Senior Mental Health Social Worker

Job summary

Are you a highly skilled Senior Mental Health Social Worker looking for an exciting and rewarding role working alongside the military? Are you seeking job satisfaction, numerous benefits, and training opportunities? Would you like your career to take a different direction into a friendly and professional organisation?

If the answer is yes, you would be well-suited to the Senior Mental Health Social Worker role that we have within the Department for Community Mental Health at RAF Lemming.

This vacancy is full-time, offering 37 hours per week, requests to work flexibly will be considered, taking into account business needs.

Benefits:

• £5000 Market Supplement (pro-rata) will be offered to the successful candidate.
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• Excellent training and development opportunities tailored to your role
• A Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 28.97%
• Free parking
• An environment with hybrid / flexible working options

Please be advised that the Department is conducting a review of all pay related allowances which could impact on those allowances that the post currently being advertised attracts.

Main duties of the job

The successful candidate will provide effective Mental Health Social Work (MHSW) in support of the designated Mental Health Team.

This will include providing social care management for Mental Health (MH) patients within the DCMH and the designated civilian In-patient Service Provider (ISP) or National Health Service Mental Health facilities, conforming and adhering to the standards set by Social Work England (SWE), Northern Ireland Social Care Council (NISCC) , Social Care Wales (SCW) or Scottish Social Services Council, Defence Medical Services (DMS), Defence Primary Health Care Service (DPHC) and Defence Health and Recovery Group (DHRG).

A full UK driving licence is required for this position due to the need for home visits.

About us

Our success depends on our people, our Whole Force, regular and reservist military, civil servants and contractors, all working as one, working together seamlessly to deliver for us.

Our civil servants are a central part of this Whole Force, developing strategy, making policy, supporting ministerial decision-making and Parliamentary processes. In fact, with over 2,000 different roles working across 650 sites around the world, now really is an excellent time to join one of the largest, most exciting departments in government.

The Ministry of Defence is committed to attracting and retaining people from across the full range of backgrounds and enabling flexible ways of working as the norm. We offer maternity, adoption or shared parental leave of up to 26 weeks full pay followed by 13 weeks of statutory pay and a further 13 weeks unpaid, and paternity leave of 2 weeks full pay.

In return, you can expect a department that helps you learn and develop that recognises your expertise and contribution, both as an individual and part of a team.

If you've ever wanted to do more, see more, go further or be better, we have roles in more professions and vocations than ever before. Let's see where your future will take you, together.

Job responsibilities

Duties and responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

• To provide effective Mental Health Social Work (MHSW) in support of a designated Department of Community Mental Health, Defence Mental Health Social Work Service and the wider Defence Mental Health Services.
• Contribute to the development of service delivery, suggesting developmental initiatives in support of observations
• Manage patient caseloads according to Defence Community Mental Health (DCMH) allocation processes and practices as directed by the clinical team lead / Manager and the MHSW Regional Lead.
• Support the management of the DCMH by providing direct delivery advice for MHSW to the DCMH line manager and or the MHSW Regional Lead
• Support management and DCMH by providing advice and support on safeguarding issues and practice as DCMH Safeguarding Lead
• Undertake such additional clinical/management tasks as may be appropriate to the grade and the role agreed in discussion with their line manager / Regional lead / Head of Service (HoS)

Please refer to the attached Job Description and Person Specification document for further information.

Selection Process

The sift will be completed within 10 working days of the vacancy closing date. Interviews will be held on a date to be confirmed.

At
application
stage you will be assessed against the following:

CV:

• Please ensure you demonstrate that you have the required skills, knowledge, experience, qualifications and memberships in the CV section of the application form.
• To be considered for this role, qualifications and memberships detailed must be held in full, prior to submitting your application.
• Please provide information of how you meet the criteria set out in the Job Description. You may wish to further include examples of how you have tackled similar tasks or demonstrated the skills outlined in the job advert.

Artificial Intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

At
interview
you will be assessed against the following

Civil Service Behaviours:

• Changing and Improving
• Making Effective Decisions
• Communicating and Influencing
• Working Together
• Managing a Quality Service

At interview a case study may be required, the case study will be provided 10 minutes before the interview.

Please see the link to our YouTube channel for advice preparing your best responses with some hints and tips on answering behaviour-based questions. Hints and tips such as: Your behaviours can be based on situations from work, volunteering or home; match your situation to the behaviour requested and how to use your 250-word limit.

There will be no reimbursement for any travel expenses for the interview.

Person Specification:

Experience (Essential)

• Evidence of continued professional development and willingness to train in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy as required.
• An understanding and working knowledge of all relevant social care legislation Mental Health Act (MHA) (83), Mental Capacity Act (MCA) (05) Inc Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DOLS) Liberty Protection Safeguards (LPS), Care Act 14, European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) (98) and Adult and Children Safeguarding, European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR)(section 98), the equivalent devolved legislation.
• Significant post qualification experience, which must be within mental health services.
• Experience in risk assessment and mental state.

Provide a CV (Essential)

• Please copy and paste your full CV as your response to this question - you will not be able to upload your CV as an attachment.
• Please ensure to refer to the essential criteria where applicable as your application may be rejected should insufficient information to shortlist be included.
• Please use double spacing where possible.

Registration Details (Essential)

• Please provide your membership registration details.
• You are required to be registered as detailed in the advert, prior to submitting your application.
• Your application will not progress should you fail to provide a valid registration.

Qualifications (Essential)

• Must be an appropriately qualified and experienced Mental Health Social Work Practitioner.
• Degree in Social Work or equivalent Diploma in Social Work (DipSW)/ Certificate of Qualification in Social Work (CQSW).
• A full UK driving licence.

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.

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).

Employer details:

Ministry of Defence (Defence Medical Services)

Address

Old Medical Centre

Building 20, RAF Leeming

Northallerton

North Yorkshire

DL7 9NJ

Employer's website

(Opens in a new tab)

The closing date is 10 November 2025