Senior Social Worker - Organisational Safeguarding

Essex County Council; Chelmsford; On-site; GBP 42,000 - 52,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible working options

Life assurance of three times annuals

LGPS

Employee wellbeing and counselling

27 days annual leave

EAP

Volunteer leave

DBS guidance

Job summary

Essex County Council (ECC) is seeking a Senior Social Worker to join the Organisational Safeguarding Team within Adult Social Care. You will work to address provider risk, assess safeguarding needs, and provide expert guidance across internal and external partners.

The role requires a proactive, capable practitioner who can handle high‑risk scenarios with confidence. You will travel around Essex and beyond, applying Care Act thresholds, shaping safeguarding practice, and mentoring colleagues

Qualifications

• Qualified social worker with Social Work England registration.
• Post-qualification of at least 3 years in complex cases.
• Knowledge of safeguarding and Care Act principles.
• Mobility to travel around Essex and beyond; driving licence preferred.

Responsibilities

• Demonstrate expert social work practice in complex situations and manage a caseload.
• Assess, manage and mitigate high levels of risk to ensure timely interventions.
• Provide specialist advice and guidance to colleagues and partners.
• Support care planning through collaborative, joined‑up approaches with statutory and voluntary sectors.

Skills

Social work expertise

Risk assessment

Decision making

Collaborative practice

Education

Social Work Degree or equivalent

Job description

With us, you can achieve more - for yourself as well as the vulnerable adults you work to support. We're always looking for new ways to deliver even better services; Senior Social Workers play an integral role in our preventative approach to Social Care. We encourage our multi-disciplinary teams to share their ideas and experience. We work together to get things done. Bring your positive, proactive attitude, and we'll empower you to make the most of your experience within Essex County Council (ECC) Adult Social Care services.

About the Role

We are looking for Senior Social Workers to join ECC's Organisational Safeguarding Team within the safeguarding service. The Organisational Safeguarding Team provides supportive, coordinated, and preventative support to addressing provider failure and works with internal and external partners to undertake targeted prevention and skilled assessment of widespread risk in relation to organisational safeguarding.

The successful applicant will be part of a team that will shape how we ensure safeguarding is made personal when applying Care Act thresholds.

In this role, you will demonstrate expert and effective social work practice in complex situations, confidently managing your own caseload while supporting colleagues with challenging cases. You will use your professional expertise to assess, manage and mitigate high levels of risk, ensuring that adults receive timely and proportionate interventions.

Working collaboratively with statutory, non-statutory and voluntary sector partners, you will help ensure a coordinated and joined-up approach to safeguarding and care planning. You will act as a role model for best practice, providing expert advice, guidance and support to colleagues, and contributing to the ongoing development of professional standards across the service.

About Us

At Essex County Council Adult Services our mission is clear. We want to make the best and most sustainable use of all resources available to the adult, their families, and carers. To ensure they have access to information and tools to enable them to live healthily and independently for as long as possible, and to exercise choice and control over their lives. And to ensure the safety, dignity, and quality of life for all the adults we work with. To make sure we achieve our goals, we've transformed our service to be far more proactive. Moving from focusing on long-term care and support, our new model is centred on four key principles - prevention, early intervention, enablement, and safeguarding. We're very proud of our service and the work we're doing with all our partners to build community capacity and resilience.

About You

To apply you should be a qualified social worker with a current Social Work England registration and be post-qualified 3 years as a minimum with an in-depth knowledge of complex cases and The Care Act. You will bring knowledge of safeguarding and will be able to work effectively in a fast-paced environment. You'll be a source of specialist advice and will enable the mitigation of high levels of risk. You will bring the ability to make clear decisions, to highlight and limit potential risks associated with intervention.

You should have a recognised qualification i.e. PE/BIA/AMPH or currently on the recognised programmes; or has completed an alternative relevant formal learning experience. Furthermore, that social worker is actively applying the qualification to the role of mentoring/developing individuals or groups and can evidence this in practice.

This role involves travelling around Essex and beyond. A driving licence and car - or the ability to meet the mobility requirements of the role through other means - is essential.

Why Join Us?

In June 2025, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) rated our Adult Social Care services as "Good" with a score of 73%

"The local authority had a good structure and processes in place to enable people to be supported successfully, and support people to remain independent and live healthy lives. The workforce was passionate about supporting people to achieve these outcomes and the local authority had good knowledge of their area, the people living there and the demographics."

You can read the full report on the CQC website here.

Our teams are busy but warm, friendly and supportive. Our fabulous team managers will help you manage your workload and develop your practice.

We take your career just as seriously as you do, and we have a continuing professional development offer that's second to none.

We welcome diversity because it makes us grow and we're determined to become a fully inclusive and an anti-racist organisation.

What We Offer

• Ongoing opportunities for continuing professional development
• Flexible working options
• Employee wellbeing and counselling
• Lease Car scheme
• Life assurance of three times annual salary
• Local Government Pension Scheme. View Key Facts and FAQ's about the LGPS.
• Volunteering leave
• 27 days annual leave (plus bank holidays), rising with service
• Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) - access to free and confidential information, support, and guidance from a team of highly qualified professionals.
• Employee Networks - communities to support you, connect you and help influence change at ECC
• Payment of your Social Work England registration fees!

Whatever you want to achieve in your social work career, you can do it here.

For more information contact [e-mail]

To read more about our business area, please visit:

Adult Social Care

Why Essex?

As one of the largest and most dynamic UK local authorities, Essex offers a stimulating public service environment. Covering over 1,420 square miles and serving 1.8 million residents, we're committed to transformational change and delivering better quality at lower cost. Recognised in the top three of the latest IMPOWER index for productivity, we ensure everyone matters in Everyone's Essex. With flexible working options and a focus on innovation, whether you are looking to develop your career or contribute to the local community, Essex is the ideal place for you.

In March 2026, the Government announced that councils in Greater Essex will be reorganised into five new unitary authorities from April 2028. In addition to this, Greater Essex has been accepted on to the devolution priority programme, where we will work towards establishing a Mayoral Combined County Authority. You can read more about these changes, and what this may mean for this role, on our careers site.

Essex County Council is proud to be a Disability Confident Leader. We're committed to interview all disabled applicants who choose to apply under our Job Interview Scheme if they meet the minimum requirements of the job. Please speak to our Recruiters if you require any reasonable adjustments during the process. We're also committed to interview all veterans and care leavers, who meet the minimum requirements of the role for which they are applying.

Once you've secured your role within Essex County Council you will receive many great employee benefits, including support for unpaid carers and flexible working arrangements to accommodate their needs.

At Essex County Council, we value integrity and ethical behaviour. We kindly ask that you embrace our code of conduct and the Nolan principles, including throughout the recruitment process. Your commitment to these standards helps us maintain a positive and respectful workplace for everyone.

The role requires you to be mobile throughout a wider operational area including travelling around the county of Essex and beyond, transporting service users and their belongings and to be able to do so in an emergency. Driving licence and car or the ability to meet the mobility requirements of the role through other means is essential.

As part of employment with Essex County Council (ECC) should your role require a DBS check you will be required to register with the DBS update service. The DBS update service ensures all registered DBS certificates are kept up to date and allows authorised parties to view the status of your certificate. This is an annual subscription, and you will be responsible for ensuring this is maintained. For further information on the DBS update service please go to https://www.gov.uk/dbs-update-service

Essex County Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults, and expects all employees and volunteers to share this commitment.

If you would like to be kept up to date on other relevant opportunities, blogs, news, events and industry related news at Essex County Council, please join The Essex Talent Community

If you have queries on this role or require anything further, please email [e-mail]

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