Social Worker - Newly Qualified.

Salary: NQSW Band 8 (£33,945-£36,647) p.a.

This post is for a newly qualified Social Worker, who have not yet completed the Assessed and Supported Year of Employment (ASYE) and will be supported to do so once in post. Therefore the usual starting salary will be £33,945 p.a. On successful completion of the ASYE, the salary would increase to Pay Band 9.

37 hours per week

The Service

The Integrated Health and Social Care Learning Disability Team is a part of Adult Social Care - Portsmouth City Council. The team is based at the Kestrel Centre at the Civic Offices. The team is a fully integrated Social Care and Health Team, and the successful applicant will be one of about 20 Social Workers delivering a range of services and support with our Independent Support Assistants, Learning Disability Nurses, Psychologists, Psychiatrist, Physiotherapist, Speech and Language Therapists and Occupational Therapists.

We operate a named worker system where nearly all our service users have an allocated worker (social care or health) to build relationships so we can really get to know our service users and carers and identify and build on people's strengths. We use support planning to help people work towards longer term goals and aspirations, so we encourage creativity and innovation.

The service is delivered in collaboration with the Voluntary and Private Sector and there is active co-production with service users and carers, including the Portsmouth Learning Disability Partnership Board. There are ample opportunities to develop areas of special interest where the work can be challenging at time but never dull.

We have a proven history of successfully supporting and developing newly qualified Social Workers through their ASYE programme. We provide excellent training, mentoring and supervision.

What is the role

This role involves assessing the needs of vulnerable adults with Learning Disabilities and their Carers, to then identify creative ways to meet their assessed outcomes. The team is committed to pursuing the personalisation agenda, in order to promote independence, inclusion, choice and rights of service users and their Carers.

Duties include:

Assessing service users, taking account of the Care Act and Learning Disability Service eligibility criteria.

Reviewing packages of care of Adults with Learning Disabilities and developing Support Plans with a view to deliver positive outcomes and best value.

Developing knowledge of and building professional relationships with provider services.

Completion of Continuing Healthcare and Mental Capacity Assessments.

Supporting crisis management as required.

Working independently and managing your own caseload including maintaining case records within an environment offering high level of supervision and support.

The safeguarding of adults with support is an important area of your work as will be the implementation of the safeguarding policy and procedures.

Supporting the Learning Disability duty service by taking turns on the duty rota as required.

What you'll need to succeed

You will need a qualification in social work i.e., Degree, Dipsw, QCSW, CSS and be registered with Social Work England as a social worker, maintaining a record of Continous Professional Development. You will ideally have experience of working with adults with Learning Disabilities and knowledge and ideally experience of Safeguarding Adults. You will have the ability to advocate for users and carers using a problem-solving approach and have good assessment skills. You will have a knowledge of Valuing People and Valuing People Now, being motivated to achieve positive outcomes in relation to rights choice, independence and inclusion, whilst respecting and responding to individual differences/diversity requirements. You will be able to communicate sensitively, positively and clearly to a wide range of people and have the ability to write clear, concise reports and letters. As well as excellent customer service skills and the ability to be flexible to the needs of the service you will have excellent organisational skills to enable you to manage your workload efficiently and effectively.

Please read the job profile for the full details of this role and what you need to succeed.

You will need to demonstrate that you have the Right to Work in the UK. No post will be offered without it.

What you'll get in return

We really appreciate our employees and fully realise they are essential to our success and look to offer an inclusive, supportive working environment where employees can reach their potentials with a healthy work life balance, offering the following rewards:

Generous annual leave (27 days per year rising to 31, pro rata for part time hours) with the potential to purchase additional leave.
A fantastic pension which allows you the opportunity to pay in more for that greater return.
We offer flexible working options including hybrid working with a minimum of two days office based per week pro rata, giving you the flexibility to work up to three days at home every week . Hybrid working is dependent on the role and service needs, exact details will be discussed with you at interview.
Access to a wide range of training and development opportunities including apprenticeships.
Extensive wellbeing support through the Employee Assistance Programme
Discount on travel, travel loans and the bike loan scheme
Discounts on a wide range of goods and services – access a range of discounts and offers from thousands of restaurants, shops and more.

Application process:

Additional Information:

The full job profile is attached here.

Remember to demonstrate why you are suitable against each of the points described in the 'Who is the Person' points on the Job Profile using examples from your experience or transferable skills. This might be through qualifications or descriptive examples from your work / personal experience, which clearly illustrates what you did and the effect it had.

Applicants will be shortlisted based on their ability to use good examples that meet the criteria of this role. Please read alongside the 'How to apply'.

Please ensure you provide your full education history from secondary school, include name/address of establishment, details of relevant qualifications & awarding body.

Please explain any gaps - this is essential for all safeguarding roles.

You may wish to attach an additional letter or document to supplement your application.

You will need to demonstrate that you have the Right to Work in the UK. No post will be offered without it.

DBS Disclosure at Enhanced level will be required prior to any offer of employment and this post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974.

Portsmouth City Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of adults at risk and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

We are a disability confident employer - committed to ensuring that our recruitment and selection process is inclusive and accessible and welcome applications from all areas of society.

We will email applicants from time to time; please ensure you check e-mail folders as sometimes our e-mails may go into spam/junk folders.

Portsmouth City Council

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Social Worker - Newly Qualified