Social Work Assistant

Brighton & Hove City Council; Hove; On-site; GBP 33,000 - 35,000; Full time

Job summary

Brighton & Hove City Council is seeking a Social Work Assistant to join Adult Social Care. You will work alongside social workers, helping to complete Care Act assessments and provide practical support that promotes independence and safety for vulnerable adults.

We offer a pro rata or fixed-hour contract with regular supervision and training, and a supportive team environment in Hove Town Hall. The role requires compassionate, capable, and proactive individuals who can engage with diverse

Qualifications

• Experience of working with vulnerable people who might use social care services.
• Experience of applying law and policy relevant to the care of adults.
• Ability to identify and assess risk of harm to people, including safeguarding adults.
• Understanding the importance of information, advice and re-ablement in supporting independence and wellbeing.

Responsibilities

• Complete assessments under the Care Act and support social workers with complex cases.
• Receive regular supervision and training to fulfil the role.
• Work with partner agencies to deliver high-quality, safe services for residents.

Skills

Vulnerable people care

Risk assessment

Relationship-based practice

Safeguarding

Job description

Please enter your search criteria below and select 'Find jobs'.

location_on Location Hove Town Hall, Norton Road, Hove, BN3 3BQ

work_outline Basis Fixed Hours

Job profile for Social Work Assistant

Social Work Assistant

location_on Hove Town Hall, Norton Road, Hove, BN3 3BQ

01/11/2026 Social Work Assistant

Job details

Salary £33,119 - £34,811

Contractual hours 37 Basis Fixed Hours

Package We are pleased to offer a wide range of benefits to support you and your wellbeing. You can read about them on our Why work for us pages.

Job category/type Adult Social Care

Date posted 07/10/2026

Job reference REQ0001611

Attachments

Shortlisting questions Social Work Assistant (2).docx

4530.Feb23.Social Work Assistant.JDPS (2).doc

Job description

In Adult Social Care we passionately believe that putting relationship-based practice at the centre of everything we do enables us to provide consistent and quality support to citizens so that they can lead independent and fulfilled lives. Brighton & Hove has a unique demographic which makes it a challenging yet rewarding place to work.

Working closely with our partner agencies, our services continue to be at the forefront of making a positive difference in challenging times. But we can’t realise our ambition to become a centre of excellence and best practice without dedicated, creativeand motivated workers. Does this sound like you?

The Social Work Assistant (SWA) post plays a key role in making a positive difference to people’s lives. You’ll be completing assessments under the Care Act as well as assisting social workers with more complex situations. You’ll receive regular supervision and training to help you fulfil your role.

Interviews to be held: TBA

There is full information about the role below and attached but, if you would like an informal discussion, please contact [e-mail]

About the role

Working alongside social workers and other staff, this role provides real opportunities to gain experience of a professional multidisciplinary context, to ensure timely assessment and practical support to promote people’s safety and independence. We are looking for people who:

• Have experience of working with vulnerable people who might use social care services
• Have experience of applying law and policy relevant to the care of adults
• Are able to identity and assess risk of harm to people, including in the context of safeguarding adults legislation
• Have an understanding of the importance of information, advice and re-ablement in supporting people to maintain their independence and wellbeing.

The post involves working directly with people who may be in need of care and support, and their carers in the:

The Enhanced Support Team (EST) which provides enhanced Adult Social Care support to adults experiencing overlapping challenges such as homelessness, mental health difficulties, substance use, domestic abuse and contact with the criminal justice system. This role plays a key part in leading practice, supporting staff, and ensuring the delivery of high-quality, safe and effective services for residents whose needs require coordinated, multi-agency responses.

Encouraging a diverse workforce

Our city is known and loved for its diversity. Not only is the mixture of people, culture and skills vital to the economic and social development of the city, it's what makes Brighton & Hove such a great place to live, work and visit. We are committed to developing and retaining a workforce that is representative of the diverse communities we serve so we welcome applications from individuals from all backgrounds. In order to achieve our aims of proportionate representation, we particularly encourage applicants from a BME or White Other background as well as those who identify as disabled, male or trans.

Find out more about our commitment to being a fair and inclusive place to work where everyone can achieve their potential by reading about our fair and inclusive actions, our anti-racism strategy and the work we are doing to encourage a diverse workforce (brighton-hove.gov.uk).

Why work for us?

• be connected
• be confident
• be innovative and creative
• be diverse and inclusive
• be healthy and psychologically safe

For more information about our values and the benefits of working at the council, visit Why work for us which gives details of our wellbeing support, our benefits including leave and pensions as well as details of our training and development.

AI advice for candidates

We are interested in hearing about your experience and skills in your own words. While we value people who know how to use AI, we ask that you minimise using it in your application.

We are keen to hear how your experience and skills align to our values and the skills and experience needed to perform well in our roles with clear real examples from you. To support you in this, we have guidance on using the STAR model which can help you ensure you are telling us your whole story. We also provide clarity on the skills we are looking for in our adverts and in the job description/person specification attached to each job advert.

All the applications we receive are read by at least two hiring managers and we do not use AI in this process. Our experience of reading applications is that those that have heavily used AI contain generic paragraphs that are strikingly similar to other applicants’ responses. This makes it extremely difficult to differentiate between applications, and doesn't give us enough evidence of your individual skills. There is a risk that we will therefore not be able to shortlist you. Instead, we recommend you ensure your application stands out by presenting clear examples of your actual skills and experiences in your own words.

Additional information

Your starting salary will be pro rata if the above position is less than 37 hours or term-time only.

Please note that this post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, and is subject to a Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) Check.

We are a workplace that supports flexibility and employee wellbeing in the way we work whilst providing the best service for our customers. Team and service working arrangements are designed to support both employee work life balance and team collaboration. These would be part of your individual working arrangements alongside any personal preference agreed with your manager in advance of joining. Your contractual location will be the designated council office for your team and travel to and from your contractual location would be at your own expense.