Discharge Mental Health Practitioner – Qualified Social
Our values are: We Care, We Respect, We are Inclusive – so we are looking for people who live and breathe these qualities when supporting service users and carers, and in their relationships with colleagues in the Trust and our partner organisations.
Job overview
City and Hackney CMHT Discharge Social Worker.
An exciting opportunity has arisen within MHCOP City and Hackney CMHT for a the Band 6 Social Worker to join the team.
The Discharge Social worker is a relatively newly created role to support and assess older adults who are experiencing a wider range of mental health difficulties to be discharged from In- patient assessment wards.
The Discharge worker will also contribute to the discharge planning of older adults who have been admitted into General hospital or working age inpatient wards and need support to be discharged.
The Discharge worker will be based two days in the Team Base in Hackney and will be expected to attend ward rounds/MDT meetings in Older adult wards in Mile end and Newham and may attend some out of area hospitals to contribute to the discharge planning, if there are City and Hackney Older adult patients who need support for discharge.
The Discharge worker will have close connections to the wards working within a rich multi-disciplinary team on the wards and in close partnership with Local Authorities and ICB.
Main duties of the job
To work as a Discharge Social Worker, representing a social work perspective to older adults experiencing mental health difficulties.
The Discharge Social Worker will be a champion of the social model of intervention within the discharge process from Acute Inpatient Wards and General hospital Wards and will ensure that social factors contributing towards the mental health difficulties are recognised and addressed as far as possible.
The Discharge Social Worker will be expected to 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.
The Discharge Social Worker will have a good working knowledge of The Care Act, Mental Health Act and Mental Capacity Act/DOLS 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 team.
To offer expert advice and guidance to the team on adult safeguarding issues, including writing reports and representing/supporting conferences and other relevant meetings.
To complete post discharge 7 day follow up and 6 week review prior to handover to the community Care Co ordinator.
Working for our organisation
Our mission is to make a positive difference to people's lives by improving the quality of life for all we serve. Our values are: We Care, We Respect, We are Inclusive – so we are looking for people who live and breathe these qualities when supporting service users and carers, and in their relationships with colleagues in the Trust and our partner organisations.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Kindly refer to the job description and person specification that is attached to the vacancy profile.
Person specification
Educational/ Qualification
Essential criteria- Dip SW or equivalent and registered with Social Work England
- Evidence of continual professional development
- Post registration training in relevant area e.g. AMPH, practice educator
Experience
Essential criteria- Substantial community experience of providing mental health care at Band 6 or above
- Experience of working in a multi-professional team
- Experience of supervising and appraising staff.
- Experience of deputising and leading an MDT in the absence of the team manager
Knowledge/Skills
Essential criteria- Ability to undertake mental health assessments in a professional and sensitive manner
- Ability to communicate with service users/carers and colleagues across agencies effectively
- Ability to negotiate and lead across professional boundaries
- Ability to challenge traditional methods of practice in a constructive manner.
- Ability to identify best practice and develop action plans to resolve poor practice.
- Ability to manage own time and work independently, prioritising work as required.
- Ability to chair clinical meetings to ensure productive outcomes is achieved
- Ability to supervise and appraise staff members.
- Ability to motivate and inspire staff
Personal Qualities
Essential criteria- Team player, able to negotiate and lead other professionals whilst considering competing views and agendas
- Able to work independently, with initiative, but to seek appropriate guidance and supervision when required.
- Self-motivated, committed and open to new ideas and experiences
- Committed to core social work values, able to recognise that protection is sometimes required and should be carried out in the least restrictive manner observing the human and civil rights of the individual
- A commitment to leadership & change management
Additional Requirements
Essential criteria- Car driver essential and be able to travel between Trust sites throughout the County
- Full driving license
- Flexible working according to the needs of the service and to support work/life balance and improving working lives.
Making Things Better
Quality Improvement is a key part of our work to improve our services and refine how we do things. We have a global reputation for our quality improvement work and we don’t stand still! So we offer a fantastic opportunity for our staff to learn, lead and contribute towards improving our services.
We launched our Five Year Strategy in April 2018, which identified four main strategic outcomes to improve: population health outcomes, experience of care, staff experience and improve value. This complements the NHS Long Term Strategy and sets out our direction of travel.
Our Community
We provide a wide range of community health and mental health inpatient services to children, young people, adults of working age, and older adults in The City of London, Hackney, Newham, Tower Hamlets, Bedfordshire and Luton. We also provide psychological therapy services to the London Borough of Richmond, and provide Forensic services to the whole of North East London.We provide services in urban and rural settings, sometimes in our inpatient units, but mostly in the community close to where people live. Integrated care is key in making the best use of resources and providing effective care.
Aiming High
We were rated ‘Outstanding’ by the CQC in 2016, were proud to be rated ‘Outstanding’ again in 2018 and continue to be rate 'Outstanding' in 2021.. We were named in the HSJ’s Top 10 best places to work in healthcare and were voted Provider Trust of the Year in 2018.
Staff and Service Users United
We strive to ensure that staff feel valued by the Trust and as they are truly pivotal in delivering better outcomes for our patients and service users. Our aspiration is to help to make ELFT the best place to work. This Trust is clinician-led and provides the highest possible level of clinical expertise throughout its services.We pride ourselves on our service user involvement. A service user will be on your assessment centre and interview panel if you are invited to meet us.
We especially welcome people with lived experience of health difficulties, with insight and understanding of different backgrounds, cultures and lifestyles in our population as we believe that this will equip staff to deliver a high standard of care to our service users and patients.
Diversity
ELFT Is committed to being a diverse organisation and our workforce is reflective of the population and communities we serve. We believe that having colleagues with a range of backgrounds and life experiences enriches and adds value to the outcomes we have set out to achieve.Having partnered and endorsed by organisations who are representative and experts in various areas of equality and diversity, we can ensure we are meeting the pre-set standards all the way from recruitment stage throughout the career journey of our employees by being accessible, having fair inclusive practices and a host of staff networks to support, nurture and celebrate our valued staff in the workplace.
Other reasons to apply
As a flexible working friendly organisation, we want to be sure that you can work in a way that is best for us and for our patients, and for you. Speak to us about how we might be able to accommodate a flexible working arrangement whether that’s job share, part time or another flexible pattern.
As part of the relocation scheme we presently have, the Trust could support you with offering up to £10,000 for removal and associated expenses. This is subject to change and terms and conditions apply.
What Next?
If you like the sound of ELFT, don’t waste a moment. We sometimes close adverts early if there is a high response, so apply now!
As part of our recruitment process we may be required to share information you provide on the application form with NHS Counter Fraud Authority (NHSCFA) and/or other organisations for the purpose of the prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of fraud or any other unlawful activity affecting the NHS.We also use third party providers to check and verify your qualifications who may be contacting you on our behalf to verify the same..
If you do not hear from us within four weeks of the closing date, please consider that you have not been shortlisted on this occasion. You must provide professional email addresses for all referees as we will contact them as soon as an offer has been made.Please note we do not request references prior to interviews. All applications made through NHS Jobs account will be processed by TRAC System. Please note that some emails may go to your spam/junk mailbox so make sure you check this regularly.
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