Advanced Social Worker

Wiltshire Council; England; On-site; GBP 46,000 - 49,000; Full time

Job summary

A local authority in England seeks an Advanced Social Worker to lead their Advice & Contact Team. This position involves mentoring social workers, managing complex cases, and ensuring compliance with safeguarding policies. Successful candidates will have at least three years of post-qualification experience and must be registered with Social Work England. The role offers flexible working arrangements and a supportive environment for career growth. Salary ranges from £46,052 to £48,473 annually, inclusive of a market supplement.

Benefits

Flexible working arrangements

Well-being programs

Career progression support

Qualifications

• Proven experience in safeguarding adults.
• Expert knowledge of social care legislation as it relates to social work.
• Ability to undertake consultations for complex cases.

Responsibilities

• Lead the Advice & Contact Team.
• Manage a small caseload of complex cases.
• Provide professional support and supervision to social workers.

Skills

Understanding of Safeguarding Process

Person-Centred Practice

Supervision Skills

Communication Skills

Conflict Management

Education

Registered with Social Work England

Three years post qualification experience

Job description

Overview

Are you an experienced Social Worker looking to advance into a leadership role? Join our Advice & Contact Team as an Advanced Social Worker, where you'll thrive in a supportive environment with clear career progression, well-being programs, and flexible working arrangements.

In this crucial role, you'll lead and mentor social workers and social care staff within our community-focused, customer-centred adult care teams. You'll ensure the highest standards of practice, as defined by the Health and Care Professions Council and the Professional Capabilities Framework for Social Workers.

Alongside your leadership duties, you'll manage a small caseload of complex cases, applying person-centred principles to assess, support plan, and review, all to promote well-being and positive risk-taking for our customers.

To excel in this role, you must be a qualified Social Worker with a deep understanding of the Safeguarding Process and Section 42, along with Social Work England registration. Given Wiltshire's rural landscape, a full driving license and access to a car are essential.

Main duties of the job

• Provide practice leadership, professional support and supervision to social workers and social care staff within adult care teams.
• Manage a small caseload of complex and high risk cases, carrying out person centred assessments, support planning and reviews.
• Lead on safeguarding adults, offering advice, triage and guidance in line with Wiltshire's safeguarding policies.
• Participate in or chair multiagency meetings, including Best Interests meetings and joint decision making panels.
• Offer specialist professional advice to team managers, senior leaders and commissioning colleagues on social work matters.
• Promote and model high quality, evidence based social work practice and ensure compliance with legislation including the Care Act, Mental Capacity Act and Mental Health Act.
• Support staff development through supervision, appraisal, training and addressing performance issues.
• Work collaboratively with health partners, voluntary organisations and other agencies to improve outcomes and service delivery.
• Contribute to the development of best practice, service improvements and strategic initiatives across Adult Social Care.

About us

Wiltshire Council is the unitary local authority for the county of Wiltshire, England, established in 2009 to provide both county-level and district-level services. The council's vision is to foster strong communities where residents can achieve their potential through empowerment and inclusion. The council focuses on long-term challenges, community engagement, and delivering services that support independent living, reduce inequalities, and promote overall well-being.

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.

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 into 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, 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

• 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.
• 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.

£46,052 to £48,473 a yearInclusive of 7.5% market supplement