Advanced Social Worker, Community Led Support Team

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.

We’ve already taken huge strides forward with our journey for an integrated approach to children’s health, education support and social care and now we’re ready to move on to the next stage in our development. As we move forward, it is vital that everything we do and every service we provide is delivered in a robust way and is in line with national standards and protocols.

Your next role

As an Advanced Social Worker within the Community Led Support Team, you will join in a friendly, supportive and dynamic environment.

Working within the Community Led Support Team, you will work with a small caseload of complex work, using strength based, person centred practice principles to assess and review care and support plans with the aim of promoting well-being and positive risk taking of individuals, ensuring plans are least restrictive, support the individuals desired outcomes and deliver on value for money.

You will demonstrate and provide leadership to a small team within the Community Led Support Team, including Assistant Care Managers, Social Workers and Experienced Social Workers. Working closely with colleagues across Adult Social Care and wider Swindon Borough Council including; Occupational Therapy, Safeguarding Team, Mental Health team, Learning Disability, Housing etc.

You will be recognised for your expertise and excellence, providing leadership, supervision, evidence and professional wisdom to colleagues and other professionals. You will be expected to work in situations of very high complexity, providing constructive challenge to others at all levels in the organisation, modelling and facilitating reflective practice and the learning across the team.  

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”).

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

Our transformation journey

Like all other local authorities, we are experiencing an increase in demand. As an organisation we know our Adult 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.
• Implemented 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 Swindon CCG.​​
• 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.

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.

For further information about the role please contact;

Samantha Shantry, Team Manager CLS Shantry@swindon.gov.uk

Sarah Kent, Team Manager CLS SKent@swindon.gov.uk

Claire Moreton, Team Manager CLS CMoreton2@swindon.gov.uk

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