Social Worker

Job summary

Winchester community mental health is looking for a highly motivated, experienced and innovative Social Worker to join our multidisciplinary team. We are a dynamic, nurturing, and supportive team with excellent peer support and regular supervision.

Social workers play a crucial part in improving mental health outcomes for individuals, through understanding the social detriments of mental health and using a human rights approach. This requires advanced relationship-based skills focussed on personalisation and strength-based working, to support people to make positive, self-directed change.

The successful candidate will work as a social worker in a multi-disciplinary community mental health team. This involves supporting a caseload of individuals' who are experiencing social issues which are impacting their mental health by applying social work and psychoeducational interventions and representing the social work and social perspective in the team.

Main duties of the job

The post holder will demonstrate the principles of social work through professional judgement, decision making and actions within a framework of professional accountability. They will promote and lead on the social perspective and trauma-informed social model of mental health and wellbeing within the multidisciplinary team. They post holder will value and take account of the expertise of service users, carers and other professionals.

The post holder will work within a multi-disciplinary team providing social work expertise to improve mental health outcomes for individuals through understanding the social determinants of mental health. This includes completing pieces of work where a patient requires social work input/ social work interventions; and providing care coordination for people experiencing social stressors that are impacting their mental health or social stressors are the predominant issue that requires support.

The post holder will also complete team responsibilities as required.

About us

Hampshire and Isle of Wight Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust is a newly established organisation, bringing together expertise from across mental health, learning disabilities, community, and physical health services. We are dedicated to delivering compassionate, high-quality, and accessible care to the diverse communities of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.

With over 13,000 dedicated staff working across more than 300 sites, we place patients and staff at the centre of everything we do. Our goal is to create an integrated healthcare system that improves accessibility and ensures more consistent care for patients. By working together, we aim to improve patient outcomes, drive innovation, and meet the unique needs of the populations we serve.

Our Trust unites services from Southern Health, Solent NHS Trust, Isle of Wight NHS Trusts community and mental health teams, as well as Hampshire CAMHS, originally part of Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust. This transformation enables us to deliver more seamless care across the region, ensuring that patients receive the right support, in the right place, at the right time.

Join us as we embark on this exciting journey to shape the future of healthcare across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. We are deeply committed to our CARE values of compassion, accountability, respect, and excellence, and offer outstanding opportunities for career development, training, and collaborative working.

Job description

Job responsibilities

Further information about the Trust and this role can be found on the Job Description and Person Specification document attached. It is important to us that we ensure our recruitment processes are accessible and inclusive to everyone - if as a potential candidate you are concerned a person specification may prevent or restrict your application for employment as a result of unintentional barriers on the grounds of your sex, race, age, sexual orientation, religion/belief or disability please initially contact the Trust's Recruitment team - detailed in the advert. The Trust will seek to resolve this issue wherever possible.

We are happy to talk Flexible Working - all requests for flexible working options can be discussed as part of the interview process.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential
-Social Work qualification to degree level or equivalent.
-Completed the assessed and supported year in employment (ASYE) program or equivalent with Social Work England
-Current registration with Social Work England (SWE).

Desirable
-Other relevant post-qualification training (e.g. CBT).

Experience

Essential
-Maintain an individual caseload and complete team responsibilities.
-Develop, co-ordinate and delivers personalised health and social needs assessments and care planning; working in collaboration with the individuals, their families/carers and support networks
-Assess and analyse risk/ ongoing risks to ensure personalised risk and safety plans, balancing risk management and safeguarding with choice, self-determination and positive risk-taking underpinned by relevant legislation
-Interpret and use current legislation and guidance to protect and/or advance people's rights and entitlements.
-Focus on strength/ asset-based working, to support people to make positive self-directed change within their lives and engage with their communities.
-Working in partnership with agencies external to the Trust supporting adults and carers to access services/support in the statutory, independent, and non-statutory sector.

Desirable
-Provide expertise to the multidisciplinary team with regards to adult and children's safeguarding responsibilities.
-Promote family and carers work.

Additional Criteria

Essential
-Understand the complex needs and mental health inequalities relevant to this group.
-Maintain and provide expertise with regards to application of legislation including the Care Act, Mental Capacity Act, Equality Act, Human Rights Act, Mental Health Act and other legislation relevant to the remit of the team.
-Demonstrate a critical knowledge of the range of theories and models for social work intervention with individuals, families, groups and communities.
-Demonstrate a specialised understanding of models and approaches relevant to adult mental health.

Desirable
-Trained in psychological and therapeutic approaches and able to integrate these approaches into the social work role