Social Work Lead - Older Peoples Mental Health

Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust

We are looking to recruit an enthusiastic, motivated, dynamic person who can demonstrate commitment to the provision of high-quality person-centred care.

To lead and manage a team of experienced, specialist mental health social care workers, delivering high quality, strength-based provisions, working with older people experiencing mental health difficulties and their families and carers. Maintaining and enhancing the quality of life and wellbeing of older people and their families and promoting independence, autonomy, and dignity.

If you are passionate about providing high quality individualised patient care, enthusiastic about supporting patients' rehabilitation and increasing their independence and quality of life, we would like to hear from you.

Main duties of the job

Manage staff, resources, and relationships with key agencies to ensure timely and effective assessment, personalised support planning, and care management. Work in partnership with all agencies to ensure a high quality, strength-based provision is delivered to service users experiencing mental health problems, their families and carers.

Lead on mental health expertise and social work knowledge to oversee staff case loads which will have a high level of complexity.

Ensure the most cost-effective and beneficial care packages are established, delivered and monitored, and comply with all relevant statutory requirements and Trust policies, standards and guidelines.

Ensure teams and individuals understand and apply legislation and national policy requirements, and understand and apply TSDNFT (and where appropriate partner agency) policies.

Work within agreed procedures.

Develop and maintain effective working relationships.

Meet required performance expectations.

Deliver a service to the public that meets required quality standards and which optimises the opportunity for people to lead and manage their support.

About us

A Baywide specialist service, The Older People's Mental Health Team (Adult Social Care) is a multi-disciplinary team co-located with Health services. A team with an excellent reputation for promoting strength-based, creative approaches to working with older people with complex functional and organic mental health difficulties.

Job responsibilities

Communication with service users and patients may include dealing with those people who have difficulties relating to highly complex, contentious emotional and psychological conditions associated with their presenting conditions. People may have difficulties in communicating or understanding, and may be dysphasic, depressed, deaf, blind, or unable to accept their diagnosis or situation.

Contribute to service developments within the Care Trust, attending working groups and representing social care on inter-agency and multi-disciplinary groups.

Understand and develop the team's practice performance using management information, audits, complaints and compliments, and other quality assurance measures.

Initiate, facilitate and lead liaison across agencies at a local level and maintain a collaborative working approach to assist in the resolution of complex dilemmas and practice issues.

Lead on and maintain service improvement in line with strategic direction.

Implement Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust customer service standards, and ensure that these are applied by all team members; respond as required to representations and complaints.

Create and maintain a culture of professional curiosity within the team.

Maintain knowledge and understanding for the relevant area of organisational practice and ensure that the team practice is in accordance.

Maintain continuous professional development of self and all team members, to ensure that practice is up to date and commensurate with legal, statutory and service standards.

Maintain accurate and up-to-date case records, and timely completion of care management forms as required by data management systems (PARIS).

Ensure that minutes are recorded accurately and timely at case conferences and strategy meetings for vulnerable adults.

Complete manual and IT-based records which meet Care Trust quality standards.

Ensure that supervision notes and staff personal files are accurate and kept up to date.

Ensure that service users are placed at the heart of the Service, treated courteously and fairly, and consulted on all aspects of their service provision.

Promote wellbeing and recovery in mental health and work closely with families and carers of service users.

Act in the most vulnerable service users' Best Interest under the legal framework of the Mental Capacity Act.

Person Specification

Qualifications and Knowledge

• Current registration with SW England
• Relevant professional Social Work qualification - Degree/Diploma in Social Work, Certificate of Qualification in Social Work or Certificate in Social Services
• Experience of working in mental health
• PQ and commitment to post qualification
• Management Experience
• Ability to plan and direct complex service demands
• Experience of overseeing complex Safeguarding investigations
• Experience in management
• Management Qualification
• Experience of legal/Court Work
• DoLS/Court of Protection/Tribunals
• Experience of working with Mental Disorders in a Community Setting
• Understanding of Functional and Organic Disorders
• Experience of taking a Lead Role in Safeguarding, Chairing S42 Meeting, Leading Investigations, Guiding others regarding the Safeguarding process

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Salary: £46,148 to £52,809 a year (per annum/pro rata)