Main Grade Social worker Kingston upon Thames, England
Job description
31/03/2023, 23:55
This special place in South West London between the capital and the country has been a Royal borough longer than anywhere else - it is where the first kings of England were crowned.
Today it is a vibrant and diverse borough, with a long history and strong cultural and community heritage. Kingston's riverside location, fantastic retail offer, historic market place and church, parks and gardens all make Kingston town centre the vibrant space it is, and each of our district town centres (Surbiton, New Malden, Tolworth and Chessington) have something unique to offer.
Situated in Zone 6, Kingston is among the best-connected town centres in London – with direct train links from Kingston and Surbiton stations to Clapham Junction and London Waterloo, as well as Wimbledon for an interchange with the London Underground and Tramlink.
Kingston’s people are innovative and entrepreneurial, and have a strong sense of community pride. The borough has been home to great industry and creativity for many years, reflected in assets such as the Rose Theatre, the International Youth Arts Festival and Kingston University, which boasts more new graduate business start-ups than any other.
We have seen tremendous generosity and compassion within our communities, particularly in response to COVID-19, which is a demonstration of Kingston’s key strength. The council offers a strong level of support to vulnerable groups and those who need additional support, which has also increased significantly as a result of the pandemic. Like most places, the average age of our population is rising as more people are living longer, so we are working closely with residents to help them maintain their independence and further improve the cost effectiveness of our service to meet the ongoing rise in demand.
Kingston is home to people from diverse and interesting cultures and backgrounds, which helps to create the rich sense of community shared across the borough. In particular, Kingston has a large Sri Lankan Tamil community and is home to more people from Korea than any other part of the UK.
MAIN PURPOSE OF JOB
The Royal Borough of Kingston’s vision is that it has a national reputation as one of the very best places to live and work. The post holder will have a major contribution to make to deliver that vision and the strategic priorities set out in the Kingston Plan by providing effective professional Social Work or Occupational Therapy provision across Adult Social Care.
- To ensure compliance with the professional code of conduct and fulfil obligations under the relevant legislation.
- To be fully responsible for managing a service caseload including customers with complex needs.
- To be responsible for accepting referrals, undertaking screening, and carrying out assessment of needs for customers.
- To apply eligibility criteria as identified in the Care Act, differentiate between customers’ essential and desirable needs as part of assessment and work in accordance with the requirements of the Care Act..
- To discharge statutory duties related to the care of adults and of their carers.
- To maintain the professional qualifications, memberships and registrations required to perform the role.
- To develop and maintain effective working relationships with all partners (both internal and external) in order to ensure that the team can deliver a co-ordinated, timely and appropriate service to the customer.
- To promote and participate in good team working practices and to demonstrate these whenever possible.
- To ensure both staff and public safety, by preventing and diffusing difficult situations and taking responsibility to escalate to managers where necessary.
- To deal effectively and promptly with escalations from team members.
- To keep up-to-date with developments, products and information relating to the service and the rest of the council to ensure that appropriate and timely information is given to customers.
- To ensure proportionate risk assessments for both the customer and the carer associated with any support plan have been carried out.
- To undertake reviews of customers with long term needs as required and within statutory timelines and carry out reassessments as required.
To be successful in this role you you need to be registered with Social work England.
A team Player
Good communication skills
As an organisation that values and nurtures talent, we’re committed to helping you fulfil your potential and will offer you a supportive, friendly and collaborative environment to grow and develop your career and skills. We’re constantly striving to improve our ways of working so putting your ideas across however big or small; will be fully encouraged and supported by your colleagues and our dynamic and experienced management team.
In addition we offer a modern and flexible working environment for our staff supported by our IT infrastructure, Google Chromebooks and Google Apps, which have acted as a key enabler for collaborative and streamlined working. The COVID-19 pandemic has required us to be even more flexible in how we work and manage staff workloads, ensuring they have the correct equipment and resources to be able to maximise their talents and looking after their wellbeing.
Employees have access to a wide range of benefits, some of which include:
This post attracts a golden hello incentive of £1,000 that is applicable to successful candidates for joining RBK. T & C's apply.
- Generous annual leave entitlement plus bank holidays (pro-rata if part-time working hours apply)
- Three volunteering days per year
- Flexible and agile working arrangements
- Comprehensive learning and development programme
- Discounts on a range of local shops, restaurants, gyms and leisure centres
- Interest free season ticket loans
- Local Government Pension Scheme
- Bicycle loan facilities and cycle to work scheme
- Zip car scheme
- Free eye tests and contribution towards glasses
- Confidential wellbeing and counselling support
- Subsidised gym membership
The closing date is given as a guide. We reserve the right to close this vacancy once a sufficient number of applications has been received. Therefore, it is strongly advised that you complete and submit your application as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.
We pride ourselves on being a diverse, tolerant and welcoming Borough and we aim to create a workforce which reflects the community we serve. We are respectful of difference and realise the positive value of diversity in our workforce. We welcome and encourage job applications from people of all backgrounds and particularly welcome applications from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic candidates and disabled candidates as these groups are currently under-represented in our workforce.
We are proud to be recognised as a Disability Confident employer, and are committed to thinking differently about disability and taking action to improve how we recruit, retain and develop disabled people. We guarantee to interview all disabled applicants who meet the minimum/essential criteria for the role.
We offer a range of family friendly, inclusive employment policies, flexible working arrangements, staff engagement forums, and inclusive staff networks who help drive our diversity agenda.
We are an accredited London Living Wage Employer and this means that everyone working at the Royal Borough of Kingston, regardless of whether they are permanent employees or third-party contractors and suppliers receive the London Living Wage. The real Living Wage is higher than the government’s minimum, or National Living Wage, and is an independently calculated hourly rate of pay that is based on the actual cost of living.
The UK has introduced a new points-based immigration system affecting EU and Non-EU workers and sponsorship requirements. We advise checking the GOV.UK website for right to work guidance.
