Bank, Band 7, Senior Social Worker, Borehamwood - SW-1461

Job overview

We are currently seeking an experienced Senior Social Worker, at Band 7 to work via a Bank Contract, based in Borehamwood for our Community Adult Mental Health Team. You will be joining our Temporary Staffing Team within HPFT - Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust.

As a Senior Social Worker, you will act as a champion and leader of social care and safeguarding within your locality. You will be expected to give robust, consistent, and expert social care practice advice in partnership with other specialist senior social care colleagues. You will reinforce the need to deliver high quality, recovery-focused and cost-effective social care services to service users and their carers, focused on the principles of choice, control and independence, as well as ensuring safety.

HPFT provides services for service users with mental health, learning disability and children’s and adolescent mental health problems. Applicants should have some experience of working in a healthcare setting. HPFT has a range of healthcare settings across the County and therefore access to a car would be beneficial unless you have a disability as defined by the Equality Act 2010 which prevents you from driving

All applicants need to hold a valid Social Worker Registration and can evidence this.

Travelling is required for this role, so being a Car Driver is essential

Main duties of the job

You will actively address adversity and will support adults at risk of social inclusion and assist adults accessing support to deal with a range of adverse circumstances. You will actively champion equality and diversity and be expected to challenge discrimination in all its forms as part of your role.

You will have a small caseload of complex cases and will provide supervision to both experienced and newly qualified social workers. You will support social workers in your locality to maintain constant reflection and development of their practice and will support their continuing professional development in line with the standards set out by the professional regulator, Social Work England.

You will be a practicing AMHP or prepared to undertake the training required to undertake the AMHP role. As an AMHP, you will provide advice, support, and supervision to other AMHPs.

You will be expected to work in partnership with service users and carers, so that they can feel empowered, and services can be improved as a result of feedback of their experiences. Partnership working is a key component of this post, both within and outside of the Trust, and you will need to be innovative in ensuring that there is a range of appropriate services locally to support individual recovery journeys.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• Be a champion of social care with a comprehensive understanding of legislation and statutory guidance.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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
• 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.

Please see JD attached for further information and responsibilities required