Adult Experienced Social Worker

The successful individual will be part of a community-based mental health Hospital Discharge Team working within a multi-disciplinary model supporting people between the ages of 18-65. The role involves minimising barriers and improving patient experience across discharge pathways to ensure safe and timely discharges.

You will uphold the principles of care closest to home, as evident in the Home First Programme, which the health and social care community is fully signed up to. You will engage in the least restrictive environment and be instrumental in reducing delayed discharges from hospital and step-down settings, as well as reducing an over-reliance on out of area placements, to promote better outcomes for people and their families.

You will be part of a wider community team working across health and social care, delivering an integrated model of Discharge. The wider Health and Social Care Team consists of a lead social worker, discharge coordinators, nurses and consultants from Sheffield Health and Social Care NHS Foundation Trust. You will be supported by a Team Manager and Service Manager and will work closely with various clinical partners including acute staff, commissioning, housing acute staff, local authorities, voluntary agencies and the South Yorkshire Integrated Care Board.

As a Discharge Social Worker, you will represent a social work perspective to adults 18-65 experiencing mental health difficulties. You will be a champion of the social model of intervention within the discharge process from acute inpatient wards, hospitals and out of city placements, ensuring that social factors contributing towards the person's mental health are recognised and addressed as far as possible.

You will work in partnership with service users and carers, identifying and utilising strengths and working closely with other agencies and voluntary groups to ensure good outcomes which, as far as possible, maintain independence. You will have a good working knowledge of the Care Act, Mental Health Act, Mental Capacity Act/DOLS, Human Rights Act, s117 funding and other social care legislation.

Within the team, it is vital that Social Workers, including the Discharge Social Worker, maintain a social perspective to their work and promote social care issues within the wider team. Additionally, you may occasionally work with the established needs and risk forum to review packages of care.

As part of your role, you will offer expert advice and guidance to inpatient colleagues on adult safeguarding matters, including writing reports and representing/supporting MDT and other relevant meetings. You will attend post-discharge follow-up meetings and complete a review between 6-12 weeks, prior to handing the case over to the community Social Work Team.

We are investing in our workforce and promoting opportunities to our under-represented groups. We value equality, diversity and inclusion and are focused on increasing the diversity of our workforce, particularly the number of Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic, Disabled and LGBTQ+ people, so that our teams reflect the communities in the city we serve. We are also supporting staff with unpaid caring responsibilities to work flexibly.

If you are appointed to this role, your starting salary will be at the bottom of the grade. If you provide payslip evidence that your basic pay is greater than the bottom of the grade, we will consider starting you at the point of minimum advantage within the grade. Equality of pay is extremely important to us. All roles at Sheffield City Council are going through an evaluation process which may result in changes to some pay arrangements from 2026.

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all individuals, ensuring a safe and supportive environment for everyone, and where appropriate to the role, the successful applicant will be required to undertake relevant safeguarding checks.