Social Worker - Mental Health
Job description
Original text imported from Reed
Joining our Mental Health and Substance Misuse Team as a qualified and experienced Social Worker, you’ll bring creativity, compassion and a strong commitment to person centred, strengths based practice. You’ll be part of a supportive team that values collaboration, shared learning and continuous professional growth, with plenty of opportunities for training and development.
Our Mental Health Service is entering an exciting period of transformation, reshaping how we work and adopting innovative, needs led approaches to improve outcomes for the people we support. You’ll play an active role in this evolving landscape – contributing to new ways of working, strengthening collaboration with health partners, and helping us enhance our engagement with individuals who are hardest to reach. It’s a great opportunity to be part of a service that’s moving forward and to help shape positive change through your day to day practice.
What you’ll be doing:
- Conducting comprehensive assessments of individuals' needs and available support.
- Managing a complex caseload whilst providing supervision for Case Workers and Senior Case Workers and practice advice on complex cases.
- Participating in duty to triage urgent cases as well as triaging safeguarding referrals and making informed decisions.
- Liaising with colleagues in Health to facilitate hospital discharges.
- Holding forensic cases and working closely with the Ministry of Justice.
What we’re looking for:
- Social Work qualification and registered with Social Work England (SWE).?Due to the needs of the team, we’re unable to consider Newly Qualified Social Workers for this post.
- Experience working in a UK-based statutory setting.
- A sound understanding of how to apply a strengths-based approach.?
- Understanding of social work issues, legal frameworks and social services’ statutory duties.?
- Commitment to demonstrating our values and behaviours, showing compassion, empathy and respect.
Why join us?
- Excellent Practice Validation:?Progress to a Senior Social Worker role through our Excellent Practice Validation programme. Our Senior Social Workers are paid a market supplement of £3,000 per annum.
- AMHP pathway: We’ll support you to complete your AMHP training and give you the opportunity to complete AMHP work alongside your Social Work duties. When you’ve completed your AMHP training, you’ll be eligible for a market supplement of up to £2,500 per annum.
- Professional development:?Continuous learning and supportive supervision.
- Work-life balance:?Enjoy a fulfilling career with a good balance between work and home life.
- Employee support: Access to Health Assured's comprehensive Employee Assistance Programme to support your physical and mental wellbeing, including 24/7 telephone support, a suite of online resources, and legal and financial advice.
- Competitive benefits package: Including generous annual leave entitlement, occupational sick pay, and access to the Local Government Pension Scheme.
To learn more about this role, please review our Candidate Pack available on our website. Please click on the Apply button for details.
Other job titles you may be searching for may include: Welfare Worker, Social Services, Case Manager, Social Work Practitioner.
Key skills
AI-extracted from the job advert
Application advice
5 AI-generated recommendations to maximise your chances.
⭐ Open your Personal Statement with your SWE registration number and statutory mental health experience, as the advert explicitly excludes Newly Qualified Social Workers and requires a UK statutory background.
📊 Quantify your caseload: e.g. 'Managed a complex caseload of 25 mental health cases, including 4 forensic cases liaising with the Ministry of Justice'.
🎯 Highlight any AMHP interest or prior AMHP training prominently — the advert offers a dedicated AMHP pathway with a £2,500 supplement, signalling this is a key differentiator.
🤝 Demonstrate experience of multi-agency working with NHS health partners, as the role explicitly involves hospital discharges and health collaboration.
🌐 Reference your experience with safeguarding frameworks and legal duties (e.g. Mental Health Act, Care Act 2014) to align with the advert's emphasis on legal frameworks and statutory duties.
Suggested CV bullets
3 bullets our AI drafted for this specific advert, mirroring its ATS keywords.
Add these 3 bullets under your most recent experience:
- •Managed a statutory mental health caseload of 22 service users, including 3 forensic cases requiring regular liaison with the Ministry of Justice and Probation Service, maintaining full SWE compliance throughout.
- •Conducted comprehensive strengths-based assessments and safeguarding triage for 15+ urgent referrals per month, reducing average decision-to-action time from 5 days to 2 days.
- •Supervised 2 Senior Case Workers and provided practice guidance on complex dual-diagnosis cases, contributing to a 30% reduction in unplanned hospital admissions over a 12-month period.
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Letter preview — tailored to The Guardian
Dear Hiring Manager,
Hampshire's Mental Health and Substance Misuse Team is undergoing a meaningful transformation — adopting needs-led approaches and strengthening health partnerships — and this Social Worker role sits at the heart of that change. As a Social Work England registered practitioner with experience in UK statutory mental health settings, I am well placed to contribute to complex caseload management, safeguarding triage, and the forensic work this post demands.
My background in statutory mental health social work has equipped me with a strong grounding in strengths-based assessment, Mental Health Act frameworks, and multi-agency collaboration with NHS colleagues to facilitate safe hospital discharges. I have supervised Case Workers on complex cases and am keen to pursue the AMHP pathway your team supports, building on my existing knowledge of the approved mental health professional role.
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Interview questions
10 questions generated from this advert.
Technical
- ›How do you apply a strengths-based approach when conducting a comprehensive needs assessment for a mental health service user?
- ›Walk us through how you would triage a safeguarding referral and the legal frameworks you would apply.
- ›What experience do you have managing forensic cases, and how have you worked with the Ministry of Justice in practice?
- ›How do you facilitate a safe hospital discharge for a mental health patient, and which health partners do you typically involve?
- ›What is your understanding of the AMHP role and how does it complement statutory social work duties under the Mental Health Act?
Behavioural
- ›Tell me about a time you managed a particularly complex caseload — how did you prioritise and what was the outcome?
- ›Describe a situation where you had to reach an individual who was hard to engage with mental health services. What approach did you take?
- ›Give an example of when you provided supervision or practice advice to a less experienced colleague on a complex case.
- ›Tell me about a time you contributed to a service transformation or change in ways of working. What was your role?
- ›Describe a situation where you had to make a difficult safeguarding decision under pressure. How did you reach your conclusion?
STAR answer examples
Model answers using the Situation-Task-Action-Result framework. Adapt to your own experience.
Tell me about a time you managed a particularly complex caseload — how did you prioritise and what was the outcome?
Describe a situation where you had to reach an individual who was hard to engage with mental health services. What approach did you take?