Head of Forensic Social Work

The John Howard Centre is a purpose-built, psychiatric medium secure unit in Hackney, East London. The unit opened in 1995 and provides a comprehensive regional forensic service to the whole of East London and the boroughs of Barking and Dagenham, Havering, Redbridge and Waltham Forest. The service also provides specialist services for personality disordered offenders, women and forensic learning disability .

Wolfson House is a low secure unit and comprises of 5 rehabilitation wards for men.

The service meets the specialist needs of mentally disordered offenders, the majority of whom are admitted via the criminal justice system. The Forensic Directorate is part of the East London Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust.

The Forensic Directorate service is divided into of five clinical specialisms: Acute, Rehabilitation, Women's Service and Learning Disability & Autism Service. The service alos operates a number of commmunity services.

The Head of Social Work is responsible for the operational, and financial management of the Forensic Social Work Service. The Forensic Social Work team provides a full social care service to users, in inpatient and community settings, and their carers/families

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a dynamic and motivated individual to be considered the role of Head of Forensic Social Work.

The role involves providing operational leadership and management to the East London Forensic Social Work Team, which provides a full social care service to users, in secure inpatient and community settings, and their carers/families.

You will be an experienced Social Worker with a proven track record of effective and transformational leadership who is able to enthuse others to provide the very best, individualised care.

You need not necessarily have experience of working in secure inpatient settings but will need to demonstrae the ability to work effectively, from a social care perspective, with service users who have committed serious criminal offences and who may be experiencing severe and/ or enduring mental health issues, including learning disability and autism.

You will need to demonstrate extensive knowldege of relvant legislation .

You will be expected to work as a member of the Directorate Management Team in terms of various delegated responsibilities.

You would be working in a service and Trust rated as Outstanding by the Care Quality Commission.

Our mission is to make a positive difference to people's lives by improving the 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.