Social Worker - Adults

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.

We have a great opportunity to join the Kingston Hub Locality Team as a full time Social Worker. You will need to be registered with Social Work England to be considered for this post.

The role will require the worker to:

- Facilitate effective assessment and support planning in accordance to the Care Act 2014 for adults with physical health needs.

- Be responsible for undertaking reviews of our service users and supporting them and their needs as required, within the statutory timescales.

- To care manage a number of cases, including undertaking safeguarding investigations. The work will vary with different levels of complexity and risk.

- Achieve effective communications with colleagues in other departments within health and social care to ensure efficient and person centred multidisciplinary support planning.

- Ensure that onward required referrals to the correct service are made.

- Consider the correct funding path (e.g. ASC, CHC, Section 117, joint social care and health funding).

- Make effective use of resources through care planning, signposting to other services, or providing individuals with information and advice.

The Kingston Hub is a part of Adult Social Care within the Royal Borough of Kingston (RBK). We are one of three locality teams who support adults with physical health needs.

We are a friendly team of Social Workers and Support Co-ordinators that provides interventions for people with long-term care needs from the age of 18 and above. The primary client base is older adults and people with physical disabilities. The role offers an excellent opportunity to promote positive outcomes for individuals that we work with. This also involves being proactive in preventing harm from occurring to adults at risk.

Our involvement is proactive and empowering, focusing on liaising with individuals and their carers soon after their initial referral in order to assess their needs and create effective outcome-focused support plans. We work closely with the Reablement service in order to maximise people’s independence, choice and quality of life.

In order to promote a flexible, seamless service and offer continuity for individuals where required, we are able to provide targeted ongoing support. As such, our Social Workers have a varied caseload and are able to utilise the support of other specialist practitioners across other parts of the service.

In order to fulfil this role, you will need to be able to demonstrate excellent communication, assessment and case management skills. You’ll also need to possess effective organisation skills in order to balance and manage your cases and workload. In addition you’ll need to have knowledge and experience of applying local Safeguarding processes, as well as the London Multi-Agency Adult Safeguarding Policy and Procedures. A sound and up to date knowledge of all relevant legislation, social care initiatives and priorities is also required.

Other requirements include:

-An undergraduate or postgraduate in Social Work

-Registration with Social Work England

-Excellent communication skills, both in written and oral presentation

-Good assessment and case management skills

-Knowledge of Personal Budgets/Self Directed Support and the philosophy underpinning these

-Sound knowledge of relevant legislation and social care initiatives and priorities

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:

• 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

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.