Senior Social Worker

Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust; Watford; On-site; GBP 50,000 - 57,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading healthcare provider in Watford is seeking a Senior Social Worker to enhance the Adult Community Mental Health Service. The ideal candidate will lead the social care agenda, conduct complex assessments, and supervise the care team. This permanent, full-time role offers leadership training and generous leave, with a salary range of £50,008 to £56,908 inclusive of high cost allowance. Candidates must possess a valid social work qualification and be registered with Social Work England.

Benefits

Leadership and management training

27-33 days holiday plus bank holidays

NHS pension scheme

Employee Assistance Programme

Qualifications

• Must hold a valid Social Work England registration.
• Experience in supervising social work staff.
• Strong knowledge of adult and children's social care legislation.

Responsibilities

• Lead the social care agenda and supervise social care staff.
• Conduct complex assessments of individual needs.
• Collaborate with community partners for service delivery.

Skills

Communication Skills

Analytical Skills

Diversity Awareness

Supervision and Mentoring

Education

Professional Social Work Qualification

Master's Degree or Equivalent

Mental Health Professional Training

Job description

Senior Social Worker

The closing date is 23 January 2026

Are you an experienced Social Worker seeking promotion?

Are you looking to develop into leadership & take your social care skills in the field of Adult Mental Health further?

Do you want to be part of an energetic & dynamic team in the heart of the south west Hertfordshire community, working for an award-winning, outstanding Trust?

We are looking for a Band 7 Senior Social Worker to join the Adult Community Mental Health Service in Watford & Three Rivers, South West Hertfordshire. For an informal discussion, please contact Ruth Precey on 0781434 0908. You must hold a full valid driving licence and have access to a car to use regularly for business purposes is essential (unless you have a disability as defined by the Equality Act 2010).

Main duties of the job

The successful candidate will:

• Promote and lead the social care agenda, acting in accordance with the principles of personalisation, working to promote wellbeing, and enabling individuals’ rights to choice and control
• Carry out complex assessments of need, plan and deliver services and review outcomes with the individual, their personal support networks and support providers
• Ensure practice within the team is responsive, inclusive and community based with a clear focus on outcomes and bring your professional expertise to your work with complex cases
• Supervise the social care staff within the team and support the wider team with social care
• Manage the provision of assessments under the Care Act 2014 and the reviews of packages of care
• Work collaboratively with community partners to ensure individuals and families are supported and their needs are met
• Act as a champion and leader of social care within the locality/quadrant
• Be a warranted AMHP (desirable)
• Be professionally registered

In return, we can offer you:

• Leadership and management training opportunities
• 5% on top of basic salary high cost allowance supplement (subject to a minimum and a maximum payment pro rata)
• 27 days holiday rising to 33 days (depending on NHS Trust service) plus bank holidays (pro rata where applicable)
• One of the UK's best pension schemes
• Comprehensive health and wellbeing services
• Special leave for family and personal reasons
• NHS Car Lease Scheme
• Employee Assistance Programme

About us

Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (HPFT) is an outstanding organisation with ambitions to match. We are one of just five mental health trusts to achieve an overall rating of ‘Outstanding’ from the Care Quality Commission, and our aim is to be the leading provider of mental health and specialist learning disability services in the country.

Our family of over 4,000 staff provide health and social care for over 400,000 people with mental ill health, physical ill health and learning disabilities across Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Norfolk, delivering these services within the community and several inpatient settings. We also deliver a range of nationally commissioned specialist services including Tier 4 services for children and young people, perinatal services, plus medium and low secure learning disabilities services.

The care we provide makes a fantastic difference to the lives of our service users, their families and carers - everything is underpinned by choice, independence and equality, with our Trust values embedded throughout:

Welcoming. Kind. Positive. Respectful. Professional.

Job responsibilities

Job Summary: Senior Social Workers are a key part of the senior management team and the focus of the role is to promote, lead and act in accordance with the principles of personalisation, ensuring the team are working to promote wellbeing, and enabling individuals rights to choice and control. In doing so they will carry out complex assessments of need, plan and deliver services and review outcomes with the individual, their personal support networks and support providers.

Senior Social Workers will lead the Team’s social care agenda and will supervise the social care staff within the Team. As a Senior Social Worker you will act as a champion and leader of social care within a locality/quadrant to ensure a focus on outcome based interventions. You will be expected to give robust, consistent expert social care practice advice in partnership with other specialist senior social care colleagues. You will reinforce the need to deliver high quality, cost efficient social care services to service users and their carers focused on the principles of choice, control and independence, as well as ensuring their safety. You will have a small caseload of the most complex cases and you will manage the provision of assessments and reviews of social care intervention.

Partnership working is a key component of this post both within and outside the Trust and you will need to be innovative in ensuring that there is a range of appropriate services locally to support individual recovery journeys. You will work with community partners to address complex social issues and will be encouraged to think innovatively about how to address local concerns with our community partners.

You will be expected to work in partnership with service users and carers so that they can be empowered, and services can be improved as a result of their feedback.

All Senior Social Workers must be registered with Social Work England.

For a more detailed description, please see attached Job Description and Personal Specification.

Person Specification

KNOWLEDGE & EXPERIENCE

• An appropriate professional social work qualification
• Registration with General Social Care Council
• Master’s Degree or equivalent training
• Approved Mental Health Professional training and qualification (or prepared to undertake training within a year of appointment)
• Relevant post‑qualifying training for social workers
• Other post‑qualifying training e.g. CBT, family therapy
• Best Interests Assessment training

AREAS OF EXPERIENCE

• Strong post‑qualification experience with demonstrable evidence of excellent practice at a high level
• Extensive knowledge of legislation, statutory guidance, theory and policy in relation to relevant adult and children’s social care
• Experience of undertaking assessments, focused on personalisation, choice and control, and care planning; understanding and experience of personal budgets and direct payments
• Experience of supervising and mentoring staff
• Experience of multidisciplinary working and evidence of collaborative work
• Experience of partnership working with service users and carers, demonstrating dignity and respect particularly in very challenging situations
• Experience of work as Approved Mental Health Professional
• Experience of work as a Best Interests assessor

COMMUNICATION SKILLS

• Excellent ability to communicate with a wide range of stakeholders including service users and carers, other professional colleagues, members of other organisations and local communities, verbally and in writing
• Evidence of successful management of difficult meetings
• Ability to manage highly sensitive information
• Experience of using electronic recording systems and ability to produce accurate, appropriate and timely reports

ANALYTICAL SKILLS

• Ability to analyse service user and carer information
• Experience of undertaking small scale audits and surveys
• Understanding of basic research methods

DIVERSITY

• Demonstrable ability to work sensitively with diverse needs and environments
• Commitment to anti‑discriminatory practice

PHYSICAL SKILLS

• Ability to visit and attend meetings at a variety of locations and environments
• Experience of using computer – PC
• Literate to ECDL standard
• Able to travel between bases and offices, as required, using suitable mode of transport

PHYSICAL EFFORT

• Ability to meet timescales and respond to crises appropriately

MENTAL EFFORT

• Flexibility and ability to respond to a variety of tasks, and to prioritise own workload
• Ability to manage others and convey information which may be contentious sensitively so that it achieves required improvements and outcomes

EMOTIONAL EFFORT

• Ability to deal with distressing and sometimes aggressive behaviour of service users, carers and colleagues

GENERAL

• Experience of working in an integrated health and social care environment

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.

Address

£50,008 to £56,908 a year inclusive of 5% HCAS (min £1,303 max £2,198)

Contract

Permanent

Working pattern

Full‑time

Reference number

367‑ACMS‑9978

Job locations