Senior Social Worker - Children and Young People's Mental Health

Before your application can be considered please take part on our online values questionnaire, which you can find below. When you have finished you will be sent a 'completion code' by email, which will be valid for 6 months and required to submit your application form.


Job overview
An opportunity has come up to join our Adult Community Mental Health Service in Watford as a full time Senior Social Worker.

This is an opportunity for staff seeking development in their social work career to promote and lead the team in principles of personalisation, enabling individual’s rights to choice and control, when open to the services of a multi disciplinary mental health team.

In this post you will be a key champion and leader of social care within the locality as we embed the Hertfordshire Connected Lives Model of Social Care.

You will need to be registered with Social Work England

Main duties of the job
You will work as part of the leadership team providing professional supervision and support to social care staff and expert advice to the wider team.

You will promote, lead and act in accordance with the principles of personalisation, ensuring that they are working to promote wellbeing, and enabling individual’s rights to choice and control. In doing so they will carry out assessments of need, plan and deliver services and review outcomes with the individual, their personal support networks and support providers.

You will ensure that practice within their teams is responsive, inclusive and community based with a clear focus on outcomes. You will bring your professional expertise to your work with complex cases and contribute your perspectives to the multi-disciplinary team

Working for our organisation
We are one of just five mental health trusts to achieve an overall rating of ‘Outstanding’ from the Care Quality Commission

Our family of over 3500 members of staff provide health and social care for people with mental ill health, physical ill health and learning disabilities across Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire, and Norfolk, delivering these services within the community and several inpatient settings. Everything is underpinned by choice, independence and equality, with our Trust values embedded throughout:

Welcoming. Kind. Positive. Respectful. Professional.



Detailed job description and main responsibilities
To be a champion of social care with a comprehensive understanding of legislation and statutory guidance.

To maintain regular links and attend meetings with the corporate Social Work and Safeguarding Team, and keep up to date with accurate, consistent, and robust social care, legal and practice advice, and support to locality staff.

To undertake the most complex assessments and reviews, for people who may present with a high risk, or those with significant interpersonal, social, legal and/or environmental complexities, ensuring people are assessed appropriately against social care eligibility criteria as defined by The Care Act 2014.

To offer direct support to service users and their carers, and to colleagues, through information and advice, to ensure that those who do not meet social care eligibility are appropriately signposted and supported.

To ensure that appropriate health and social care services are commissioned with and on behalf of service users, including the duty to offer direct payments, and that processes are in place for service users to be charged by the local authority for the social care services they receive, if applicable.

To ensure that commissioned services allow choice to service users and carers and focus on people living in the community with appropriate support and access to universal services.

To undertake regular risk assessments and ensure that vulnerable people are kept safe.

To lead in the promotion of both child and adult safeguarding practice in line with current policy, and take a lead role in adult safeguarding investigations, including the chairing of strategy meetings and case conferences.

To advise colleagues in best practice when undertaking carer assessments, including identifying contingency plans, and provision of support.

To be skilled in partnership working and identify, develop, and facilitate a wide range of recovery-focused community services, ensuring that colleagues within the locality are also aware of developments and best practice.

For a more in-depth Job and Person Specification please read the attached before applying

Person specification
Experience
Essential criteria
- An appropriate professional social work qualification
- Registration with Social Work England
- Education to degree level
- Masters Degree or equivalent training
- Approved Mental Health Professional training and qualification (or prepared to undertake training within a year of appointment)
- Relevant post-qualifying training for social workers

Desirable criteria
- Other post-qualifying training e.g. CBT, family therapy
- Best Interests Assessment training
- Experience and Knowledge
- Essential criteria
- Extensive post qualification experience with demonstrable evidence of excellent practice at a high level
knowledge of legislation, statutory guidance, theory and policy in relation to relevant adult and children’s social care.
- Experience of undertaking assessments, focussed as personalisation, choice and control, and care planning
- Understanding and experience of personal budgets and direct payments
- Experience of supervising and mentoring staff
- Experience of multidisciplinary working and evidence of collaborative work


"Applications from job seekers who require sponsorship to work in the United Kingdom (UK) are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. Please note that from January 2021, to work in the UK all candidates who are not UK or Republic of Ireland (RoI) nationals require sponsorship unless you have permission to work via another route. Non UK / RoI candidates wishing to apply can self-assess the likelihood of obtaining a Certificate of Sponsorship here Work in the UK.

It is vital that you provide full and accurate details of your current immigration status on the application form. Overseas applicants applying for entry clearance into the UK must present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided in continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants.

Not everyone needs a ‘Skilled Worker’ visa. If you are applying for a vacancy in health or adult social care, check if you’re eligible to apply for the Health and Care Worker visa instead. It’s cheaper to apply for and you do not need to pay the annual immigration health surcharge"