Azile Medical are recruiting a dedicated Social Worker to join the Housing and Community Living department of their client, Luton Council
Title: Social Worker
Department: Housing and Community Living
Division: Adult Social Care
Responsible to: Advanced Practitioner – Social Work
PURPOSE OF POST:
The Adult Social Care Division exists to promote the independence, inclusion and well-being of all adults with social care needs. It aims to do this by enabling people to have control over their lives, live safe, healthy & fulfilled lives, have an active role in a stronger & prosperous community and access the support they need in order to be as independent as they choose.
You will be expected to:
* Receive and co-ordinate complex referrals, undertake the resulting assessments including Approved Mental Health Practitioner (AMHP) and Best Interest Assessor (BIA) and carers assessments.
* Coach and mentor Social Care Assessors who are undertaking assessments, support planning and review tasks;
* Influence the direction of future services.
* Provide leadership on risk and safeguarding matters and to promote personalised care pathways ensuring choice and control for all eligible individuals.
* Work with others to influence and shape the local environment, to promote social inclusion and accessibility and ensure that identified needs are understood individually, by locality and fed into strategic commissioning.
* Be able to cover for your line manager on occasion and to cover for social workers from other teams if required to do so for a temporary period.
PRINCIPAL RESPONSIBILITIES:
* Complete professional assessments of need and risk for highly complex and challenging cases in respect of service users and carers using Luton Borough Council eligibility criteria. This will include safeguarding cases and undertaking AMHP and BIA assessments. This involves:
* Undertaking statutory duties under the Care Act 2014, Mental Health Act 1983 and Mental Capacity Act 2005, other legislation and guidance relating to service users and carers and maintaining professional registration
* Overseeing a duty role as necessary and prioritising level of intervention (including allocating initial assessments to social care staff)
* Keeping appropriate case records, statistics and information utilising Council computer case recording systems, and other IT systems where required.
* Providing reports for Court and other purposes, meeting the needs of internal/external agencies and complying with Luton Borough Council Policies and Procedures
* Working with other professionals and partners to achieve effective joint working through initiatives that require a multi-agency approach, participating in and organising and chairing multi agency meetings
* Undertaking training and keeping up to date with legislative changes and best practice
* Coach and mentor and provide support on case work issues to a group of up to 4 unqualified staff / Social Care Assessors. Providing leadership, support and challenge to enable them to undertake assessments, including risk assessments, complete RAS paperwork and support service users and carers with support planning and review tasks
* Ensuring that service users and carers are involved in timely assessment and support planning and review processes
* Ensuring needs are met through negotiation with service users and their carers and consultation with professional colleagues, and that Support Plans are person centred and focused on individual outcomes, meet assessed needs, address risks, promote independence and choice, respect service users dignity and rights and meet their cultural needs
* Checking that support plans (or care packages) provide value for money and meet assessed needs and outcomes identified by the user and take account of any changing needs at review.
* Ensuring there is engagement with other professionals and partners to achieve effective joint working through initiatives that require a multi-agency approach
PHYSICAL EFFORT: Normal office environment
CONTEXT:
This position is based within the Adult Social Care Service. The post holder will work on their own with the most vulnerable and challenging service users in the Borough and will be expected to work in partnership with a wide range of professionals particularly health, independent care providers and the voluntary sector to ensure a seamless, quality service. The Service works with adults and older people aged 18 and over, and their carers who need a service including undertaking the full range of statutory work with both Service Users and Carers. The focus will be on promoting independence, enablement and reablement and reducing the need for intensive expensive services including hospital admissions and long stays in institutional settings. This job involves working to very demanding time scales in assessment and care planning for adults and older people.
Safeguarding Statement – all staff are expected to:
Work in accordance with the principles of the Mental Capacity Act and to ensure that any suspected abuse of an adult at risk is reported promptly and in line with the Adult Safeguarding Policy and Procedure. Staff must actively promote awareness of both the Adult Safeguarding Policy and the Mental Capacity Act among colleagues. They are expected to safeguard adults at risk by upholding their health, well-being, dignity, and respect, while also working to prevent abuse directed toward service users and carers. Furthermore, any concerns regarding provider services must be promptly communicated to the Purchasing and Quality Team.
DBS: Because of the nature of this job, it will be necessary for the appropriate level of criminal record disclosure to be undertaken.
Experience
* Substantial post qualifying experience in social/health care field
* Experience of coaching/ mentoring
* Experience of the customer interface environment and demonstrable commitment to customer satisfaction including knowledge of the different adult
* Experience of advocacy and user involvement issues including promoting the involvement of people in developing their own care/support plans
* Significant experience of collaborative, partnership and inter-agency working.
Skills/Abilities
* Self-motivating and managing, high achiever, dynamic and innovative, able to work as part of a team and meet strict deadlines and targets.
* Able to undertake AMHP and or BIA assessments
* Able to promote the benefits of working together as one multi-disciplinary team and one department to minimise duplication and make best use of scarce resources
* Able to work with complex and challenging cases - with access to support and supervision - where there may be issues of vulnerability and risk and where crisis intervention may be required in compliance with health and safety policies.
* Able to advise, guide, assist, coach and mentor the case work practice of Social Care Assessors. Including evidence of ability to evaluate alternative lines of action, identify degrees of priority and urgency and make creative and sound judgments in providing solutions on case work issues.
* Able to make professional judgements, accept the consequences of own actions and negotiate resources in a multi- disciplinary setting.
* Able to communicate effectively (orally and in writing) and work with service users, carers and with a wide range of other professionals.
* Able to maintain high quality records, write clear, concise reports and correspondence dealing with complex issues. This will involve using Council computer database and case recording systems
* Value for money minded with evidence of ability to design cost effective care packages, being clear about the impact of decisions on costs, implement lean processes and maintain effective administrative and organisational procedure
* Able to represent the Agency in court, or a similar setting.
* Able to set and maintain the highest standards of personal, professional and ethical behaviour and gain the trust and respect of others.
* Able to work under pressure
* Able to show demonstrable knowledge and understanding of equality issues and legislation and the ability to integrate equality policies into strategies and service delivery
* Ability to support staff working with complex family dynamics
* Able to visit customers and families in their own homes (regularly)
* Able to work outside normal office hours (occasionally)
Specialist Knowledge
In depth knowledge and understanding of social care legislation and regulation and how to interpret this in a modern context including:
* Eligibility criteria
* Safeguarding & MCA DoLS
* Multi-disciplinary complex case work
* CQC Care Standards
Education and Training
* Dip SW or CQSW, (or foreign qualification where certified by General Social Care Council) + at least PQ in one relevant area and hold GSCC or equivalent registration
* Demonstrable commitment to professional development. Willing to undertake further PQ training
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