NHS Social Worker | Certificate of Sponsorship

Position: NHS Social Worker

Job Type: Full Time

Salary: £49,387 to £56,515 a year per annum

Location: Bedford

Employer: East London NHS Foundation Trust

Application Deadline: August 30^th, 2026

Job summary

As one of two Team Managers, the postholder is jointly responsible for providing operational leadership and day-to-day management of the team, ensuring the delivery of safe, effective, recovery-focused, and person-centred services. The role includes leading on social work practice and statutory responsibilities, ensuring compliance with the Care Act, safeguarding duties, carers’ assessments, and the Mental Health Act, including undertaking duties as an Approved Mental Health Professional (AMHP).

The postholder provides professional leadership, performance management, and clinical oversight, supporting staff in managing complex cases and care planning. Working closely with the Operational Manager and Assistant Director, they contribute to service development, policy implementation, and continuous improvement to ensure services meet commissioner requirements, Trust objectives, and achieve positive outcomes for service users.

Main duties of the job

You will have deputy management responsibility for contributing to supporting and improving the quality and performance of the team. The list below is not exhaustive but reflects the main duties of the post. As one of the two seniors you will work collaboratively with the Operational Manager

About us

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.

Job description

Job responsibilities

For detailed job description and main responsibilities of the role please refer to the job description and person specification.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• Registered Professional Mental Health Nurse, Social Work, Occupational Therapist with current registration with NMC/HCPC.
• Evidence of post registration continue professional development, qualifications or equivalent experience
• Educated to degree level or equivalent experience

Desirable

• Nurse Mentor
• Management or Leadership Qualification
• Practice Educator or mentor

Experience

Essential

• Previous experience of working within a community mental health setting and case load management
• Previous experience of managing others and functioning as a team member
• Previous experience of Management and Clinical Supervision of others, including annual appraisal
• Previous experience of organisational change
• Previous experience of service development, quality improvement and of bringing innovation and new ideas to practice
• Previous experience of working within the NHS and with senior allied professionals, internal and external stake holders
• Previous experience delivering therapeutic interventions such as PSI/ CBT etc
• The ability to assertively engage resistant service users with complex clinical needs & associated risks

Skills

Essential

• Computer literacy
• Excellent organisational skills – able to prioritise own work and manage own time
• Excellent oral and written communication and presentation skills and the ability to meet tight timelines
• Excellent skills of conflict resolution, negotiation and facilitation
• Acts upon service user and carer feedback and information to improve the way things are done taking personal responsibility for resolving
• Ability to build relationships and negotiate satisfactory outcomes with internal and external Stakeholders
• Anticipates and takes action in order to create and seize opportunities to avoid crises taking an overview of complex situations to generate new perspectives – ‘thinks outside the box’ identifies and implements quick wins where possible
• Ability to review and analyse complex data and recommend a course of action and objectives and motivate staff to achieve them
• European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL) and mobility to work across multiples settings in the locality

Knowledge

Essential

• Excellent knowledge of current and relevant local and national agendas that impact upon community mental health services and the wider health and social care system and the ability to understand and disseminate this knowledge to others
• Sound knowledge and understanding of the Mental Health Act (1983/ 2007/ 2014/5), Care Act (2014), relevant national standards, No Health without Mental Health (2011) and other relevant national policies
• Very good understanding of recovery principles and NICE guidance in relation to mental health community services and the ability to ensure that evidence based practice with clear clinical outcomes is embedded into practice
• Demonstrate a knowledge base for substance misuse and associated risks

Personal Attributes (demonstrable)

Essential

• Self aware demonstrating a consistent inclusive leadership style focused on achieving the best results and overcoming obstacles
• Takes action to enable teams to achieve maximum contribution, communicates vision, direction, and outcomes clearly, motivating others to achieve
• Ability to work independently and as part of a team and able to both/influence and work across professional boundaries
• Takes specific action to improve team or individual performance intervening promptly and constructively to support
• Ability to communicate positive expectations of the organisation to teams in a enabling and supportive manner
• Ability to remain calm under pressure, motivate others and be flexible and adaptable to change
• Demonstrates they care and values others, able to acknowledge and reward good work, celebrating team and individual success
• Demonstrates they care and values others, able to acknowledge and reward good work, celebrating team and individual success
• Ability to lead on the effective management of organisational change in order to promote team resilience, retention and emotional intelligence

Other (please specify)

Essential

• Keeps up to date with activities of the organisation
• Able to demonstrate a commitment to self-development

Additional information

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Certificate of Sponsorship

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration.

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