Community Mental Health Social Worker

Biggleswade CMHT provides compassionate person-centred interventions to people experiencing mental ill-health in the North Eastern corner of Central Bedfordshire; including Biggleswade, Sandy, Potton, Shefford, Arlesey and surrounding villages. The team is a multi-disciplinary team, with a strong social care presence and ethos. You will be given expert support and advice from the team Senior Social Worker. The Senior Social Worker and Team Leader provide intensive support to ensure that bespoke professional supervision is readily available for all our social workers. ELFT has a dedicated Social Care Lead locally in Central Bedfordshire. The Social Care Lead offers regular reflective practice sessions, bespoke advice and CPD opportunities. The excellent work of the Social Work Learning and Development Project Lead ensures that continuous learning is at the heart of Social Work in Bedfordshire. The Trust offers an established ASYE programme for newly qualified social workers. CPD pathways beyond the ASYE include AMHP/Leadership Academy/AMCP/Practice Educator/ASYE Assessor training structures. Bespoke training opportunities are available as part of your yearly appraisal. In short; now is a good time to be working as a social worker for ELFT in Central Bedfordshire!, We are looking for an enthusiastic and motivated Social Worker to work as part of our team. You will be registered with Social Work England and ideally have one year of post qualifying experience in a relevant health or social care setting; however with our new ASYE programme we would be happy to work with a newly qualified social worker who is able to demonstrate how their pre-qualifying experience and value base would benefit our team. As a Social Worker, you will work as a member of the multi-disciplinary team, providing high quality social care services to adults experiencing mental ill-health. The core functions of the role will be to provide assessment, care planning and coordination of care from a social perspective to adults accessing the service. You will hold a caseload of adults experiencing a wide range of mental health and social care needs. You will ensure that you maintain constant reflection and development of your practice and will ensure your continuing professional development in line with the standards set out by the professional regulator, Social Work England., In the role, you will liaise with acute inpatient units, the Crisis Team, Primary Care services, the Voluntary and Private Sector and contribute to providing a recovery focused model of care. You will play an active role in the discharge of our service users from hospital and will commission health and social care services as required. Partnership working is a key component of this post and you will need to be innovative in ensuring that there is a range of appropriate services locally to support individual recovery journeys. Person specification, To undertake comprehensive Care Act assessments and reviews, for people who may present with complex Health and Social Care needs, ensuring people are assessed appropriately against social care eligibility criteria as defined by The Care Act 2014. To take a lead in the promotion of adult safeguarding practice and undertake safeguarding enquires and contribute to the provision of care plans that protect both adults and children from abuse. To ensure that appropriate health and social care services are commissioned with and on behalf of service users. To promote the use of Direct Payments in the commissioning of service user and carer care and support plans. To undertake regular risk assessments and ensure that vulnerable people are kept safe from harm. To ensure accurate records of all work undertaken are kept up to date on the service users Electronic Patient Record. 4 To attend reflective practice sessions and access post qualifying and other appropriate training to ensure high standards of practice and continuation of your registration with Social Work England. To provide both management and reflective supervision to newly qualified Social Workers and Support Workers. To support newly qualified social workers through the Assessed and Supported Year in Employment (ASYE), with opportunities to train as an ASYE assessor. To undertake duties as an Approved Mental Health Professional (AMHP) or be willing to undertake AMHP training. To participate in your own regular supervision and ensure regular reflection on your own practice as both a social worker and AMHP. To undertake other tasks and duties which form part of the delegated social care responsibilities accepted by the Trust on behalf of Central Bedfordshire Council. To adhere to Trust policies and procedures. To undertake additional training as required. To carry out any other duties as appropriately identified by your line manager., Quality Improvement is a key part of our work to improve our services and refine how we do things. We have a global reputation for our quality improvement work and we don't stand still! So we offer a fantastic opportunity for our staff to learn, lead and contribute towards improving our services. We launched our Five Year Strategy in April 2018, which identified four main strategic outcomes to improve: population health outcomes, experience of care, staff experience and improve value. This complements the NHS Long Term Strategy and sets out our direction of travel. Our Community We provide a wide range of community health and mental health inpatient services to children, young people, adults of working age, and older adults in The City of London, Hackney, Newham, Tower Hamlets, Bedfordshire and Luton. We also provide psychological therapy services to the London Borough of Richmond, and provide Forensic services to the whole of North East London. We provide services in urban and rural settings, sometimes in our inpatient units, but mostly in the community close to where people live. Integrated care is key in making the best use of resources and providing effective care. Aiming High We were rated 'Outstanding' by the CQC in 2016, were proud to be rated 'Outstanding' again in 2018 and continue to be rate 'Outstanding' in 2021.. We were named in the HSJ's Top 10 best places to work in healthcare and were voted Provider Trust of the Year in 2018. Staff and Service Users United We strive to ensure that staff feel valued by the Trust and as they are truly pivotal in delivering better outcomes for our patients and service users. Our aspiration is to help to make ELFT the best place to work. This Trust is clinician-led and provides the highest possible level of clinical expertise throughout its services. We pride ourselves on our service user involvement. A service user will be on your assessment centre and interview panel if you are invited to meet us. We especially welcome people with lived experience of health difficulties, with insight and understanding of different backgrounds, cultures and lifestyles in our population as we believe that this will equip staff to deliver a high standard of care to our service users and patients. Diversity ELFT Is committed to being a diverse organisation and our workforce is reflective of the population and communities we serve. We believe that having colleagues with a range of backgrounds and life experiences enriches and adds value to the outcomes we have set out to achieve. Having partnered and endorsed by organisations who are representative and experts in various areas of equality and diversity, we can ensure we are meeting the pre-set standards all the way from recruitment stage throughout the career journey of our employees by being accessible, having fair inclusive practices and a host of staff networks to support, nurture and celebrate our valued staff in the workplace. Other reasons to apply As a flexible working friendly organisation, we want to be sure that you can work in a way that is best for us and for our patients, and for you. Speak to us about how we might be able to accommodate a flexible working arrangement whether that's job share, part time or another flexible pattern. As part of the relocation scheme we presently have, the Trust could support you with offering up to £10,000 for removal and associated expenses. This is subject to change and terms and conditions apply.

• Experience of working within a multi-disciplinary environment/community
experience.
• Experience of working within a multi-disciplinary
environment/community experience.
• Experience of attending funding panels and commissioning care packages
• Experience of working within an NHS/Local Authority environment and an
understanding of the issues/ policies/ practice within these environments. Desirable criteria
• Post-qualification experience within mental health services
• Previous appointment as an AMHP /Best Interest Assessor (BIA). Social
Workers are expected to train and practise as AMHP's,
• A thorough working knowledge of the Mental Health Act 1983 and
subsequent amendments Additional Requirements Essential criteria
• Car driver essential and be able to travel between Trust sites throughout the
County
• Full driving licence
• Flexible working according to the needs of the service and to support
work/life balance and improving working lives. Educational/ Qualification Essential criteria
• Qualified Social Worker registered with Social Work England
5 Desirable criteria
• Educated to Degree Level
• Relevant specialist post qualifying/post graduate training
Personal Qualities Essential criteria
• Team player, able to negotiate and lead other professionals whilst
considering competing views and agendas
• Able to work independently, with initiative, but to seek appropriate guidance
and supervision when required.
• Self-motivated, committed and open to new ideas and experiences
• Committed to equal opportunities, and equality and diversity issues
• Anti-discriminatory & ant oppressive practice
• Committed to core social work values, able to recognise that protection is
sometimes required and should be carried out in the least restrictive manner observing the human and civil rights of the individual
• A commitment to leadership & change management
  
  ELFT has long been recognised as a centre of excellence for mental and health care, innovation and improvement. So it is a very exciting time for you to come and work for us. Our mission is to make a positive difference to people's lives by improving quality of life for all we serve. Our values are: We Care, We Respect, We are Inclusive - so we are looking for people who live and breathe these qualities when supporting service users and carers, and in their relationships with colleagues in the Trust and our partner organisations., We have Social Workers who are also Practice Educators and ASYE assessors and are currently promoting this training. ELFT are currently part of a pilot programme for ASYE training of newly qualified social workers. ELFT and Central Bedfordshire Council offer training opportunities to support Social Workers to maintain their professional registration with Social Work England. We believe the natural progression for a Social Worker within Mental Health Services is to strive towards completing their Approved Mental Health Professional (AMHP) training and this is something that we will expect and you will be supported to do.
We are proud to work with the diverse communities of Bedfordshire and want our workforce to reflect this diversity, which we believe is beneficial for our employees, the organisation and the communities we serve. It is an exciting time to be joining Mental Health Services as a Social Worker in ELFT and the Social Care Management team are committed to supporting your continued development