are committed to ensuring that our workforce reflects the diversity of the city of Sheffield. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds and communities, and in particular those that are currently underrepresented in our service’s workforce. This includes, but is not limited to Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic (BAME), disabled, male and LGBT+ candidates.

Please read the job description and person specification for this post carefully before completing your application. If you would like to find out more about the Medico-Legal Centre post, please make enquiries with Debbie Swales 0114 2734151 or email: debbie.swales@sheffield.gov.uk. If you would like to learn more about the Bereavement Services post, please contact Mick Kerrigan on 0114 2396068 or email michael.kerrigan@sheffield.gov.uk.