Associate Director of Social Work

Greater Manchester Mental Health; Prestwich; On-site; GBP 62,000 - 74,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading mental health trust in the United Kingdom is seeking an Associate Director of Social Work to provide strategic oversight of social work practice. This role aims to ensure high-quality, person-centred care and strengthen social work across the organization. Candidates must have a degree in social work and significant leadership experience. The position offers numerous benefits including 27 days of annual leave and excellent pension provisions, with a commitment to diversity and inclusion in hiring practices.

Benefits

27 days annual leave + bank holidays

Excellent pension

Cycle to work scheme

Salary sacrifice car scheme

Wellbeing programme

Blue Light Card Discounts

Qualifications

• SWE registration is essential.
• Substantial CPD at senior level required.
• Expert understanding of Care Act and safeguarding legislation.

Responsibilities

• Provide strategic leadership of social work across the Trust.
• Support the Chief Nurse in care delivery standards.
• Lead continuous quality improvement initiatives.

Skills

Leadership

Negotiation

Stakeholder engagement

Data literacy

Education

Degree/master’s in social work

Job description

Job Overview

We are thrilled to announce the introduction of the Associate Director of Social Work. This is a significant milestone in our commitment to delivering outstanding, person-centred care and strengthening the voice of social work across our services.

It is a collaborative post spanning across Greater Manchester (mental health). The role brings together the combined strengths of both mental health trusts to enhance patient care, strengthen professional practice, and influence system‑wide improvement. It provides strategic leadership and professional oversight of social work practice across the whole Greater Manchester footprint, ensuring high‑quality, person‑centred, equitable, and legally compliant social care practice.

Please note that this role not suitable to be undertaken remotely.

Band 8d (Subject to job evaluation)

Interview date - Friday 6th February 2026

Main Duties

To provide strategic leadership and professional oversight of social work across the Trust, ensuring high-quality, person-centred, and legally compliant social care practice.

The role is predominantly concerned with supporting the Chief Nurse to ensure the best possible standard of care delivery by social work workforce across the Trust and provide senior leadership for the Trust for this agenda.

The post holder will be a highly skilled senior leader within the Trust and have excellent clinical communication and interpersonal skills, able to manage complex sensitive situations to ensure that all staff understand the role they play and what the domains/ KLOEs are in relation to the Social work agenda and their service.

The post will work closely with teams to improve and develop all aspects of Social work practice, provide visible leadership and influence the development of services to ensure continuous improvements in the quality of care. This post will also lead continuous quality improvement in relation to SWs of all services ensuring that the patient experience and learning lessons influence the Trust’s future development and are embedded within everyday practice.

Working for our organisation

Greater Manchester Mental Health (GMMH) Foundation Trust employs over 7000 members of staff, who deliver services from more than 122 locations.

We provide inpatient and community-based mental health care for people living in Bolton, the city of Manchester, Salford, Trafford and the borough of Wigan, and a wide range of specialist mental health and substance misuse services across Greater Manchester, the north west of England and beyond.

Greater Manchester is one of the world’s most innovative, original and exciting places to live and work. From the beauty of the surrounding countryside to the heart of the vibrant inner city with great shopping, entertainment and dining options.

Wherever you go you will experience a great northern welcome with people famed for their warmth, humour and generosity.

Our people enjoy their work, have opportunities to learn and develop their skills and are encouraged to generate new ideas that improve care for our service users.

Benefits

• 27 days annual leave plus bank holidays rising to 29 after 5 years and 33 days after 10 years
• Excellent pension
• Cycle to work scheme
• Salary sacrifice car scheme
• Wellbeing programme
• Blue Light Card Discounts
• fuelGenie Fuel Cards (for applicable roles)

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential Criteria

• Degree/master’s in social work (or equivalent) and SWE registration.
• Evidence of substantial CPD at senior level; legal literacy in MHA/MCA/Care Act.

Desirable Criteria

• AMHP accreditation (current or previous) or equivalent senior level MHA practice leadership.
• Postgraduate leadership/management qualification.
• Evidence of trauma-informed practice leadership and least restrictive approaches to the provision of care.

Experience

Essential Criteria

• Significant senior leadership of social work within mental health or integrated community settings.
• Proven track record of strategy delivery, governance, service improvement and multi agency partnership working.
• Leading large teams, change programmes and complex risk management.

Desirable Criteria

• Experience of leading strategy; co production; system transformation at IC/S/ICB level.
• Board/sub committee reporting and external inspection preparation.

Knowledge

Essential Criteria

• Expert understanding of Care Act, MHA, MCA/DoLS/LPS, safeguarding legislation, CQC standards and related statutory duties.
• Ability to set professional standards, design QA frameworks, and translate policy into practice.
• Advanced skills in stakeholder engagement, influencing, negotiation and system leadership.
• Strong data literacy (KPIs, dashboards), QI methodology, and financial acumen.
• Compassionate, inclusive and rights based leadership.

The Trust mandates all post holders who require a DBS for their role to subscribe to the DBS Update Service. You will be required to enrol for this service for a fee of £16 per year and maintain registration throughout your employment with GMMH.

Applicants are encouraged to apply for posts at Greater Manchester Mental Health who have direct experience of mental health, learning disability or drug and alcohol services either as a service user or a carer.

The Trust is also committed to safeguarding children, young people and vulnerable adults and requires all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

We are aspiring to ensure our workforce is representative of the diverse communities that we serve, and we are strongly committed to removing barriers to employment for candidates from under-represented groups, for example BAME, Disabled and LGBT+ communities. If you would like to have an informal chat about the recruitment process for this role or would value some additional support, we’d love to hear from you.

Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) when writing job applications

A candidate may utilise the help of AI when writing job application. The assessment of an application is made on its entirety and most times AI-generated content does not fully grasp the context and requirements of the job one applies for thus producing inaccurate and misleading information, especially in the supporting statement section of an application that can lack real life examples of one’s achievements, success and challenges.

We have added a disclaimer to our application process advising that the use of AI is monitored. GMMH reserves the right to follow up with a candidate at the interview on specific responses and those examples used in the supporting statement to explore it further.

Sponsorship

We are proud to be an approved sponsor for the Skilled Worker visa. Applications from individuals who require sponsorship will be considered alongside all other applications. Please be aware that not all roles are eligible for sponsorship. You can review the list of eligible roles and salary requirements on the UK Government’s website – click .

If you are offered a role with us and you require sponsorship, we will check your eligibility in line with the information on the above website. Your offer of employment could be withdrawn if the role is not eligible for sponsorship, and you are not otherwise able to evidence your right to work in the UK.

The Home Office introduces new changes from 22/07/2025 that impact the health and care sector, you may wish to familiarise with it .

Do you have experience outside the NHS?

We want to attract and retain people with diverse skills and experience, to deliver inclusive healthcare services to our communities.

We will consider relevant experience outside the NHS to calculate your salary on appointment.