Social Worker

We are seeking enthusiastic and resourceful social workers who will have the ability to respond positively and creatively to the needs of our service users. The North East area of Essex plays home to a number of key partner organisations who we work closely with, including voluntary services, primary care services and therapy providers. Residents of North East Essex are well supported because of the hard work and dedication of our current team members working in conjunction with our North East Essex Alliance Partners.

Main duties of the job

You will work at the forefront of our community mental health treatment teams in the North East Essex area (Tendring) providing EPUT’s secondary mental health services. Our posts require individuals to think with a positive and forward thinking attitude, putting the needs and safety of our services users at the heart of everything we do. The role offers the ability to have independent professional freedom but also with access to the support and expertise of a multi-disciplinary team.

Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (EPUT) invests in the development of social workers as we play a lead role in the ‘Think Ahead’ initiative. Within the North East Essex Alliance locality we offer support from our Social Care Leadership Team, along with opportunities to progress and advance within your career for those aspiring leaders and clinical experts. The team provides caseload supervision as well as managerial supervision, limited and weighted caseloads and extensive training and development opportunities – including AMHP Training, Therapy Training (including EMDR, CBT, DBT), as well as, Specialty Roles for Dual Diagnosis, Perinatal, Consultancy, Psychosis or Personality Disorder.

Working for our organisation

EPUT are looking for motivated staff who shares our Trust values of Care, Learn and Empower. In return, EPUT can offer you a range of benefits and development including;

- Season Ticket Loans
- NHS discounts for staff
- Excellent Training facilities and opportunities
- Buying and Selling annual leave scheme
- The opportunity to work bank shifts and expand knowledge and experience in other areas
- Salary Sacrifice schemes including lease cars and Cycle to Work
- Day One Flexible Employer

The Trust supports and actively encourages flexible working for all employees. We offer many options and you are encouraged to ask the recruiting manager what is possible for this role. If appointed, you will have the opportunity to apply for a flexible working request from the first day of your employment

Join our Staff bank

What is Staff Bank?

Our EPUT NHS staff bank is an entity managed by the trust that hires clinical and non-clinical healthcare professionals to take on shifts at our trust hospitals and community settings. Here at EPUT we maintain our own bank of specialist staff to ensure that we are able offer safe and effective care at all times.

All our permanent staff are automatically enrolled onto the staff bank however this does not mean you have to work any additional shifts, but the option is there for you if you wish.

If you are joining our Trust in a fixed term role, please indicate on your New Starter Paperwork that you wish to join our staff bank.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The successful candidate will work as a Social Worker in the community mental health treatment teams providing high quality assessment and intervention to service users experiencing a wide range of mental health problems, promoting recovery and independence, using Mental Health Care clusters to identify appropriate pathways and treatment plans with service users.

You will support the delivery of strength and asset based approaches promoting recovery and social inclusion with individuals and families. This post will involve implementing the personalisation agenda through strengths based assessments and you’ll be vital to delivering the statutory social care duties and responsibilities within the Care Act (2014).

Following appointment and a period of probation, the potholder will be asked to undertake AMHP training at the earliest opportunity if not already done so. Undertaking MHA assessments and other allocated work in relation to service users with a range of mental health problems and engaging with their carers so that, within the legislations, appropriate action is taken. Those individuals who do undertake AMHP work always have their caseloads reduced in pro-rota fashion and the role attracts additional pay.
Person specification
qualification

Essential criteria

- qualification
- experience

Essential criteria

- experience

Important Professional References

Make sure that as a part of your application you have professional references with business contract information covering your last three year employment history. We are unable to accept personal or character references.

As a newly appointed employee you are responsible for incurring the cost of your initial DBS check relevant to your post, the amount will be deducted from your first salary with the Trust.

Applications for Job Share are positively welcomed.

Equal Opportunities Employer

Our Trust is an Equal Opportunities Employer. We particularly welcome applications from people with experience of using mental health services. We also hold the Disability two tick symbol and have made the pledge to commit to employing more people with learning disabilities, we encourage people with a disability to apply. If you require this application form in another format i.e. Braille or audio tape etc, please contact the Recruitment Department on 01375 364513 or email epunft.recruitment.adverts@nhs.net and we can arrange for this to be dispatched to you.

The Trust has the right to expire vacancies prior to the closing date if they so wish. The Trust makes every attempt to contact all applicants and we strongly advise that you check the email account which is registered with NHS Jobs regularly, we would advise however due to the high number of applications we receive that if you have not heard from us within three weeks of the closing date your application has been unsuccessful on this occasion.

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults, and expect all staff to undertake this commitment. Applicants will be subject to robust safer recruitment processes.

Covid Vaccination

Although Covid vaccinations are no longer a mandatory requirement within the NHS we continue to encourage and support the vaccination uptake as this remains the best line of defence against Covid19. The safety of our staff and patients is a top priority for us at EPUT.

If you would like to book a Covid vaccination or would like more information please contact us by emailing epunft.cv19hr@nhs.net.