Social Worker

NHS; Yeovil; On-site; GBP 18,000 - 21,000; Part time

Job summary

Join an established and supportive team as a Social Worker in St Margaret's Hospice Care. You will provide essential support to patients with life-limiting diagnoses and their families, collaborating with clinical staff to address social and emotional needs. This part-time role offers the opportunity to make a meaningful impact in the community.

Benefits

33 days holiday rising to 35 with service

NHS pension scheme eligibility for NHS employees

Employee Assistance Programme

Access to 24/7 online GP consultations

Volunteering opportunities

Qualifications

• Registered Social Worker with a degree or equivalent.
• Experience with health professionals is required.
• Compassionate towards patients at the end of life.

Responsibilities

• Support palliative patients and their families through assessment and care.
• Provide safeguarding support to clinical staff and others.
• Collaborate with multidisciplinary teams to deliver patient-centred care.

Skills

Communication

Empathy

Problem-solving

Team collaboration

Education

Degree or Master's in Social Work

Registration with Social Work England

Job description

Are you a registered Social Worker? Do you want to join an established, collaborative, and super supportive team?

St Margaret's Hospice Care has a fantastic opportunity for a Social Worker to be part of our multi-disciplinary palliative care team.

Salary: £18,669 - £20,444 (equivalent to a full-time salary of £37,338 - £40,888)

Working hours: Part Time (18.75 per week)

Location: Yeovil

Contract: Permanent

Providing vital support to patients with a palliative, life limiting diagnosis as well as their families and carers, you will really be able to make a difference in this rewarding role.

In return, we offer a supportive working environment, the opportunity to develop new skills, and the satisfaction of helping the St. Margaret's team to make each day count for individuals and families in Somerset.

If you want to meet the Supportive Care team or see where we work, we'd love to hear from you. Just reach out to us to arrange a chat or visit!

Main duties of the job

We support palliative patients at all stages of their journey, from diagnosis to end stage disease, offering preventative, restorative, and supportive care.

As our Social Worker, you will play a key part in this by helping patients to identify what is important to them and achieve their goals. This might include support with financial, housing or other social issues, helping them to plan for their future or arranging support for their care needs.

Under the guidance of the Supportive Care Lead, your role will involve:

• Using your knowledge and expertise to provide really useful advice and guidance.
• Working with the clinical teams to ensure the social and supportive care needs of all patients and families are assessed and where possible met.
• Providing expert safeguarding support to clinical staff, patients, families, and carers, ensuring the welfare of vulnerable adults and children.
• Managing safeguarding concerns and promoting best practices.
• Training and developing colleagues, including line managing the Social Work Assistant.
• Collaborating with multidisciplinary teams to deliver compassionate, patient-centred care.

This is a Hospice based post and will involve some travel in Yeovil and the East Somerset area to undertake community work, home visits, and meetings.

About us

Be part of a welcoming, community minded charity. Our mission is to provide excellent specialist palliative care for patients and support to their families. If you speak to any of our staff or volunteers, they will tell you how the patient is at the heart of everything they do. So, if you're looking for a role where you can really make a difference, we could be a perfect match.

Holiday entitlement

• 33 days holiday, including bank holidays, rising to 35 days after 1 year, and increasing with length of service (pro-rata if part-time)
• Recognise continuous service for clinical staff paid at band 5+ who join directly from the NHS or another hospice
• Ability to buy and sell annual leave
• NHS employees eligible to continue with their NHS pension scheme*
• Non-NHS employees will receive 5.5% employer and 5% employee contribution.

Award-winning Employee Assistance Programme for you and your family offering:

• Vitality & wellbeing health portal for non-emergency care
• Unlimited access to 24/7 online GP Consultations as well as Expert Case Management
• Confidential and free 24-hour Employee Assistance
• Counselling and support
• Legal, financial, and medical information and advice

And more

• Life assurance cover
• Health Cash Plans
• Blue Light Discount Card
• Enhanced parental leave*
• Excellent learning and development opportunities
• Free on-site parking in Yeovil and Taunton
• Volunteering and fundraising opportunities

*Eligibility criteria applies

Job responsibilities

The Social Worker at St. Margaret's is a specialist practitionerwith extensive knowledge, skills and competency to manage a complex caseloadof patients with advanced, progressive life limiting disease.

You will:

• Undertake the holistic assessment, planning anddelivery of a consistently high standard of specialist palliative andsupportive care in accordance with the hospice policy, procedures andstandards.
• Work with the clinical teams, under the guidance of thesupportive care lead, to ensure, the social and supportive care needs of allpatients and families using the service are assessed and where possible met.
• Support all clinical staff in relation to safeguardingknowledge and expertise. The main objective is toprovide expert safeguarding support to all clinical staff, patients,families, and carers within a hospice setting, ensuring the welfare ofvulnerable adults and children. This includes managing safeguarding concerns,promoting best practices, and collaborating with multidisciplinary teams todeliver compassionate, patient-centred care.
• Work as an integrated member of themulti-disciplinary team in the Hospice and in the community.
• Establish effective working relationships with all externalorganisations from Adult Social Care, Primary and Secondary Health Careteams.
• Act as a resource for professionals and non-professionalsinvolved in palliative care within the community.
• Work as an autonomous practitioner, without direct supervision, managing a clinical caseload of complex clients .
• Be instrumental in thetraining and development of more junior and support staff, including theoversight of the social work assistant and multi-disciplinary assistants socialcare work.

Person Specification

Education and Qualifications

• Degree or Master's in Social work (or equivalent).
• Registration with Social Work England.
• Full driving licence and access to a car to undertake community work.
• Previous experience of working with health professionals
• Compassion and understanding of the needs of patients at the end of life.
• Commitment to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of vulnerable individuals.
• Resilience in handling emotionally challenging cases.
• Ability to adapt to changing or conflicting priorities.
• Creative thinker

Working with others

• Strong interpersonal and communication skills to work effectively with patients, families, and professionals.
• Ability to manage complex and sensitive situations with professionalism and empathy.
• Ability to work collaboratively in a multidisciplinary environment.
• Ability to supervise junior staff and facilitate their development.
• A variety of experiences working with relevant client groups.

Outcome and Results

• Excellent risk assessment, problem-solving, and decision-making abilities.
• Ability to demonstrate sound clinical decision making in the assessment of patients/families/carers and the implementation and evaluation of care plans.
• To be computer literate.
• Ability to demonstrate effective caseload and workload management.

Leading in your area

• Experience in safeguarding vulnerable adults and/or children within a health, hospice, or social care setting.
• Strong understanding of safeguarding legislation and guidance, including the Care Act 2014, Children Act 1989/2004, and Working Together to Safeguard Children.
• Knowledge of palliative care, end-of-life care, or related health and social care fields

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.