Social Worker / Advanced Social Worker - Yate

As a Social Worker or Advanced Social Worker, you will join our Adult Social Care Review team in a dual-graded role, with appointment based on your experience and professional development. Our focus is to deliver high-quality statutory reviews that improve outcomes, promote independence and enhance wellbeing for adults with care and support needs, working under the Care Act 2014, you will adopt a strengths-based and person-centred approach. Collaborating closely with partners, you will ensure individuals receive the right support at the right time, empowering them to live as independently as possible. With a strong emphasis on effective and lawful practice, the team ensures care and support remains appropriate and delivers best value, while supporting confident professional judgement and defensible decision making.

It will be your responsibility to manage a caseload of adults with care and support needs, helping them and their carers to identify goals, build on strengths and develop practical solutions. You will complete high-quality reviews, including needs assessments, care and support planning and safeguarding enquiries, ensuring plans remain strengths-based, proportionate, outcome focused and promote independence. In all aspects of your practice, you will promote dignity, choice and wellbeing, using sound professional judgement to balance safety, independence and positive outcomes. Collaboration will be key, as you will be working closely with colleagues across commissioning, health, housing and voluntary sector partners. You will maintain accurate, timely and confidential records in line with professional and council standards.

Advanced Social Workers Additional Responsibilities:

• Drawing on research and evidence-based practice, you will lead on more complex and high-risk cases, applying advanced professional judgement and taking responsibility for key decisions.
• Acting as a role model, you will support and develop best practice across the team through advice, mentoring and shared learning.
• You will contribute to workforce development, including supporting and supervising students on placement.
• In line with advanced practitioner expectations, you will maintain up-to-date core training and actively engage in continuing professional development.

What we need from you:

It is essential that you hold a recognised professional qualification in social work as well as registration with Social Work England. You will bring significant experience in adult social care, with a strong understanding of the Care Act 2014, Mental Capacity Act, safeguarding procedures and Continued Health Care (CHC), including CHC checklists. Ideally, you will understand partnership working between adult social care and NHS bodies, including Section 117 and joint funding.

Advanced Social Workers Additional Requirements:

• We are looking for someone who can bring significant post-qualification experience, including working with individuals with complex needs.
• You must evidence advanced level practice, demonstrating high-quality professional reasoning, sound judgement and leadership in complex situations.
• You will be expected to take a lead role in supporting practice development, contributing to and promoting high standards across the team.

What you need to know:

You will be expected to travel throughout the authority and surrounding area so you must have a full, valid driving licence with regular access to a vehicle or have an alternative means of travel. Business insurance will need to be added to your insurance policy. You can claim back mileage expenses. Please note that due to the nature of this role, it is a requirement of employment that an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check is obtained. This role is hybrid, with a mixture of working at our office in Badminton Road, working from home and working within the community.

How a career at South Gloucestershire Council is different:

As part of our benefits package, you will receive generous annual leave (pro rata), employee wellbeing support and you will have access to a range of staff discounts, including eye tests, travel, shopping and leisure activities. We recognise that our diverse team of skilled and dedicated people make us a great place to work. We welcome applications from everyone and ensure that individuals are selected, promoted and developed on the basis of their merits and abilities. If you want to develop a specialism, you'll get the support you need and your cases will be aligned with your areas of expertise. Seniors and managers will genuinely listen at panel and will support you to ensure your service users' needs are met. What's special here is the strength of the team ethos. We are a relatively small local authority, so managers know staff well. They can plan their services to ensure teams have manageable caseloads and have effective supervision so feel supported to make decisions which are right for the children and young people they work with. We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the safety and welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults, ensuring all our staff are given the right skills, knowledge and support to recognise and respond effectively to potential abuse or neglect.

Our teams at South Gloucestershire Council are making a real difference to the lives of people who live, work and learn here. We're building and shaping communities which people are proud of. We're working with the most vulnerable in our community to help them achieve what they want in life. We're investing in our schools to ensure every child and young person in South Gloucestershire achieves their full potential. We've achieved a great deal, but we need talented and dedicated people to ensure we continue to make a difference. We're making a difference, be part of it!