Advanced Social Worker, Approved Mental Health Professional (AMHP)

We are bold and ambitious in our plans, with a clear vision and direction for the future. Our status as one of the UK’s fastest growing towns is driving transformational change across our organisation, most significantly within our highly valued Adults’ Services teams.

Your next role

Swindon Daytime AMHP service is a small but supportive workforce, passionate about our community, with all members of the team having years of experience working with functional and organic illness within Mental Health teams locally and neighbouring Local Authorities. The Service is supported by a dedicated Business Administrator and AMHP Lead overseeing service provision. The Service operates between the hours of 9am and 5pm, with some flexibility outside of these hours required on some occasions. The service benefits from co-location with Mental Health NHS Trust partners at Sandalwood Court, Swindon which will form your main base, although hybrid working is supported. You must have the ability to respond to referrals from a wide variety of areas, including a dedicated ‘Place of Safety’ located within the neighbouring County (for s.136 and s.135(1) work).

We have excellent working relationships with our Mental Health Partners, local General Hospital, CAMHs and Police Colleagues, amongst others. As such, there is an expectation of collaborative working with all agencies including our Social Care colleagues in Swindon and neighbouring Local Authorities, in the best interests of the diverse Community we seek to serve.  

The AMHP Service focuses strongly on quality of s.13(1) ‘triage’, with emphasis on promoting the rights of vulnerable individuals, advocating for the independence and empowerment of people to make choices where they can. To this end, we encourage and assist our partners with exploring least restrictive options, utilising our knowledge of evidence-based research and balancing this with sound risk management. In turn, the AMHP Service provides excellent collegiate support, including daily AMHP briefings at start and end of the day.

Your duties will include some Ministry of Justice Social Supervision duties, this will be a very small number of patients on conditional discharge, taking into account AMHP Service duty requirements.   SBC can provide access to the appropriate training for this area of MHA work and in addition, inhouse support from Social Supervision Lead and working closely with our partners in the NHS Mental Health Trust locally.  

You must be qualified as an Approved Mental Health Professional (AMHP) with evidence of your practice to support Approval (warranting). You must have sound knowledge of the Mental Health Act 1983 (2007), the Codes of Practice 2018, the Human Rights Act 1998 and other relevant legislation, such as the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and The Care Act 2014. 

You will be required to demonstrate skills in the ability to assess, manage and work in situations which may involve risk and by extension using initiative to address safeguarding issues.   You will have excellent communication skills and you must demonstrate a track record for working collaboratively with individuals, families, and multi-disciplinary professionals.

You must hold a formal social work degree and be Social Work England registered to apply for this post.

You must be fluent in the English language (as a requirement of Part 7 of the Immigration Act “for the effective performance of a customer-facing role”).

Our transformation journey

Like all other local authorities, we are experiencing an increase in demand. As an organisation we know our Adults’ Services are on a rapid improvement journey which is why last year we started making big changes across the service to provide the best care for children and great conditions for our staff. This started with us recruiting an entirely new leadership team of experienced, forward thinking managers who are driving changes in the service and we aim to be one of the best Adults’ Services in the country.

Our Adult Practitioners’ induction

A practitioner-specific, Swindon-specific induction programme, aimed at providing you with the information you need regarding the policies and procedures of Adult Social Care at Swindon Borough Council.

The induction programme incorporates a blend of face-to-face activities and e-learning modules aimed at consolidating and reviewing your knowledge of the key areas.

These key areas include:

• understanding how to use our case management system
• understanding the Safeguarding and Quality Assurance policies and procedures
• understanding and using a strength-based approach

Improvements include:

• Multi-million pound investment in staff and support
• Significant restructure creating smaller social worker teams
• New intuitive IT system to cut down on desk time and make mobile working the norm
• High standards for management practice, support and supervision for staff
• Listening to our social workers by holding regular social work forums.
• Implementation of Liquid Logic

At the heart of it all is our desire to promote and cultivate a strong learning culture combined with outstanding leadership and supervision. Here is what you can expect to find when you arrive:​

• Early help and community health practitioners co-located with our social workers, providing great working relationships​​
• Fantastic relationships with partner agencies such as the police and BSW ICB
• Teams located within communities, providing a closer connection to the people we work with

Our new offer to you

We recognise that getting the best outcomes for our Adults means getting the best from you and we have listened to what our Social Workers and our Managers most value.

Please see our Rewards and Benefits offer for more details.

As an employee, you will receive a diverse and exciting environment in which to work, encouraging creativity and innovation whilst recognising the need to support ongoing personal development and a flexible work life balance.

For Swindon to thrive in the future, we need to lay the foundations now. It’s why our regeneration and transformation programmes are already underway. So, you’ll be joining us at an exciting time on our journey. We’ll look to you to share your knowledge, influence decisions and drive real, positive change. With your contributions, we’ll achieve our vision of a prosperous, re-vitalised Swindon together. And you’ll be proud to say it was made better with you.

Please see our Vision and Values page for more details and our new Swindon Plan.

Your next steps

Read the role profile and select the Apply button where you will be redirected to the Swindon Borough Council website to complete our online application process. Clicking the ‘Apply’ button on this job website is not an application, you must register on the Swindon Borough Council website in order to be considered for the role.

Potential applicants are sometimes put off if they don’t meet 100% of the requirements. We think individual experience, skills and passion make all the difference, so if you are a registered practitioner and meet the majority of the criteria, we’d love to hear from you. We will be reviewing CVs as candidates apply and reserve the right to close this vacancy early. Therefore, early applications are strongly encouraged.

If you would like to discuss this opportunity further please contact AMHP Lead Jacqueline Norburn at JNorburn@swindon.gov.uk who can arrange a call with you.

As an inclusive employer, we welcome applications from a diverse range of communities, and in particular disabled people and people from ethnic minorities. Read our statement of commitment to equality & inclusion.

If you are experiencing technical issues submitting your application please email resourcing@swindon.gov.uk