Senior Social Work Practitioner - Safeguarding Adults Hub

West Sussex County Council is a diverse organisation that provides services to more than 850,000 residents. Employees are genuinely valued, respected and there is an emphasis on work life balance. We are committed to fostering personal growth, with ongoing professional development and continuous learning at the heart of our culture.

The Safeguarding Adults Hub providers the single point of access for all Safeguarding Adults. The referrals and queries that the Safeguarding Hub responds to cover the full spectrum of life across West Sussex. The hub will triage all safeguarding referrals submitted to the Local Authority, initiate all safeguarding enquiries and develop initial safeguarding plans.

The Safeguarding Adults hub is a fast-paced dynamic team who work across different agencies including the police, the fire service, domestic abuse services and health to assess risk, whilst working primarily under the scope of the Care Act 2014 to determine whether further enquiries should be made under section 42 of the Act.

The Safeguarding Adults Hub is an established team who have a vast combined amount of experience, and have developed a successful approach to Safeguarding Adults in West Sussex. We’re a supportive team who ensure that our practice is developed and maintained by use of team reflection and continuous learning and development.

Hear from the team

"The Adult Safeguarding Hub provides a team of highly supportive colleagues who genuinely care for and encourage each other on a daily basis. The team offers a range of training opportunities, with personal and career development promoted within the team. The role is dynamic and fast paced which provides a range of interesting experiences each day, and ongoing learning opportunities for practice."

— Senior Social Worker

"I love being a part of a supportive and friendly team and the close connections I have with my colleagues."

— Senior Social Work Practitioner

About The Job

Salary:£48,226 to £51,356 per annum

Working Pattern: Full time, 37 hours per week

Contract Type: Permanent

Location: Horsham office base

You will work as part of a strong and dynamic social work service. In this role you will work with colleagues from all our statutory partners, providers and members of the public when reviewing and making vital decisions in relation to Safeguarding Adults.

As a Senior Social Work Practitioner, you’ll support the Team Manager in delivering high-quality, strengths-based practice. You’ll play a key role in mentoring and supervising colleagues, managing complex cases, and ensuring high standards across assessments and care planning, and the functioning of duty.

You will be expected to work within organisational, policy and legislative frameworks as you support young people to increase their independence and plan for the future.

You’ll need a strong commitment to the strengths-based model—empowering people to meet their outcomes using their own capabilities, family support, and local community assets, alongside funded care where appropriate.

To succeed in this role you need to have sound and accurate IT and keyboard skills, As a senior team member you will need to be able to work autonomously and flexibly, including some working out of normal office hours. You will also need to be able to travel across the county and work from various locations across the county.

What You’ll Be Doing

• Supporting the Team Manager in day-to-day operations
• Supervising and mentoring team members
• Chairing Best Interest Meetings
• Quality assuring assessments and reviews with a strengths-based focus
• Promoting and supporting staff wellbeing
• Contributing to complaint resolution and continuous service improvement
• Holding your own case load

You will be a confident and empathetic communicator—capable of managing expectations, delivering difficult messages sensitively, and finding alternative solutions in line with our approach. Experience in a supervisory role (or strong foundations and training in supervision) is essential.

You’ll also be committed to upholding strong social work values and supporting both qualified and unqualified staff.

We kindly ask that previous applicants do not reapply for this position.

Experience and Skills

Key Skills include:

• Ability to work proactively as a member of the team to make an accurate assessment of needs and negotiate and implement effective plans and outcomes, whilst prioritising workload and meeting deadlines.
• Expertise of managing situations with complex and competing risks, utilising a risk enablement approach, and using evidence-based practice. Solution focussed with the ability to analyse complex situations and provide forward thinking strategies and solutions that consider a variety of possible strength-based solutions, balancing risks, resources and desired outcomes.
• Highly developed communication skills to influence in a multi-disciplinary setting and communicate clearly and effectively to explain complicated information to a wide range of people and negotiate and persuade others to adopt a particular course of action that they may not otherwise wish to take.
• Able to model and use social work skills in practice, supervision, mentoring and leadership to develop and maintain an environment in which professionally curiosity, critical reflection and analysis is valued, staff are supported their find own solutions and practice capability is developed.

Please see job description for full list of key skills, additional qualifications and/or experience for this role and cover how you meet them in your application.

Rewards and Benefits

For a full list of the benefits offered to you as a West Sussex County Council employee you can find them on our Rewards and Benefits page.

Further Information

The reference number for this role is CAFHE06220.

For an informal conversation or for further information regarding the role, please contact Marina Sowter (Team Manager Adult Services and Health) at ***email_hidden*** . For issues or queries regarding your application please contact [email protected] .

To apply, upload your CV and complete the application explaining the skills and experience you can bring to the role ensuring that any gaps in employment are covered in your CV. Please ensure you have saved the job description attached to the main advert on our website as, once the job has closed, you may not have the opportunity to download again.

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. This post is subject to Social Work England registration, an enhanced DBS check, 5 years referencing and a health check.

West Sussex County Council is an equal opportunities employer committed to promoting an environment that is inclusive and free from all forms of unlawful or unfair discrimination and values the diversity of its people. We actively welcome applications from people of all backgrounds and take every possible step to ensure that no individual will be disadvantaged.

For information regarding your eligibility to apply for this role under our Disability or Veteran’s Guaranteed Interview Scheme (if you meet all the essential criteria), this can be found on our application help page.

Note for Recruitment Agencies: We prefer to hire people directly, but we do have a supplier list for when we need a helping hand. We'll be in touch directly if we need you!

Job Reference: CAFHE06220