Lead for Forensic Social Work and Safeguarding

An exciting opportunity has arisen for an experienced Social Worker to join Secure Division within Mersey Care. We are looking to recruit a dynamic and skilled Social Worker into a band 7 Lead for Forensic Social Work and Safeguarding post at HMP Altcourse.


Main duties of the job

HMP Altcourse provide care and treatment to service users and their families to comply with Standards for Secure & Prison Services, Service Level Agreements and Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust Policy and Procedures. 

Patients routinely have complex needs associated with a severe and enduring mental illness and or learning disability, as well as present a risk of offending or challenging behavioural needs, which may be associated with significant risk. The role requires undertaking assessment and analysis of risk in relation to public, staff and of re-offending

The successful candidate will be experienced at working with Forensic populations and have experience working in a Lead role. They will be required to work closely with colleagues from other disciplines; to assess needs and risks, within the prison population and their families. We are looking for someone with the ability to work collaboratively whilst maintaining professional independence. The successful applicant will work at HMP Altcourse.  

Applicants must be qualified Social Workers, registered with Social Work England and have relevant experience in a leadership role. 

 

Working for our organisation

Mersey Care is one of the largest trusts providing physical health and mental health services in the North West, serving more than 11 million people.

We offer specialist inpatient and community services that support physical and mental health and specialist inpatient mental health, learning disability, addiction and brain injury services. 

At the heart of all we do is our commitment to ‘perfect care’ – care that is safe, effective, positively experienced, timely, equitable and efficient. We support our staff to do the best job they can and work alongside service users, their families, and carers to design and develop future services together. We’re currently delivering a programme of organisational and service transformation to significantly improve the quality of the services we provide and safely reduce cost as we do so.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

You will be an active member of a multi-disciplinary team and will bring the social care perspective to service planning meetings and individualised care planning. You will be responsible for gathering data and information for assessment and risk analysis which may be complex. You will undertake assessment on analysis of risk in relation to public, staff and of re-offending. You will manage work to ensure personal safety and security of self and others and contribute to development of safe working environment.

The role involves working collaboratively with multidisciplinary colleagues to assess needs and risks within a forensic patient population. You will provide a professional social work service to patients, their families and carers and routinely liaise with external stakeholders from the point of admission to release. 

The successful candidate will have the ability to deliver an efficient and high-quality social care service, have well developed assessment and analytical skills alongside effective interpersonal, communication and organisational skills.

You must have good knowledge of the key relevant Health & Social Care and Criminal Justice legislation to work in a forensic setting as well as good knowledge around safeguarding frameworks, ensuring that the Safeguarding of Children and Adults, are adequately considered within the multi-disciplinary teams and take a lead role for safeguarding within the unit. 
Person specification
Qualifications
Essential criteria

• Degree in Social Work or DipSW or CQSW. • Current Social Work England registration. • Post-qualifying training (formally or work based) in relevant areas of social work and/or mental health, learning disability or forensics. Evidence of significant continuing professional and personal development.

Desirable criteria

• Masters Degree (MSW) or Post Graduate (PGDipSW) • Qualifications relating to the Mental Capacity Act, e.g., Best Interest Assessor. • Practice Educator qualification 1 & 2 (PEPS). • Approved Mental Health Professional Qualification.

Knowledge and Experience
Essential criteria

• Suitable post qualifying experience as a Social Worker. • Good working knowledge of legislative guidance and policy e.g., Mental Health Act, Mental Capacity Act, Care Act, Human Rights Act and criminal justice frameworks e.g., MAPPA, Victim Liaison, MARAC and Carers’ Rights. • Knowledge and application of professional standards, codes of conduct and Social Work England standards of proficiency and Professional Capabilities Framework (PCF). • Good working understanding of Information Governance, Data Protection and confidentiality. • Ability to assess and manage complex cases in a multidisciplinary team setting. • Skilled at assessing and implementing risk management frameworks. • Skilled at assessing and promoting the involvement of people in developing their own care/ support plans using a strength and asset based approach. • An understanding of Equality, Inclusion and protected characteristics. • Experience of working with service users with mental disorders and/or learning disabilities. • Experience of multidisciplinary team working and promoting social work/social care. • Experience of presenting reports in formal setting, e.g., Courts, Mental Health Tribunals, Safeguarding Strategy. • Experience in working with families. • Experience of child and adult safeguarding.

Desirable criteria

• Experience of working with forensic service users. • Experience of supervising others

Values
Essential criteria

• Continuous Improvement • Accountability • Respectfulness • Enthusiasm • Support • High professional standards • Responsive to service users • Engaging leadership style • Strong customer service belief • Transparency and honesty • Discreet • Change oriented

Skills
Essential criteria

• To be able to practice safely and effectively within scope of practice. • To be able to practice within the legal and ethical boundaries of Social Work profession. • Understand the key concepts of the knowledge base relevant to Social Work profession. • Be able to draw on appropriate knowledge and skills to inform practice. • Develop written documents including report writing relevant for practice. • An ability to manage time, prioritise work and meet deadlines. • To be able to practice as an autonomous professional. • To be able to communicate effectively. 29/06/2022 • To be able to build compassionate and effective relationships. • To be able to maintain records appropriate. • Interpersonal skills and resilience to manage complex clinical case work. • Written and verbal communication skills to engage with patients, carers and professionals. • Well-developed analytic and judgement skills, dealing with complex situations where required to lead on professional social work opinions

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We celebrate diversity and promote equal opportunities; we are committed to challenging and eliminating racism and other forms of discrimination and advancing and promoting equality of opportunity in the provision of services and creating an inclusive environment for all employees. We believe that everyone has the right to be treated with dignity and respect.

Please ensure you check the email account from which you apply.

All information regarding your application will come from apps.trac.jobs not NHS Jobs. Only those applicants who demonstrate clearly how they meet our person specification will be shortlisted for interview.

Should you require a reasonable adjustment to our recruitment process please contact the recruitment team to ensure that measures can be put in place to support you.

We reserve the right to close any vacancy earlier than advertised in exceptional circumstances once we have received a high volume of applications.

The Trust expects all post holders who require an enhanced DBS for their role subscribe to the DBS Update Service. You will be required to enrol for this service for a fee of £13 per year and maintain registration. Trans applicants who require a DBS check and do not want to reveal details of their previous identity can contact the DBS Sensitive Applications Team (01516761452 or email sensitive@dbs.gsi.gov.uk) with their application number once they have completed their DBS application form. The team is able to prevent any previous identity showing on the DBS Certificate, unless the applicant has a conviction under their previous details in which case this will need to be disclosed.

As a Disability Confident Employer, we offer a guaranteed interview scheme for applicants who consider themselves to be disabled who meet the minimum (essential) criteria for the role in the person specification. If you would like your application to be considered under the Trust’s guaranteed interview scheme you can indicate this in the personal information section of your online application form.