Associate HR Business Partner

at  Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

Are you an experienced HR professional ready to bring your expertise to employee relations in a dynamic, multi-skilled, and unionised environment?
We’re looking for a proactive, experienced HR professional to join our team supporting the Adults Mental Health division. This is a key role where your knowledge of employee relations will be instrumental in fostering a fair, supportive, and effective workplace.
You’ll supervise the HR Advisor and lead on the full range of employee relations casework, including advising managers on complex cases such as disciplinary actions, grievances, and dismissals, all within a unionised setting. Your ability to navigate policies, procedures, and organisational change with confidence and diplomacy will be vital in building strong relationships with employees, managers and union representatives alike.
Beyond casework, you’ll also have opportunities to contribute strategically. You’ll partner with the People Business Partner to support workforce planning, change management, and leadership capability-building across the division. Your work will ensure the service delivers on its “people priorities” while driving engagement and transformation.
We offer great development opportunities, including in-house and external development programs and the chance to undertake Affina Team Coaching.
Applications for this role will be reviewed on a first-come, first-served basis. We encourage you to apply as soon as possible, as vacancies may close early.
Provide professional HR advice to all levels of managers across the full range of employee relations issues
Oversight and supervision of band 5 HR Advisor
Build and maintain credible relationships with Service Managers within the division ensuring complex or sensitive information is communicated in a confident way
Act as a point of contact for managers and staff seeking advice on various policies , a nalys ing queries to offer solu tions
Advise managers on recruitment processes, providing advice on the writing of job descriptions and person specifications
Your base will be Upton Hospital in Slough and you will have to go for regular team meetings either here or at “ London House ” in Bracknell . Additionally, t here will be travel to other sites in Berkshire as required by the role. The rest of your role will be home based .
Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust is a specialist mental health and community health services trust. Rated ‘outstanding’ by the CQC, we’re committed to providing the best possible care to people across Berkshire. As an employer, we’re committed to offering an inclusive and compassionate environment where our people share in a sense of belonging and are supported to flourish.

Degree or equivalent experience
Working towards level 7 CIPD qualification or demonstrable equivalent experience
E xperience of supporting complex employee relations casework in a multi-skilled professional and unionised environment.
Ability to travel to multiple sites with minimal impact on daily productivity
For further information about the role, please see attached job description and person specification.
We strongly encourage you to review how you meet the criteria in the person specification and write about this point-by-point in your supporting statement for the best chance of being shortlisted.
We’re committed to equal opportunities and welcome applications from all sections of the community. Our commitment to inclusion is reflected in our accreditations: Race Equality Matters Silver Trailblazer, Neurodiversity in Business Corporate Member, Disability Confident Leader, Carer Confident Level 2, and the Armed Forces Covenant Gold Award. Reasonable adjustments will be provided to candidates as needed .
We welcome a conversation about flexibility and any other questions you may have. Please don’t hesitate to contact : Fran Langan on francisco.langan@berkshire.nhs.uk or Jen Simpson on jen.simpson@berkshire.nhs.uk who’ll be delighted to help.
Please note, if we receive a high number of applications, we may close this role earlier than the advertised closing date, so please submit your application as soon as possible