Leigh Harris

In every role I have undertaken throughout my working life, I have worked with the public and have strived to provide an excellent and compassionate service. I pride myself on my calm, patient and considerate nature and I am respectful at all times of other people’s human rights. I enjoy interacting with members of the public and my colleagues and always put patients first. Another essential element in any role I have had, is patient confidentiality and I am vigilant and abide by the seven principles of the General Data Protection Regulations.

Following the birth of my older children, I continued my education whilst caring for them. During this time, I completed an Honours Degree in English Literature at The Open University. This allowed me to develop strong computer skills, excellent time management and an ability to keep calm and focused and in 2019 I entered an Apprenticeship with Worcestershire Health and Care Trust in Administration, completing a Level 2 qualification in Business and Administration. I enjoyed the opportunities the apprenticeship afforded me, and I worked hard to secure a Band 2 position as a Receptionist and Secretary (after only being with the Health and Care Trust for five months) and never working in the NHS before. I have continued to progress in the NHS over the last four years working as a Medical Secretary and a Governance Administrator and I currently work as part of the Coventry and Warwickshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) as a Perinatal Transformation Officer.

I have fully embraced all my roles and found them to be extremely stimulating, challenging, and rewarding. I have thoroughly enjoyed the variety in the roles and the different facets. No two days have ever been the same and the complexities of these roles have pushed me out of my comfort zone, further enhancing my skills that I had brought into the role with me.

As I am a meticulous and conscientious worker, I have been quick to learn how to use different programmes in my roles, examples of these are Care Notes, Clip, Oasis (PAS), Bluespier, and Datix. I have used a wide range of Microsoft systems and other packages to assist me to provide the best service possible and I am proficient in all the systems I use. When using these systems and packages I adhere to policies and procedures. I have extensive knowledge of using word, excel, PowerPoint and adobe to create papers for meetings and have experience of taking minutes for a variety of different meetings. I also have experience of working with data bases such as SQUID and WREN to extract and analyse data and NHS Spine and ICE to look up patient details, scans, and blood test results. I can plan and prioritise my workload and achieve all tasks assigned to me in a timely fashion. I have a strong knowledge of how to use Microsoft Teams, setting up channels and using apps on the and more recently I have created Padlet’s for colleagues and the public to share information and I use Canva for creating templates.

I always seek knowledge and progression and have completed various additional training courses that are relevant to my role and have further enhanced my skills and abilities, this has included minute taking and a touch type course. More recently I have completed my Level 3 in Business and Administration with a Distinction and an Aspiring Team Leader Programme, alongside additional e-learning modules in effective ways of working with others, how to lead compassionately and manage in different styles.

The experience I gained when working as Medical Secretary in the Division of Women and Children at an Acute Trust, was valuable in building my knowledge and after a year in this role I progressed to work in the Governance Team for Women and Children as a Governance Administrator. I provided support to a wide range of individuals in the specialties of Breast, Gynaecology, Paediatrics, Maternity and Neonates. I worked alongside the Assurance and Compliance Midwife working on the Single Delivery Plan, Saving Babies Lives V3, Ockenden 1 and Ockenden 2 Action Plans, and the CNST Y5 Maternity Incentive Scheme. I supported with allocating tasks to relevant clinicians, finding supporting evidence and uploading ready for submission onto reports and other documents.

I applied for in my current position as a Perinatal Transformation Officer because I am passionate about care for women and children, after having my own experiences of care in Maternity when having my own children and I wanted to contribute to making positive changes to the care that women and their families receive. I was successful in securing this role and support the Perinatal Transformation Team in bringing together service users, maternity providers, local authority, including public health professionals, the ICB, and other local partners in the Local Maternity and Neonatal System (LMNS) across Coventry and Warwickshire, to work together in the implementation of plans to transform local maternity and neonatal services, which is built on co-production with local service users.

I am responsible for supporting the ongoing development of the Perinatal Transformation Board and work programmes in line with delivering the key priorities and recommendations from, Better Births, The NHS Long Term Plan, The Ockenden Review Emerging Findings, The Three-Year Maternity Plan and The Neonatal Critical Care Review. This includes a Perinatal Strategy which has key priorities to improve care in both Maternity and Neonates, and an Equity and Equality Plan to identify health inequalities and what can be done to address these.

I use my initiative with my work and collaborate with the team that I am part of, and this consists of the Head of Perinatal Transformation, Quality & Transformation Midwife and a Transformation Officer as well as myself. I support meetings, diary management, manage a generic inbox, support with managing projects and the action plans that are alongside these. I support with HR and recruitment and support the Maternity and Neonatal Voices Partnership (MNVP) with administration and meeting management, interacting with service users, all partner organisations and NHS England colleagues. Due to my calm, caring and personable nature other colleagues and service users respond well to me and that I can assist them quickly and efficiently. I strive to always go the extra mile when providing support to all colleagues and service users.