Member Job Opportunity: Barnardo's - Social Worker

Location: University Hospitals Plymouth
Contract type: Permanent
Hours: 18.5
Salary: £27,814 (Full Time Equivalent) £13,907 (Pro Rata)
Closing Date: 4 July 2022
Interview Date: 22 July 2022

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Social Worker role – Complications of Excess Weight (CEW) Service

You will have received a Project Worker 3 job description and employee specification. This is a generic role in use throughout Barnardo's.

Information about the Service
An exciting opportunity has arisen to join a new Multidisciplinary Team (MDT) service at University Hospitals Plymouth (UHP).

NHS England (NHSE) recently commissioned in June 2021 several regional centres throughout England to develop a national service to provide specialised treatment for complications of excess weight (CEW) in children and young people.

In the Southwest of England, we are developing a hub and spoke model for running these services. The Devon hub will be based at University Hospitals Plymouth (UHP) developing the 7-18 year service, with a partnership in Cornwall developing the 0-6 year service forming a unique partnership flagship service for children who are at the most severe end of the spectrum of unhealthy overweight.

UHP are therefore recruiting to this new service in Devon a team of multidisciplinary professionals to form a collaborative Complications of Excess weight (CEW) Multidisciplinary team to assess and treat children with complex obesity and its related severe health complications using innovative and new strategies in paediatric care.

This is a fantastic opportunity to develop skills and network across other sites and to support as this new service grows. This is a brand new role and therefore it is an exciting opportunity to have a real impact.

We are looking for a qualified, registered and experienced social worker. You will be an effective communicator with excellent organisational skills, and the ability to work with colleagues from a diverse range of professional backgrounds, both internally and across external agencies. You will also be flexible and adaptable and able to meet the needs of a developing service.

The Multidisciplinary Team (MDT) team will also provide advice regionally for the care of patients and be expected to deliver education to regional centres to help them establish more local services that can cater for their population. Services will be run through a combination of face to face and virtual contact to ensure good uptake of management strategies and facilitate improved care.

The Multidisciplinary Team (MDT) team will also be collaborating with other commissioned centres to share knowledge and experience to improve outcomes for patients nationally.

Information about the role
This particular post is for a qualified and experienced social worker who will be seconded from Barnardo's to UHP to work as part of this multidisciplinary team. The post will involve the worker:

• Being part of a team including a dietician, a consultant paediatrician, a specialist nurse, a psychologist and youthworkers.
  
• Contributing to Multidisciplinary Team (MDT) meetings, activity days at Plymouth Marjon University, and the evaluation of the service.
  
• Working collaboratively to develop innovative ways of working both within the clinics and the community.
  
• Understanding safeguarding issues in relation to working with children and young people and ensuring these are addressed.
  
• Working with a small caseload – up to 45 children aged up to 16 years will be part of the cohort at any one time. However, not all of the children involved will need social work input and the role will be about supporting colleagues around their safeguarding knowledge and practice. Many of the children involved in the service will have complex additional needs and lengthy histories of involvement with a range of health and social care services.
  
• Accessing specialist supervision from the psychologist, support from colleagues across the NHS including other CEW clinics, and social work supervision and support from Barnardo's.

The nature of working with children and young people requires some flexibility in working hours will be required and access to transport is desirable in order to effectively provide a city-wide service. Please note that the social worker is expected to be a core member of the  Multidisciplinary Team (MDT) which is likely to meet most Fridays in person at UHP, and the role will sometimes include working outside of normal office hours.

This is a new way of working and the role will involve being comfortable in working with colleagues from other backgrounds and disciplines. We are looking for someone with the relevant qualifications and experience, but also someone who is:

• happy to work with uncertainty in a new service
  
• able to trial new ways of working and to change what they do according to feedback from children and families
  
• confident in the principles of participation and coproduction with children and families
  
• most importantly, has a “give it a go” attitude

If you have any questions about this role, please email: rob.harrison@barnardos.org.uk.

Please note you must be a qualified and registered social worker to be able to apply for this role.

Thank you – we look forward to receiving your application.  Please review the role details on Barnardo's website and apply through this, and do not apply via Indeed.

Barnardo's offers a hybrid working model covered under our `Work from Anywhere' Framework, therefore vacancies advertised with this as an opportunity are open for applicants to either work from home or any location within the UK, including Barnardo's Hub/Office that is a reasonable distance from your home address. 

Flexibility
Barnardo's believe in creating equality of opportunity in the workplace and supporting people to manage their work-life balance; we are therefore open to offering flexible working arrangements.

About Barnardo's
At Barnardo's we believe in children – no matter who they are, what they have done or what they have been through. Please read about our basis and values following the link below. You will be asked questions relating to them as part of the recruitment process for this role.

Barnardo's is committed to having a diverse and inclusive workforce for staff and volunteers. We actively encourage applications from disabled, Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic candidates as they are under-represented within Barnardo's.

Full details and application documents here