Advanced Practitioner - Social Worker - Neighbourhoods (Adults) in Taunton

Transform lives, champion rights & support adults to achieve their full potential.

Location: Yeovil and Bridgwater

Starting salary £41,771 rising annually, currently up to £46,142

Full time, 37 hours per week

Ideal opportunity for an experienced practitioner looking for their next step

30 days annual leave entitlement

Role Purpose

As an Advanced Practitioner Social Worker, you will provide professional leadership within a neighbourhood-based service, supporting adults to live as independently as possible within their own communities. You will work closely with your team, health colleagues and community partners to promote independence through strengths‑based practice, developing an in-depth understanding of local resources that enable people to remain connected to their families, networks and communities. This role combines advanced practice, leadership and system working, enabling you to support complex cases, guide practitioners and shape integrated, community-led care across neighbourhoods.

Key Responsibilities

• Provide professional leadership and advanced practice within your neighbourhood team
• Support and oversee complex cases, offering guidance, joint working and professional decision-making
• Promote independence and prevention, enabling people to remain in their own homes and communities for longer
• Lead and support safeguarding practice, including complex risk management and mental capacity decision-making
• Provide high-quality reflective supervision to Social Workers and Adult Social Care Practitioners
• Work closely with health partners and neighbourhood PCNs, supporting integrated care delivery
• Develop strong links with community and voluntary sector organisations to enhance local provision
• Contribute to service development, shaping and improving neighbourhood-based services
• Support workflow, risk management and decision-making within the team alongside your Service Manager

What We’re Looking For – Essential Skills/Experience

• Qualified Social Worker with current registration with Social Work England
• Extensive post-qualifying experience within Adult Social Care
• Strong knowledge of the Care Act 2014, Mental Capacity Act 2005 and safeguarding legislation
• Experience supporting practitioners and leading complex case discussions
• Strong skills in risk management, analysis and professional decision-making
• Excellent communication and partnership-working skills across multidisciplinary teams

About the Team/Service

Advanced Practitioners work closely with their teams, health and community colleagues to build an in-depth understanding of community resources that support independence. You will play a key role in ensuring residents are supported to remain within their local communities, promoting continuity, stability and strengths-based solutions tailored to individual needs.

You will work alongside:

• Social Workers, Adult Social Care Practitioners and Occupational Therapists
• Health partners within neighbourhood PCNs
• Wider community and voluntary sector organisations

This is a busy but highly supportive environment where collaboration, learning and leadership are actively encouraged.

Additional Information

• You will be required to work from an office base a minimum of 2 days per week, with the remainder of your time worked flexibly using a hybrid model
• You will utilise your experience to guide and empower your team to support residents to remain independent within their communities
• The role involves supervising registered Social Workers and Adult Social Care Practitioners
• Opportunities for progression, leadership development and advanced practice are actively supported through supervision and training

Please Note: We may consider offering Skilled Worker visa sponsorship to suitably qualified overseas social workers who are already residing in the UK. To be eligible, applicants must hold a recognised social work qualification and be registered with Social Work England. Sponsorship will be assessed as part of the recruitment process. This is only available to candidates currently living in the UK, as unfortunately we are unable to provide resettlement support.

Due to the nature of the role and the geographical area of the service across Somerset, which is a largely rural county, with limitations around public transport the ability to be able to travel to any location is essential. Therefore, applicants must have full access to a vehicle that can be used for work purposes.

We recognise and welcome applications from disabled individuals who may require reasonable adjustments to meet this requirement, and we’re happy to discuss this from the first point of contact with the recruitment team.

For an informal chat about the role, you can contact Helen Readdy, Recruitment & Engagement Officer (Adult Services) helen.readdy@somerset.gov.uk

Person Specification

• Current and valid registration with Social Work England.
• Evidence of Continued Professional Development.
• Holding or working towards Post Qualifying Professional Standard
• Extensive knowledge of social work practice, with an emphasis on risk management, with adults of any age who have physical, sensory, learning disability, dementia, or other long-term conditions
• Extensive experience in supporting staff with complex casework, including chairing relevant meetings, following agreed procedures, and resulting in robust action plans with defined timescales.
• Good understanding of the practical application of all relevant Social Care legislation and proven track record of supporting staff with statutory requirements.
• Understanding of system thinking, used to reduce demand and costs.
• Experience of operating within a budgetary framework and an understanding of the relationship between this and managing demand.
• Model and promote confident and critical application of professional ethics to decision-making, using a legal and human rights framework, and support others to do so
• Model and promote a culture which encourages reflection on the influence and impact of own values on professional practice
• Demonstrate confident leadership, management and arbitration of ethical dilemmas, providing guidance and opportunities for the professional development of others
• Promote people’s rights to autonomy and self-determination, supporting, challenging and guiding others as appropriate
• Provide critical reflection, challenge and evidence-informed decision-making in complex situations
• Routinely provide professional social work opinion, based on clear rationale and advanced professional knowledge.
• Demonstrate knowledge of appropriate legal and policy frameworks, case law and the application to social work practice. Seek appropriate legal advice and apply legal reasoning, using professional expertise.
• Demonstrate and apply to practice a working knowledge of human growth and development throughout the life span recognising the impact of relationships, psychological, socio-economic, environmental and physiological factors on people’s lives, taking into account age and development, and how this informs practice
• Work autonomously and as part of a team, understanding and appropriately developing the scope of professional practice to create new ways of working for the benefit of those who access services, their families, and their carers.
• Recognise how systemic approaches can be used to understand the person in the environment and inform practice.
• Exercise professional judgement to manage risk, including positive risk-taking, especially in complex and unpredictable situations, and support others to do so.
• Demonstrate a critical knowledge of the range of theories and models of intervention for individuals, families, children, groups and communities
• Awareness of changing contexts at local, national and organisational level and the implications for practice
• Promote, articulate and support a positive social work identity, promoting strategies for collaboration and a supportive team culture
• Anticipate and begin to contribute to change management in the social work context
• Demonstrate personal and professional resilience showing confidence about your role in the team, work positively with others and contribute to team working by developing a learning environment for self, teams and colleagues
• Able to demonstrate awareness of own professional limitations, personal values and knowledge gaps, to critically reflect on the influence and impact on professional practice and engage in regular supervision to improve practice and career development
• Advocate for, and facilitate the creation of, a culture in which everyone is encouraged to reflect and learn (including from mistakes), to receive and give constructive feedback and to learn from and with each other.