Senior Social Worker

Community Hospice; Greater London; On-site; GBP 35,000 - 45,000; Full time

Job summary

A community health organization in Greater London is seeking an experienced social worker to join OneBexley. You'll provide supervision to Trusted Assessors, ensuring they thrive in their roles while overseeing Care Act assessments. Ideal candidates will be registered social workers with substantial experience in social services. This position emphasizes a strengths-based approach, collaborating with multiple charities to prioritize residents' independence. A valid driving licence and passion for improving community care are essential for this role.

Qualifications

• Experience working in social care settings with assessments and reviews.
• Driving licence and access to a car for travel across the borough.
• Significant experience in social services care and supervising staff.

Responsibilities

• Provide supervision to Trusted Assessors ensuring their wellbeing.
• Authorise Care Act assessments and reviews.
• Support staff with difficult conversations regarding safeguarding.

Skills

Proactive

Empathy

Supervision

Case management

Negotiation

Prioritization

Education

Qualified registered social worker

Relevant qualification in social or health care

Job description

Location: Community Hospice / OneBexley Hub / Across the Borough

A life, not a service

Are you a proactive social worker looking to break the mould? This is not your standard statutory role. You will be joining OneBexley, a pioneering consortium of eight local charities that has been working together to deliver Care Act support in a completely new way for the past five years.

Why this is different Instead of the traditional assess and prescribe model, we operate under a unique trusted assessor framework.

• Community-first: We leverage the local voluntary sector to connect residents with their community, reducing the need for formal care.
• Strengths-based: Our goal is to help residents live a life, not a service, focusing on what is strong rather than just what is wrong.
• Collaborative: You will work across a partnership that includes Bexley Voluntary Service Council (BVSC), Age UK Bexley, Bexley Mencap, Carers Support Bexley, Crossroads Care, Inspire Community Trust and Mind in Bexley.

You can discover more about our unique partnership and member charities atonebexley.org.

About you

To succeed in this role, you will need:

• Qualifications: Be a qualified registered social worker.
• Experience: Experience of working in social care settings, including experience of reviewing and authorising Care Act assessments and reviews.
• Mobility: A full driving licence and access to a car for travel across the borough.

Main duties of the job

Your key responsibilities

• Empower the team: Provide regular supervision to trusted assessors, ensuring their wellbeing and career growth.
• Quality assurance: Sign off and authorise Care Act assessments and reviews produced by the team.
• Expert guidance: Act as a source of professional advice, supporting staff with difficult conversations regarding safeguarding or financial contributions.
• Case management: Oversee the triaging and allocation of referrals to ensure they align with our expertise.

About us

Our values

Our values guide everything we do:

• Direct: We cut through complexity to ensure safety and clarity.
• Uplifting: We are generous with our time and prioritise supporting our people to grow.
• Proactive: We dont wait for issues to arise; we look for solutions to help users achieve independence.

Community Hospice provides community, hospital and inpatient specialist palliative and supportive care to people with life limiting illnesses and their families within the London boroughs of Greenwich and Bexley.

Job responsibilities

This is a pivotal role designed to provide OneBexley Trusted Assessors with the regular supervision they need to ensure their wellbeing, effective practice, and career growth as well as signing off and authorising Care Act assessments and reviews produced by our team of Trusted Assessors.

You will oversee the triaging and allocation of referrals, ensuring they align with our expertise and contractual agreements. A major part of your role will involve overseeing Care Act Assessments and Reviews for adult Service Users and Informal Carers in the community.

You will act as a source of professional advice for Trusted Assessors and the Single Point of Contact team. From supporting staff during difficult conversations regarding safeguarding or financial contributions, to identifying service users ready for reablement, your expertise will guide the team.

Furthermore, you will play a key role in quality assurance, checking work against our KPI framework and chairing Operational and Trusted Assessor meetings.

Key Responsibilities

• Team Supervision & Support:
• Provide regular supervision to Trusted Assessors to ensure wellbeing, resilience, and career growth.
• Support Assessors on visits requiring difficult conversations (e.g., safeguarding, permanent placements, financial contributions).
• Ensure Trusted Assessors are recruited, managed, appraised, and developed effectively.
• Provide good case management guidelines and monitor caseloads and professional growth.
• Assessment & Care Management:
• Oversee the triaging, allocation, assessment, and review of referrals for adults with physical, mental, or learning disabilities.
• Support Assessors in identifying health-related needs and completing NHS Checklists.
• Oversee Care Act Assessments and Reviews, ensuring they are person-centred and strengths-based.
• Assist in identifying service users with changed needs requiring new support plans for panel agreement.
• Quality Assurance & Operations:
• Quality check the work of Trusted Assessors in line with the KPI Framework.
• Implement systems for spot-checking the quality and quantity of completed assessments.
• Monitor queries regarding assessments and address issues posing risks to safety or performance.
• Maintain accurate, detailed, and proportionate case recordings on computerized systems.
• Inform the Service Manager of gaps in service, emerging trends, and issues with KPIs.
• Review and develop structures and working methods to ensure efficient service delivery.
• Contribute to developmental projects that enhance OneBexleys effectiveness.

Person Specification

Other

• Driving Licence and access to a car (Ability to travel across the borough for meetings/assessments).

Qualifications

• Relevant qualification in a social or health care profession (or significant relevant professional experience).

Experience

• Significant experience of working in social services care.
• Proven experience of assessing and reviewing personal social care services and inter‑agency working.
• Experience supervising staff in social care organizations.
• Experience meeting deadlines .
• Achievement of measurable results where political/social issues impact delivery.
• Experience influencing and negotiating with external agencies.

Knowledge

• Specialist knowledge of the needs of older people and younger adults with physical/sensory impairments.
• Knowledge of legislative, social, and economic issues facing social care (including NHS issues).
• Understanding of quality assurance systems.
• Knowledge of factors affecting the market in community care.

Skills & Abilities

• Awareness of the protection and Safeguarding of vulnerable adults.
• Ability to work alone/unsupervised while maintaining team support.
• Ability to manage and prioritize competing demands.

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.