Senior Social Worker

This job is brought to you by Jobs/Redefined, the UK's leading over-50s age inclusive jobs board.

About Us

EPUT provides community health, mental health and learning disability services to support more than 3.2 million people living across Bedfordshire, Essex and Suffolk. Also:

• We are among the largest employers in the in the East of England region, with more than 10,000 staff working across more than 200 sites.
• We run the COVID-19 vaccination programme across mid and south Essex and Suffolk and north east Essex.

EPUT was formed on 1 April 2017 following the merger of North Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (NEP) and South Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (SEPT). A new leadership team was established at the Trust in 2020.
Our vision and values

Our Vision

"To be the leading health and wellbeing service in the provision of mental health and community care".

Our Purpose

"We care for people every day. What we do together, matters".

Our Values

• We Care
• We Learn
• We Empower

Our strategic objectives

• We will deliver safe, high quality integrated care services.
• We will enable each other to be the best that we can.
• We will work together with our partners to make our services better.
• We will help our communities to thrive.

Our services

• Mental Health Services
• Community Health Services
• Learning Disabilities Services
• Social Care

Find out more about the services we offer in our service directory.

Job overview

An exciting opportunity has now arisen and we are in the position to recruit a Senior Social Worker within our Older Adult Nursing home services in the South of the Trust.

Main duties of the job

The Senior Social Worker will be working to support our older adult residents and their families who have complex social needs and are more vulnerable as a result of disability, exclusion, or diminished capacity, you'll maximise their potential to live independently.

The Senior Social Worker will be focusing on the most complex and challenging resident cases, you'll ensure that residents and their families are safeguarded. You'll share ideas and best practice, providing specialist advice as part of a multi-disciplinary team sharing your knowledge as a Social Worker.

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 Senior Social Worker will be responsible for providing specialist advice and support to the nursing homes and their multi-professional teams in managing effective resident discharge and to prevent delayed transfers of care as an integral part of care management across the Trust.

You will be expected to undertake Care Act assessments, assessment for social care funding completing required paperwork as well as, supporting colleagues, scrutinizing their paperwork and working with ECC and the respective CCGs. As the Senior Social Worker, you will have responsibility as the Lead role within the team.

Person specification

Education/ Qualifications

Essential criteria

• Possession of recognised Social Work Qualification - Degree in Social Work, DipSW, CQSW, CSS or equivalent
• Registration with Social Work England Approved Mental Health Professional

Desirable criteria

• Studying or willingness to study towards full Post Qualification Award in Social Work

Knowledge

Essential criteria

• Multi-disciplinary Social Care experience within multi-disciplinary team - relevant to people with mental health difficulties.
• Experience of undertaking assessments and other duties in accordance with the Mental Health Act 1983 and Amendments 2007 and the Mental Capacity Act.
• IT skills to enable effective input and retrieval of data and information.

Desirable criteria

• A variety of experiences working with people with mental health difficulties.
• Understanding of social care resources and provision available beyond statutory agencies

Skills/ Experience

Essential criteria

• Literate in IT/Computer Skills
• Good oral communication skills based on fluency on the English language
• Makes ongoing assessments of frequently complex client needs and associated risks and demonstrates knowledge and understanding of wide range of resource options within budgetary framework/ constraints. Negotiates and implements effective plans for support, enablement, prevention, protection and monitoring, within department/government targets.

Personal Qualities

Essential criteria

• Ability to work on own initiative and under pressure.
• Responds calmly to unexpected and challenging problems, seeking solutions, modifying plans and arranging the provision of additional services and/or resources where appropriate.
• Able to identify own stressors and take appropriate action to prevent negative impact of this on wellbeing and seek appropriate and timely support.

Please note - staff who are formally at risk within the organisation will be given priority in securing alternative employment. Should it come to light that a post being advertised by the Trust is considered 'suitable alternative employment' to an individual who is at risk, the recruiting manager will be advised and the post will be withdrawn from NHS Jobs.

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.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Applicant requirements

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.

Documents to download

• Senior Social Worker Job Description (PDF, 752.5KB)
• Senior Social Worker Person Specification (PDF, 520.3KB)
• Why Join The NHS Pension Scheme (PDF, 91.3KB)
• EPUT Pledge - Step into Health (PDF, 211.0KB)
• Candidate Privacy Policy (PDF, 336.6KB)
• Right to Work Information (PDF, 293.6KB)
• Employer Recognition Scheme - Gold Award (PDF, 27.7KB)
• Trust Vision and Values (PDF, 168.9KB)
• Values of the NHS Pension (PDF, 151.3KB)
• EPUT Staff Benefits (PDF, 89.3KB)