Responsibilities

Do you want to be part of a hospital discharge team that values listening, learning, and making a real difference? We have an exciting opportunity for a permanent Qualified Social Worker who is passionate about empowering clients to reach their full potential. Join our Hospital Discharge South and Central Team at Amersham Hospital and be part of a dedicated team committed to excellence.

If you have experience in enabling clients to achieve or maintain independence, thrive in a fast-paced environment, and enjoy working alongside individuals to support them in achieving their goals of living independently, then we want to hear from you!

In addition to the salary advertised, you will receive a market premium of £2,275 per annum, you will also receive a ‘Golden Hello’ lump-sum payment of £2000 paid on successful completion of your probationary period.

The Hospital Discharge Teams operate a 7-day service. At present, this equates to weekend working approximately once every 2 months. For this you will receive an enhancement and time off in lieu.

About the role

As a social worker at Buckinghamshire Council, you will ensure the highest standards of service are provided to the residents of Buckinghamshire. You will:

• Be an ambassador and leader across social work, both internally and externally.
• Provide a high-quality and effective professional casework service, taking responsibility for working and managing a caseload within a framework of appropriate supervision, dependent upon the complexities of these cases and your experience.
• Comply with legislation, statutory guidance, and local policies and procedures.
• Deliver outstanding support to our residents and ensure that regular monitoring and review of care and support plans are carried out.
• Be competent in all areas of the Professional Capabilities Framework of Social Work.
• Our hospital social work team complete assessments in a number of hospitals where Buckinghamshire residents are patients, as well as assessing people in their own homes with short term support and in short term placements following hospital discharge.

About you

Naturally, you will be a great people person, familiar with working to a strength-based approach where you think outside of the box and enable people to prevent, reduce or delay the need for care. Bringing your in-depth knowledge of the latest legislation and statutory guidance, you’ll work independently and with colleagues to support adults and their families. Persistence and an adaptable approach are needed in an outcome focused way with our partners such as health services, community sector, housing, care providers and other stakeholders.

You must be a qualified Social Worker (holding a social work degree or equivalent) and be registered with Social Work England.

We welcome individuals looking to return to social work and offer a return to social work programme assessment and support process. Should this be something of interest to you please contact the Learning and Wellbeing Hub via email at [email protected] to arrange an informal chat or to find out more information.

Please see the job summary for more information.

Other information

Buckinghamshire Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and adults at risk.

This post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and therefore applicants are required to declare:

• All unspent convictions and conditional cautions
• All spent convictions and adult cautions that are not protected (i.e. that are not filtered out) as defined by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (as amended in 2020 and 2023).

For further information on filtering please refer to Nacro guidance and the guidance published by the Ministry of Justice (see, in particular, the section titled ‘Exceptions Order’).

We reserve the right to close the vacancy once we have received sufficient applications, so please be advised to submit your application as early as possible.

Person Specification

Essential:

• Qualified Social Worker or Occupational Therapist 
• Commitment to continuing professional development
• Demonstrable experience in relationship and strengths-based practice, working collaboratively with adults and their families
• Demonstrable experience of undertaking direct work with adults
• Proven experience in one or more areas of practice and have a broader knowledge of local and national resource networks
• Ability to use advanced theoretical/ practical/ procedural/ organizational/ police knowledge across a specialist area
• Knowledge and experience of working with vulnerable adults in a statutory setting
• Knowledge and experience in the application of relevant legislation, statutory guidance, standards and local policies and procedures
• Demonstrable knowledge and experience in the application of relevant theoretical frameworks, practice models and research findings
• Ability to demonstrate awareness of legislation relating to General Data Protection Regulations and Freedom of Information
• Demonstrable ability to build sound, productive working relationships with colleagues, partners and other staff
• Demonstrates strong assessment skills and analysis of relevant information and develops multi agency outcome-focused plans to improve outcomes for adults using evidence based practice
• Engages effectively with adults and has experience of using different tools and methodologies to communicate with adults
• Ability to maintain accurate and up to date case records in a timely manner
• Ability to write high quality written reports which are suitable for a variety of professional settings
• Ability to analyse and interpret varied and complex information, developing strategies and solutions for the medium and long term
• Ability to use well developed communication skills to present complex/sensitive information in an understandable way, to a range of audiences
• Competent in the use of Microsoft Office packages as well as an electronic case management systems
• Ability to practice effectively and competently with an increasing level of autonomy and independence
• Ability to determine which interventions, knowledge and skills to deploy to effectively respond to different issues
• Ability to carry out tasks which impact on the wellbeing of people, including assessing needs, implementing care/welfare, implementing regulations, providing guidance on internal procedures and interpreting policies and procedures to meet specific circumstances or problems
• Ability to work under pressure and manage time and workload effectively
• Ability to work effectively as part of a team to achieve team and service plan objectives and targets
• Ability to maintain confidentiality at all times  

Desirable:

Please see the job summary for more information