We are looking for volunteer Shift Controllers to help the charity transport blood and urgent medical supplies throughout the North East of England, from Berwick in the North to Darlington in the South and between the Eastern coast and the Cumbria border. The charity is run entirely by volunteers who undertake all tasks. We are operational outside of normal office hours: from 19:00 in the evening until 07:00 in the morning during the week, and at weekends we cover from 19:00 on Friday until 07:00 on Monday (or the next working day after that on Bank Holidays).   Shift Controllers normally cover six hours at a time with handovers taking place at 01:00 or 13:00 as appropriate.

As a Shift Controller, you are the point of contact for any NHS organisation that requires our service. You are the public face of the charity and as such, you need to be friendly, attentive and efficient.  The work entails taking calls from hospitals, and other NHS bodies, when they need our service and dispatching our most appropriate vehicle to complete the task.  

Some calls may be urgent, or even a medical emergency, so the caller’s details and requirements need to be recorded accurately, efficiently and effectively and then passed to one of our riders or drivers.  The Shift Controller decides, in a timely manner, which is the most appropriate vehicle to dispatch the call to, having regard for location, workload and capacity of each vehicle.  Once “in flight” the Shift Controller supports the operational vehicle at all times, recording the progress of each job, and handling requests for updates from the customer or other parties.

Shift Controllers work from home, or a base of their choice, and whilst it is not essential to be based in the North East, an excellent geographical knowledge of the area is essential, both to understand the unique requirements of the charity, but also to make the best use of our resources which change location every day.

Northumbria Blood Bikes is a registered charity which 

Duties

You will:

  1. Take calls from NHS and other customers during duty hours.
  2. Ensure that the information is captured correctly first time and accurately recorded using our software, which will be provided.
  3. Pass calls to riders and drivers in a timely fashion recording details of each job as it progresses, again using our software;
  4. Keep in regular contact with the rider / driver to ensure their safety;
  5. Take part in regular training sessions, as required;
  6. Be prepared to have calls listened to and reviewed for training purposes.

This will all be under the supervision of a nominated trainer/mentor until such time as you are able to operate alone.

Requirements

You must:

  1. Project a pleasant and business like telephone manner;
  2. Have a good level of IT literacy;
  3. Have home (or other base) access to broadband internet (not pay as you go) and a telephone (mobile phones are fine but a landline is preferred if the mobile reception is poor at your base location).
  4. Have access to a Web Browser on a Windows based desktop or laptop computer (We might be able to help with this).
  5. Commit to cover two or more 6-hour shifts a month (weekday evening, overnight or weekend days);