Advanced Social Worker

Job description

Job responsibilities

Care job family overview:

Support and assist the well-being of individuals and groups to assure their protection, security and development.

Safeguarding, protection and care.

Community, residential, day or field settings.

Ongoing risk/needs assessment of and advice for individuals/groups.

Specification of any non-council provision.

Individual or small group emphasis.

May involve personal care activities.

Likely to involve immediate response to client.

Service Function and Context

The provision of effective information and advice is a key element in the development of a sustainable community where people are empowered to make informed decisions about their lives. The adult advice and contact service will support people to make use of community and personal assets to achieve their goals. Services may be provided directly from a telephone conversation, such as, the replacement, or new provision, of equipment and assistive technology. If the service identifies a requirement for an assessment of need the Information Officers will manage the progression of the contact onto the next stage which will primarily be in to the Reablement service. The adult care advice and contact service includes a Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH).

The overall responsibilities of the Adult Care Advice and contact team are:

To respond to all contacts into adult care. These will be predominantly via telephone but could also be via email, fax or webchat.

To have strength-based conversations with customers and carers, providing targeted information, advice and signposting to meet their needs.

Where required, to allocate work to reablement and other social care teams.

To gather all relevant information to make threshold decisions about safeguarding alerts received for adults within Wiltshire.

The team will work closely with colleagues from Health, private providers, the voluntary sector and others, to ensure the delivery of effective health and social care services within the local areas.

Job Purpose

To provide practice and professional leadership, support and supervision for social workers and social care staff in adult care teams.

To uphold standards of practice for social workers as defined by the Health and Care Professions Council and in accordance with the Professional Capabilities Framework for Social Workers.

Practitioners working in line with the advanced level of the Professional Capabilities Framework (PCF) are expected to provide practice and professional leadership through the development of evidence- informed practice, quality assurance, staff development, knowledge development and management, and will also help to influence and contribute to strategic development in the organisation. Advanced Social Workers make a difference by working both directly with people in highly complex situations, and by supporting staff to provide better outcomes for people who use services, families, carers and communities.

Specific duties and responsibilities include:

Participate in and where appropriate chair meetings of internal/external partners and other agencies, Best Interest decision maker, or facilitation of this, CHC joint decision making panels, etc.

Take a lead role in promoting safeguarding within the team in line with Wiltshire policy and procedures for safeguarding adults, including providing advice to enquirers concerning the appropriate route for their concern.

Manage a small caseload of complex work, using person centred practice principles to assess, support plan and review with the aim of promoting well-being and positive risk taking of individual customers.

Ensure that personal practice is in line with current legislation, including The Care Act (2014), The Mental Capacity Act (2005) and The Mental Health Act (1983) and local policies and procedures, as relevant to the role.

Ability to manage and resolve complex and high-risk situations using negotiations and diplomacy, involving customers, their families, or staff groups. Where these fail pass to the assistant team manager.

Participate in the planning, prioritising and allocation of work within the team.

Promote, develop and model high quality social work practice including working within statutory responsibilities, evidence based practice and comply with professional standards required by the Health and Care Professions Council.

Provide professional support to social workers, customer co-ordinators and other team members, including development of skills, knowledge and experience and addressing performance issues.

Provide specific operational professional advice and guidance to team managers, Heads of Service, Directors, and commissioning colleagues on a broad range of issues relevant to social work.

Provide professional supervision and participate in appraisal for social workers and other members of the team. Ensure that the practice of staff you supervise is in line with the current legal framework, including The Care Act (2014), The Mental Capacity Act (2005) and The Mental Health Act (1983) and related local policies and procedures, as relevant to their role.

Work in collaborative partnerships with colleagues from the council, health and other stakeholders within the voluntary and community sector which promote well-being, social inclusion and resilient communities to influence and improve service delivery.

Contribute to and participate in development of best practice in social work in conjunction with the Principal Social Worker (Adults).

Specific requirements for this post:

Ability to travel on a daily basis and to undertake visits to customers in their own homes or in other settings e.g. hospital.

To be flexible and work in other adult social care teams as required.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• Qualified social worker.
• Registered with Social Work England as a Social Worker.
• Three years post qualification experience in social care.
• Evidence of professional development including contributing to the development and learning of others individually and as part of a team.
• Expert knowledge of social care legislation and policy as it relates to social workers and the wider social care team, including mental capacity and safeguarding adults and ability to undertake consultation role for case holding social workers.
• Experience of working in partnership with service users, other professionals and agencies.
• Experience of supporting people through change and developing and implementing practice, policy and other changes.
• Experience of supervision, appraisal and professional development of staff.
• Able to demonstrate independent critical judgement, to problem solve in complex and unpredictable situations and to effectively manage conflict.
• Able to communicate effectively with people at all levels with positive and person- centred approaches, including via written reports.
• Able to plan, chair and contribute to meetings.
• Fully fluent in spoken and written English, numerate and good computer skills.
• Commitment to anti-discriminatory and oppressive practice.
• Ability to use and contribute to supervision/team meetings to promote your own and team development, skills and learning.
• Proven organisational skills, including the ability to work under pressure, prioritise your caseload and meet deadlines.
• Good understanding and proven ability to use database information systems.
• Takes responsibility for own professional development and commitment to evidenced based practice, including ability to reflect on own strengths and practice/knowledge gaps.
• Proven skills in safe practice techniques and ability to work to risk assessments.

Desirable

• Evidence of post qualification awards e.g. Best Interests Assessor qualification, Practice Educator qualification.
• Experience in audit and/or engagement in research.
• Experience in monitoring financial spend.
• Other specialist knowledge or experience transferable to this role.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).

Employer details

Employer name

Wiltshire Council

Address

County Hall

Bythesea Rd

Trowbridge

Wiltshire

BA14 8JN

Employer's website

http://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)