Social Worker (Probation Liaison) Fixed term for one year. This job is open to external candidates as a fixed term contract and to internal candidates as a secondment. Please obtain line manager approval before interview and check eligibility.
£39,862 - £47,181 Social Worker £39 ,862 - £42,839 linked Senior Social Worker £44,075 - £47,181 (please see attached Job Description)Pay award pending
We have an exciting opportunity for a qualified Social Worker to join a unique co-located role between the Enhanced Support Team and Brighton Probation. This role will bring social work and mental health expertise directly into a probation setting, strengthening partnership working between health, social care and criminal justice services to improve outcomes for People on Probation. The role will work autonomously whilst building strong collaborative relationships across adult social care, mental health services, probation and wider partner agencies.
The post holder will provide specialist mental health and social care consultation, helping Probation Practitioners identify needs, manage risk and navigate local mental health, social care and safeguarding systems. The role will promote a strengths-based, person-centred approach, supporting individuals to access appropriate services while improving public protection and reducing the impact of unmet mental health needs on offending behaviour.
Working across organisational boundaries, you will contribute to multi-agency risk management processes, support practitioners to understand local mental health pathways and thresholds, and provide advice regarding Care Act responsibilities, safeguarding, mental capacity and wider social care legislation. You will also play a key role in developing practitioner knowledge and confidence through consultation, training and reflective practice.
Key Responsibilities
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Act as a specialist social work and mental health resource within Brighton Probation, providing consultation, advice and guidance to Probation Practitioners.
- Contribute to multi-agency risk management and public protection arrangements, including MAPPA Level 1 reviews, Integrated Offender Management (IOM) activity, local learning events and probation POD meetings.
- Provide timely advice regarding mental health presentations, risk management, safeguarding concerns and access to health and social care services.
- Support practitioners to navigate local mental health pathways and understand service thresholds, including identifying alternative options where individuals do not meet eligibility criteria.
- Provide guidance regarding adult social care responsibilities, including Care Act assessments, safeguarding enquiries, Mental Capacity Act considerations and wider statutory duties.
- Hold a small caseload completing Care Act assessments, safeguarding enquiries, Mental Capacity Act considerations and wider statutory duties.
- Facilitate reflective discussions and case consultations, both individually and in groups, to strengthen professional decision-making and support best practice.
- Deliver training, workshops and learning sessions informed by emerging themes, practice issues, local learning and workforce development needs.
- Promote effective partnership working between probation, adult social care, mental health services, housing, substance misuse services and other community partners.
- Support strengths-based and recovery-focused approaches which promote wellbeing, independence and improved outcomes for People on Probation.
- Maintain accurate, timely and professionally defensible records and contribute to service development, quality improvement and practice learning activities.
About You
You will be a qualified Social Worker registered with Social Work England, with experience of working within adult social care and/or mental health services. You will have a strong understanding of the Care Act, safeguarding, mental health practice and multi-agency working, alongside excellent communication, consultation and relationship-building skills.
You will be confident working autonomously, providing professional advice to colleagues, and supporting practitioners to manage complexity, uncertainty and risk. You will be passionate about improving outcomes for individuals with mental health needs and will be committed to promoting equality, inclusion, recovery and strengths-based practice across partner organisations.
The ideal candidate will have experience of delivering training, facilitating reflective discussions, and building effective partnerships across health, social care and criminal justice settings, with the ability to influence practice and support continuous service improvement.
Encouraging a diverse workforce
Our city is known and loved for its diversity. Not only is the mixture of people, culture and skills vital to the economic and social development of the city, it's what makes Brighton & Hove such a great place to live, work and visit. We are committed to developing and retaining a workforce that is representative of the diverse communities we serve so we welcome applications from individuals from all backgrounds. In order to achieve our aims of proportionate representation, we particularly encourage applicants from a BME or White Other background as well as those who identify as disabled, male or trans.
Find out more about our commitment to being a fair and inclusive place to work where everyone can achieve their potential by reading about our fair and inclusive actions, our anti-racism strategy and the work we are doing to encourage a diverse workforce (brighton-hove.gov.uk).
Why work for us?
As a council, we want to:
- be connected
- be confident
- be innovative and creative
- be diverse and inclusive
- be healthy and psychologically safe
For more information about our values and the benefits of working at the council, visit Why work for us which gives details of our wellbeing support, our benefits including leave and pensions as well as details of our training and development.
How to apply
Please read our Apply for a job at the council pages carefully. They give you all the guidance you need to complete your application as well as information on what will happen after you’ve submitted your application and at interview.
As part of your application, you will need to provide your education and career history and answer some application/shortlisting questions. Your answers to the application/shortlisting questions are the most important part of your application as they will be used in the shortlisting process to assess whether you meet the essential requirements for the role that are set out in the person specification and to decide whether you should be offered an interview. Before you start your application, please read our Shortlisting questions guidance (brighton-hove.gov.uk) as this gives important advice which will increase your chance of success in the shortlisting process.
AI advice for candidates
We are interested in hearing about your experience and skills in your own words. While we value people who know how to use AI, we ask that you minimise using it in your application.
We are keen to hear how your experience and skills align to our values and the skills and experience needed to perform well in our roles with clear real examples from you. To support you in this, we have guidance on using the STAR model which can help you ensure you are telling us your whole story. We also provide clarity on the skills we are looking for in our adverts and in the job description/person specification attached to each job advert.
All the applications we receive are read by at least two hiring managers and we do not use AI in this process. Our experience of reading applications is that those that have heavily used AI contain generic paragraphs that are strikingly similar to other applicants’ responses. This makes it extremely difficult to differentiate between applications, and doesn't give us enough evidence of your individual skills. There is a risk that we will therefore not be able to shortlist you. Instead, we recommend you ensure your application stands out by presenting clear examples of your actual skills and experiences in your own words.
Additional information
Your starting salary will be pro rata if the above position is less than 37 hours or term-time only.
Please note that this post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, and is subject to a Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) Check.
We are a workplace that supports flexibility and employee wellbeing in the way we work whilst providing the best service for our customers. Team and service working arrangements are designed to support both employee work life balance and team collaboration. These would be part of your individual working arrangements alongside any personal preference agreed with your manager in advance of joining. Your contractual location will be the designated council office for your team and travel to and from your contractual location would be at your own expense.
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