Practice Consultant

**Permanent Contract | £39,248 to £43,517 per annum (Scale K) | 37 hours per week | Hellesdon Hospital, Norwich**

**We offer a £2000 welcome payment for qualified and experienced Social Workers (grade J and above), Practice Consultants and Team Managers new to Norfolk County Council.**

**For experienced Social Workers new to Norfolk County Council we promise to try and match or better your existing salary, providing its in the spectrum of the grade advertised.**

**Who Cares? We do.**

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Practice Consultant to join the Norwich Mental Health Team based at Hellesdon Hospital, Norwich. You will manage referrals and the appropriate triage, allocation and closure of cases of service users living in Norwich. Assisting with the recruitment and training of Assistant Practitioners and Social Workers you will take an active role in practice development, supervising and supporting staff to become the best practitioners they can be. A sound knowledge of the Care Act 2014, Mental Health Act 2007 and other relevant legislation is essential.

You will be passionate about making a difference and ready to embrace change. You will need to demonstrate an ability to work under pressure, be well organised and able to effectively prioritise and risk assess a complex caseload. You will have experience, knowledge and commitment to strength-based assessments. The ability to travel is essential. If you are committed to working to a person-centred way and have the skills to work in a multi-disciplinary setting and in complex situations we would be interested in hearing from you. In return we can offer you the opportunity to work in an exciting and challenging area of Social Care.

You will have regular supervision and the support of a highly motivated team along with the relevant training required for the post and to develop your role We work to empower the service users we work with, using the ‘Living Well’ approach. The work is complex, challenging and varied and if you have the experience in adult care and would like to explore the role of practice consultant within a supportive mental health team, then this could be a great opportunity for you.

**Who are we?**

The Adult Mental Health Social Care team works with adults aged 18-65 experiencing serious mental health issues and/or autism. The service is delivered through 5 locality mental health social care teams across Norfolk, the Approved Mental Health Professional (AMHP) team and a hospital discharge team in Norwich.

The AMHP team is led by a manager and practice consultant staff who are responsible for the daily triage of MHA assessment referrals. We share offices with our NHS colleagues, the Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust, to ensure the social care voice is represented in multi-disciplinary team discussions. The service has a strong and confident professional social care identify which we use to make a positive difference to the lives of people experiencing serious mental illness and to protect them from harm.

The teams highly value reflective practice, professional development and supports learning by promoting training, progression and placements for students and apprentices. We also encourage social work staff to develop their skills through additional training to become AMHP’s, best interest assessors or practice educators.

The Mental Health Social Care service also covers the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguarding (DoLS) team responsible for assessments for those who lack capacity to consent to their care and support arrangements in care homes and hospitals.

**What we offer**

At Norfolk County Council we are committed to our employees’ learning and development. We offer all Social Workers and Occupational Therapists a protected half day per month for continuing professional development and training.

We want our people to be inspired and motivated to work well together, make the most of our workspaces, enjoy a healthy work-life balance, and deliver excellent services to Norfolk and its people. Flexibility is built into the way we work, with hybrid working a key feature for many roles. Our technology platform and equipment are first class, enabling you to connect and collaborate remotely. We ask that you have in place good Broadband connectivity.

You can also find out about the rewards and benefitswe offer as well as our other terms and conditions.

Norwich is the county capital of Norfolk, 120 miles from London and 60 miles from Cambridge. It’s on the edge of the Broads National Park, and a 40-minute drive to the seaside. Norwich is a superb city. It effortlessly mixes outstanding heritage through the ages with modern shopping centres, excellent restaurants, hundreds of cafés and pubs, a superb arts and theatre scene with huge parks and green spaces, canoeing, rowing and sailing.

By train, Norwich to London takes 90 minutes and Cambridge less than an hour. There are also direct train links to the Midlands.