Senior Social Worker | Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust

The successful candidate will be an active member of a multi-disciplinary team and will bring the social care perspective to service planning meetings and individualised care planning. The role involves providing leadership to the social work team, case management to a defined caseload within the CPA framework and working collaboratively with multidisciplinary colleagues to assess needs and risks within a forensic patient population. You will provide a professional social work service to patients, their families and carers and routinely liaise with external stakeholders from the point of admission to discharge.

An exciting opportunity has arisen for an experienced Social Worker to join Secure & SPLD Division within Mersey Care. We are looking to recruit a dynamic and skilled Social Worker into a band 7 Lead for Forensic Social Work and Safeguarding post at Aspen Wood LSU to work across the Low Secure Service providing leadership to the social work team.

Aspen Wood LSU provides care and treatment to patients detained under the Mental Health Act who require their care to be delivered within conditions of low security. Patients routinely have complex needs associated with a severe and enduring mental illness and/or learning disability.

The successful candidate will be experienced at working with Forensic populations and have experience working in a Lead role. They will be required to work closely with colleagues from other disciplines to assess needs and risks within a population of users of forensic services and their families. We are looking for someone with the ability to work collaboratively whilst maintaining professional independence. The successful applicant will work within Aspen Wood LSU services but may be asked to work across the Secure and SpLD division in order to meet service need.

Applicants must be qualified Social Workers, registered with Social Work England and have relevant experience in a leadership role, The successful candidate will have the ability to deliver an efficient and high quality social care service, have well developed assessment and analytical skills alongside effective interpersonal, communication and organisational skills.

You must have good knowledge of the key relevant Health & Social Care and Criminal Justice legislation to work in a forensic setting as well as a good knowledge around safeguarding frameworks. You should have well developed report writing skills as routinely you will be required to complete mental health legislation reports for Managers Hearings and Tribunals alongside assessment reports for admission and discharge.

Mersey Care is one of the largest trusts providing physical health and mental health services in the North West, serving more than 1.4 million people across our region and are also commissioned for services that cover the North West, North Wales and the Midlands.

We offer specialist inpatient and community services that support physical and mental health and specialist inpatient mental health, learning disability, addiction and brain injury services. Mersey Care is one of only three trusts in the UK that offer high secure mental health facilities.

At the heart of all we do is our commitment to 'perfect care' - care that is safe, effective, positively experienced, timely, equitable and efficient. We support our staff to do the best job they can and work alongside service users, their families, and carers to design and develop future services together. We're currently delivering a programme of organisational and service transformation to significantly improve the quality of the services we provide and safely reduce cost as we do so.