The Hampshire County Council is on the lookout for Social Workers with experience in providing care and support to children. Qualified and recently graduated Social Workers are encouraged to apply.
Hampshire County Council, located in the South of England, serves the county of Hampshire. It is responsible for delivering a wide range of essential services to residents, including education, social care, transportation, public health, and environmental management. The council aims to enhance the quality of life for its communities by promoting sustainable development, supporting vulnerable populations, and fostering economic growth. Governed by elected councillors, Hampshire County Council is committed to providing efficient and effective services, ensuring that the needs of its diverse population are met. With excellent transport links up and down the country, Hampshire offers the perfect blend of rural and city living. You’ll find miles of lovely coastline, nature reserves and heritage sites, which are just some of the benefits of living in Hampshire.
Position: Qualified Social Worker (Children’s Services)
Salary: £39,092 – £42,389 per annum plus a market supplement of up to £ 4,500 per annum
Job Type: Full Time
Location: Hampshire, UK
About the Role
The successful candidate will be required:
To use professional knowledge to asses, monitor and review social care needs of individuals, relatives and carers within a specific care group in accordance with agreed competencies, quality standards and professional good practice in relation to case and risk management.
To arrange, provide or purchase appropriate services/care within the departments agreed priorities and resource framework to reflect best value principals and to comply with Legislation and statutory duties.
To work in partnership with users, carers, relatives and other agencies, to identify current and future service requirements and contribute to service development within the scope of the role.
Main Duties
Assessment & Care Planning
- Use professional skills, knowledge, and experience and a range of interpersonal and specialist communication skills to gather information and make a full assessment of risks protection and social care needs of individuals and carers/families, within relevant legal and statutory frameworks, agreed priorities and current eligibility criteria.
- Refer to other relevant agencies and undertake joint assessments where appropriate to ensure all risks and needs are considered.
- Take appropriate action in conjunction with other agencies and within legal and statutory framework, to protect vulnerable people.
- Devise individual care plans based on assessed needs and risks that take account of diversity to maintain and improve their quality of life. Care plans should promote dignity and empowerment and comply with legal and statutory requirements.
- Identify appropriate service provision which is within the department’s resource framework and adhere to best value principals.
Case Management
- Manage an agreed case load in accordance with statutory and departmental procedures and objectives, and professional good practice to enable individuals to achieve goals and maximise their strengths.
- Offer support and guidance and work in a professional manner with clients, carers and families to establish mutual trust and understanding and ensure services provided meet identified needs.
- Monitor, review and reassess care packages/services against identified risks, needs, and objectives to ensure the continued effectiveness in achieving required or wanted outcomes.
- Make appropriate use of paper and computerised case recording systems to and effectively contribute to professional case management and comply with current legislation and departmental policies and procedures. Records should be accessible to individuals, colleagues and managers as appropriate.
- Produce reports as required which comply with statutory and departmental procedures and capture and analyse information clearly and guide decision making and case management.
- Within the bounds of confidentiality and appropriate consent, communicate effectively with individuals and agencies using a variety of methods to keep them appropriately informed and involved.
Finance
- Ensure knowledge of benefits, fees and allowances is current and advise individuals how to access them in order to achieve maximum independence and manage expectations and demands.
- Explore alternative sources of funding to maximize contribution from other agencies, and reflect best value.
Service Development
- Participate in training and continuous personal development and achieve appropriate in-service qualifications to be proficient in role.
- Offer advice and support to unqualified staff and students on placement and contribute to team activities to assist development and to achieve optimum outcomes for service users.
- Work co-operatively with other agencies and stakeholders and contribute to forums/projects to develop partnerships and services which are responsive to identified needs.
- Collate information regarding service gaps, quality etc to inform surveys and development initiatives.
- Work within corporate and statutory frameworks such as, antidiscrimination/health and safety/sustainability and demonstrate commitment to them in daily working practice.
- Understand the processes of discrimination and oppression at individual, cultural and structural levels and challenge them appropriately.
Qualifications
- Registration with Social Work England.
- Hold a Social Work or other professional qualification relevant to Role e.g. DipSW, CQSW, Dip OT, Community/District Nurse Registered with the relevant Professional body BSL/NVQ sign Language level 3 if appropriate for Role.
- Highly skilled at building meaningful relationships with children and families to engage them in assessments and plans.
- Creative, flexible and forward thinking in your approach.
- Constantly striving for continuous improvement to provide the best outcomes for children. Committed to providing our service users with a high-quality service.
- Experienced in working with children and families including those from vulnerable groups.
- Experienced in working in a multi-disciplinary, interagency basis.
- Able to use your excellent mediation and negotiation skill on behalf of service users.
- Good communication skills – Listening, understanding, ability to express self to people from a range of backgrounds and cultures and ability to negotiate with service users, relatives and providers.
- Able to write clearly and concisely and have experience of report writing.
- Able to assess risks, needs, analyse information and recognise problems.
- Understand equalities issues in social work practice and principals of safety, dignity and empowerment.
- Understand philosophies, professional social work issues and Legal frameworks underpinning Specific client groups and social Services statutory duty and role in the wider community.
- Understand data protection/ confidentiality and need for accurate and timely recording.
- Understand Best Value principals and need for resource constraints.
- Organised and able to manage time and conflicting demands.
- Willing to learn and develop in job role, undertake post qualifying training and continuous personal development.
Benefits
- A 9 day working fortnight.
- Annual leave starting from 25 days per annum and rising to 28 days based on experience and length of service.
- A personal assistant, who will provide crucial back office support to free up your time to focus on professional practice.
- A personal laptop, so you can work more effectively and flexibly.
- 5 personal development days per annum.
- Ample progression opportunities.
- Flexible working options to fit around today’s lifestyles.
- Assistance with relocation by offering up to £8,500 for experienced social workers wanting to move to Hampshire (subject to management approval).
- In addition to working for one of the top performing children’s social care authorities in the country, Hampshire is also one of the best places to live and work.
Required Documents
- CV/Resume
- Cover Letter
Application Process
Interested and qualified individuals should kindly CLICK HERE to learn more about the role and to apply
Application Deadline
Unspecified