Job responsibilities
Senior Social Worker
Location: Sydenham
Department: Social Work and Welfare
Hours: 36 hours per week
Salary: £53,496-£57,032 per annum
This is an excellent opportunity for an experienced Social Worker seeking to develop advanced practice within a specialist community palliative care service. We are looking for a compassionate, highly skilled practitioner who is motivated to work within a proactive, dynamic, multidisciplinary hospice team supporting adults with life-limiting illness in their own homes, and those important to them.
Our community social work team undertakes holistic psychosocial assessments, including carers assessments in context of palliative care needs. This post will also be responsible for safeguarding and complex mental capacity assessments. We work collaboratively with primary care, community nursing teams, acute hospitals, local authorities and voluntary sector partners to ensure coordinated, person-centred care at a time of profound vulnerability and transition.
As a Senior Social Worker, you will hold a complex community caseload, underpinning your practice with a strengths-based, trauma-informed and relationship-centred approach. You will ensure that assessments and support plans are legally literate, proportionate and responsive to the social, emotional, cultural and financial impact of life-limiting illness.
Community palliative care social work frequently involves:
- Advance care planning and future care discussions
- Complex safeguarding concerns, including self-neglect and carer stress
- Family conflict, domestic abuse and breakdown in care arrangements
- Work involving fluctuating or impaired mental capacity
- Supporting hospital avoidance and facilitating timely, safe discharge home
- Coordinating packages of care and advocating where statutory services are limited
You will demonstrate advanced skills in managing risk within community settings, often where uncertainty, compressed timescales and high emotional intensity are present. A strong working knowledge of safeguarding processes, the Care Act 2014 and the Mental Capacity Act 2005 is essential.
As a senior member of the team, you will contribute to strengthening high-quality social work practice within the hospice by:
- Providing reflective supervision, professional guidance and mentoring to less experienced social workers, ASYE practitioners and students
- Leading on complex case consultations
- Contributing to case audits and quality improvement activity
- Supporting policy development in areas such as safeguarding, mental capacity, and working with individuals who are difficult to engage
- Promoting the distinctive contribution of social work within a multidisciplinary and predominantly medical model
We are particularly interested in applicants who can articulate the value of community social work in enabling people to remain at home where possible, supporting carers, reducing health inequalities, and advocating for individuals whose voices may otherwise be marginalised.
To be considered for shortlisting, your application must clearly evidence:
- Professional qualification in Social Work and current registration with Social Work England
- Substantial post-qualification experience working with adults with complex health, social care or safeguarding needs
- Applied knowledge of the Care Act 2014 and the Mental Capacity Act 2005, including experience of undertaking Mental Capacity Assessments and safeguarding enquiries
- Experience of managing complex risk in community settings and working autonomously
- Experience of providing reflective supervision, mentoring and practice guidance to less experienced Social Workers, including ASYE practitioners and students
- Demonstrable ability to work collaboratively across health, social care and voluntary sector systems
- Commitment to continuing professional development and evidence-informed practice
This role requires flexibility to travel across the local community and to work within peoples homes. A valid UK driving licence and access to a vehicle may be required depending on service configuration. Reasonable adjustments will be considered for applicants with a disability or long-term health condition.
For an informal discussion about the role, please contact:Michele King: social work, welfare and safeguarding lead on 0208 768 4687 orM.King@StChristophers.org.uk
To apply for this position, please complete click on the Apply Online button below. Within your application, it is important that you include the following:
- Qualifications
- Employment history
- Detailed explanation of how you meet the essential criteria within the person specification
Closing Date: 15th March 2026
Interview Date: Provisional interview date 19th March 2026
