Senior Social Worker/Dementia Specialist

About the Borough

Found in zone 6 with good transport links in and out of London, Kingston is a vibrant and diverse university town which creates the rich sense of community shared across the borough and its Residents. Kingston boasts an idyllic riverside location, good shopping and great restaurants, as well as a mix of modern and historic town centre. Kingston has lots of open parklands and cycle routes that help connect the district town centres into an enjoyable place to live and work.

We are passionate about working closely with our residents and vulnerable groups to help them maintain their independence and create a balance between support and independent living.

About the Service and Team

The Kingston Hub is one of the three locality teams operating in the borough of Kingston. We support vulnerable residents who require assistance under the Care Act 2014. Our high-performing team of 15 comprises qualified and unqualified members, senior practitioners, and a team manager. We embrace the STAR Values: Supportive, Transparent, Appreciative, and Respectful in our daily practice.

Our responsibilities include completing Care Act Assessments, care reviews, Mental Capacity Assessments, and Best Interest Meetings. We collaborate with Brokerage to implement care services, partner with GP practices and health colleagues to provide integrated services, and facilitate hospital discharges for Kingston residents through Discharge to Assess pathways.

The team also handles Safeguarding enquiries, promotes resident well-being, and investigates potential abuse and neglect to ensure vulnerable adults receive adequate support, information, and advice. Additionally, social workers complete CHC Checklists, attend DST meetings, and work with colleagues in ICB. We provide information, advice, and signposting to external agencies as needed.

The team doesn’t deal with functional mental health disorders, e.g. psychosis, acute mental health problems

About the Role and Our Ideal Candidate

We are looking for a motivated and experienced social worker who is willing to join the team to make a posotive change in people's lives. The successful candidate will manage complex cases, provides statutory interventions, and leads team safeguarding while mentoring and supporting less experienced practitioners.

This role focuses on promoting the well-being of Kingston residents and supporting the team to achieve high performance while assisting vulnerable residents in accordance with relevant legislation. Key responsibilities include:

• Working with the team manager and senior practitioners to maintain team performance and allocate cases.
• Managing budget responsibilities and approving care plans, Care Act Assessments, care reviews, and Mental Capacity Assessments and Best Interest Meetings.
• Conducting regular supervision with qualified/unqualified staff and support staff.
• Maintaining staff motivation and contributing to staff retention.
• Managing a complex caseload in adherence to the Care Act and Mental Capacity Act.
• Liaison with health partners (GP, MH, hospitals, CHC) to work collaboratively and facilitate discharges
  
• The role might entail attending Court of Protections proceedings

About You

Essential Requirements:

• Registered with Social Work England.
• Sound knowledge and experience with the Care Act 2014, the Mental Capacity Act 2005, and other relevant legislation.
• Demonstrated understanding of the principles and application of excellent adult social care.
• Ability to manage competing demands and complex caseloads, and support the team leader and senior practitioners.
• Proven experience in building effective working relationships with internal and external stakeholders.
• Strong literacy, numeracy, interpersonal, and IT skills.
• Ability to collaborate on case allocation with the manager and senior team.
• Ability to work in the office twice a week as per the team's charter.

Desired Experience:

• Experience supervising staff members.
• Budget responsibility experience.
• Experience of working with people living with dementia
  
  

Our Offer to You

As an organisation that values and nurtures talent, we’re committed to helping you fulfil your potential and will offer you a supportive, friendly and collaborative environment to grow and develop your career and skills. We’re constantly striving to improve our ways of working so putting your ideas across however big or small; will be fully encouraged and supported by your colleagues and our dynamic and experienced management team.

Employees have access to a wide range of benefits to enable staff to achieve a work life balance, some of which include:

• A generous annual leave entitlement of 25-32 days, plus bank holidays (pro-rata if part-time working hours apply) depending on service and grade.
• Enhanced Maternity, Paternity, shared parental, adoption and dependents leave
• Three volunteering days per year in Kingston
• Hybrid working (dependent on the role)
• Flexible and agile working arrangements using Google Chromebooks
• Learning and development portal offering a range of courses
• Discounts on a range of local shops, restaurants, gyms and leisure centres
• Interest free season ticket loans
• Local Government Pension Scheme
• Bicycle loan facilities and cycle to work scheme
• Electric vehicle leasing scheme
• Confidential health & wellbeing and counselling support

Application Process

Apply online outlining what skills, abilities and experience you can bring which makes you an ideal candidate for this role. Please refer to the requirements outlined in the job profile when completing your application and check your CV details have been uploaded correctly in the relevant sections.

We understand and recognise the benefits of using Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the workplace and are embracing AI where appropriate, to boost our productivity and streamline how we deliver our Council services efficiently; to provide the best possible outcomes for our residents and communities.
However, we reserve the right to reject applications where it is apparent that AI-generated content has been used in isolation and without personalised responses. At Kingston we value authenticity and are looking for individuals who can clearly demonstrate their own skills, experience and motivation for the role that they are applying for and embrace and demonstrate our STAR values.
Here at Kingston we have core values of Transparency and this is to be demonstrated during the application process and completion of the supporting statement and will be further tested at interview and selection stage for those who progress forward.

The closing date is given as a guide. We reserve the right to close this vacancy once a sufficient number of applications has been received, it is strongly advised that you complete and submit your application as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.

As part of our award winning Diversity Programme we anonymise all applications received to reduce conscious and unconscious bias enabling every application to be reviewed on the knowledge, skills and experience shown in your application. We encourage our interview panels to be as diverse as possible (age, cultural, neurodiverse etc.) to reduce bias where possible. We are fully committed to removing barriers and enhancing the diversity of our workforce.

Additional Information

We are proud to be a diverse and welcoming Borough and we strive to create a workforce which reflects the community we serve, and instil a sense of belonging in our staff. We celebrate and respect differences and appreciate the value of having a diverse workforce, therefore we welcome applications from under represented groups.

To support our workers and their families we offer a range of family friendly, inclusive employment policies, flexible working arrangements, staff engagement forums and inclusive staff networks who help drive our diversity agenda.

We are also proud to be a disability confident employer and guarantee to interview all disabled applicants who meet the minimum essential criteria for a role. As an accredited London Living Wage Employer all our employees are guaranteed the London Living Wage regardless of their length or type of contract.

The UK has a points-based immigration system affecting EU and Non-EU workers and sponsorship requirements. We advise checking the GOV.UK website for right to work guidance. Sponsorship availability varies and is subject to eligibility requirements and budget limitations. As a result, we cannot guarantee sponsorship for all roles and will evaluate sponsorship requests on a case-by-case basis.