Qualified Social Worker - Safeguarding Team

West Northamptonshire Council; Northampton; Hybrid; GBP 36,000 - 48,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Retention payment eligibility

Social Work England registration

Community Care Inform access

Job summary

West Northamptonshire Council's Adult Social Care team is recruiting an experienced Social Worker to join a specialist Safeguarding Team. You will lead safeguarding enquiries, assess risk and work with providers to improve practice and prevent issues.

This role is hybrid, with regular office and provider site visits. A driving licence and access to a vehicle are essential, and you will operate with professional curiosity in a fast-paced environment.

Qualifications

• Qualified Social Worker registered with Social Work England.
• Experience in adult social care and safeguarding.
• Ability to lead enquiries and manage risk in a fast-paced environment.

Responsibilities

• Lead safeguarding enquiries under the Care Act.
• Undertake timely investigations while meeting defined timeframes.
• Visit providers to assess practice and gather evidence.
• Analyse trends across safeguarding activity to identify wider risks.
• Work closely with health services, quality teams and care providers.
• Support and challenge providers to improve standards and reduce risk.
• Deliver guidance and training to help providers understand safeguarding thresholds.
• Contribute to a duty system and respond to safeguarding concerns.

Skills

Analytical skills

Communication skills

Risk assessment

Education

Social Work degree

Job description

About the role

West Northamptonshire Council's Adult Social Care service is continuing its transformation, placing people, communities and high quality practice at the centre of everything we do.

This is an exciting opportunity to join a specialist Safeguarding Team as an experienced and knowledgeable Social Worker, where we have a specific focus to work with health and social care providers to both prevent and reduce the risk of abuse and neglect. In this role, you will be undertaking Safeguarding Enquiries, completing preventative work and working with Providers and the people of West Northamptonshire. Engagement with Providers and the people who use these services is key, we want someone who wants to get out there and see what is really going on.

This role is different from traditional social work positions. You will not hold long term caseloads. Instead, you will focus on short term, high impact safeguarding work, investigating concerns, analysing risk and working with providers to improve practice and prevent future issues.

You will join a highly experienced and supportive team that works at pace, values professional curiosity, and plays a key role in improving the quality and safety of services across the local care market.

Working is mainly hybrid with a requirement to attend the office and provider sites regularly. A driving licence and access to a vehicle is essential.

What will you be doing?

In this role, your work will be focused on safeguarding, risk and improvement rather than long term case management.

This role requires strong decision making and the ability to balance support and challenge. It is about understanding what has happened, why it has happened and how to prevent it from happening again.

You will:

• Lead safeguarding enquiries under the Care Act, focusing on concerns within provider services
• Undertake timely, proportionate investigations, typically completed within defined timeframes
• Visit providers to assess practice, gather evidence and build relationships
• Analyse themes and trends across safeguarding activity to identify wider risks
• Work closely with partners including quality teams, health services and care providers
• Support and challenge providers to improve standards and reduce risk
• Deliver guidance and informal training to help providers understand safeguarding thresholds
• Contribute to a duty system, responding to incoming safeguarding concerns

The emphasis of the role is undertaking safeguarding enquiries following incidents that have happened, working with Partners and the people of West Northamptonshire. Most importantly your role is about making services safe places for the people of West Northamptonshire. Part of your role will be going out and visiting these Services, sometimes this will be unannounced and if it is needed it could be 'out of hours.'

Career development and progression

At West Northamptonshire Council, we're committed to helping you grow and develop your career in social work. From day one, you'll benefit from a structured induction and shadowing period to support your transition into the role.

We offer:

• Ongoing professional development and tailored training pathways
• Opportunities to specialise or progress, including AMHP training (for Social Workers with 2+ years post-qualification experience)

We're dedicated to ensuring you have the right support, skills, and opportunities to build a rewarding and progressive career with us.

Rewards and benefits

Alongside your professional development, we offer a range of benefits designed to support and recognise your contribution:

• Eligibility for a retention and experience payment scheme (subject to criteria)
• Paid Social Work England registration
• Access to Community Care Inform, providing up-to-date research, legislation updates, and best practice guidance

Your Adult Social Work teams | West Northamptonshire Council (westnorthants.gov.uk).

About you

You will be a qualified Social Worker, registered with Social Work England, with experience of working in adult social care and safeguarding. Above all, you will be motivated by making a difference not just to individuals, but to the quality and safety of services across the wider system.

We are looking for someone who:

• Has experience within safeguarding and is confident leading enquiries and managing risk
• Is comfortable working in a fast paced environment with competing priorities
• Demonstrates strong analytical skills and professional curiosity
• Can build effective relationships with providers while maintaining appropriate challenge
• Is confident working both independently and as part of a team
• Has excellent communication and organisational skills

You will also bring:

• A proactive and solution focused approach
• Resilience and the ability to manage complex and sometimes pressured situations
• A genuine commitment to improving outcomes for vulnerable adults

We are looking for someone who is not only looking for their next challenge, but is enthusiastic about what they could achieve in this role and who is driven to use their experience in adult social care to make a difference.

If you are self motivated, organised, a good report writer, confident in decision making and you have a passion for working with providers, partners and individuals to ensure that services are safe then we'd love to hear from you!

Our benefits

You can also see our full list of employee benefits on our careers site here: Why you should work for us | West Northamptonshire Council.

About us

At West Northants Council, it's about our people. People who thrive with ambition, bubble with new ideas, demand better ways of working, caring about every detail, and who never shy away from a challenge. Our culture is a gateway for new experiences. A place to forge new opportunities. To empower you in your career and unite you with like-minded people.

Our vision is 'to make West Northants a great place to live, work, visit and thrive'. We truly stand by this and work hard every day to make this a reality. Our corporate values, THRIVE, stand for: Trust, High Performance, Respect, Innovate and Empower, they underpin everything we do and how we deliver services.

We are committed to ensuring diversity, equality, equity, and inclusion is woven into the fabric of WNC and everything we do, to enable all colleagues to develop and maximize their full potential. We are a disability confident employer, a member of the Armed Forces Covenant, and a Care Leaver Covenant partner

The following film was created by us to communicate our intentions - watch WNC colleagues explain what DEI means to us.

If you need additional support or reasonable adjustments during the application process, including needing the job description in another format or language, please email [e-mail] for support.

Please note

we reserve the right to close the advert early if we receive a high volume of suitable applications, so we recommend applying as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.

West Northants Council, where careers thrive.