East London NHS Foundation Trust is currently seeking a skilled and compassionate Community Mental Health Social Worker to join its dynamic team. This is a fantastic opportunity to work in a diverse and supportive environment, delivering high-quality, person-centred care within the community.
Applicants must hold a recognised social work qualification, be registered with Social Work England, and be educated to degree level. The ideal candidate will demonstrate strong communication skills, a commitment to mental health care, and the ability to work collaboratively across multidisciplinary teams.
Skilled Worker visa sponsorship (Certificate of Sponsorship) is available for suitable candidates who meet the eligibility criteria, making this an excellent opportunity for UK-based social workers looking to switch sponsors.
Join East London NHS Foundation Trust to make a real impact in mental health care and advance your professional development within one of the UK’s leading NHS trusts.
About the Trust
East London NHS Foundation Trust provides a wide range of mental health, community health, primary care, wellbeing, and inpatient services to young people, working age adults, and older adults across the City of London, Hackney, Newham, Tower Hamlets, Bedfordshire, and Luton.
Position: Community Mental Health Social Worker
Salary: £37,338 – £44,962 per annum
Job Type: Full Time
Location: Bedfordshire
About the Role
Bedford CMHT provides compassionate person-centred interventions to people experiencing mental ill-health inBedford.
The team is a multi-disciplinary team, with a strong social care presence and ethos.
You will be given expert support and advice from the teams Senior Social Workers ensuring that bespoke professional supervision is readily available for all our social workers.
ELFT has a dedicated Social Care Lead locally in Bedford. The Social Care Lead offers regular reflective practice sessions, bespoke advice and CPD opportunities.
The excellent work of the Social Work Learning and Development Project Lead ensures that continuous learning is at the heart of Social Work in Bedfordshire.
The Trust offers an established ASYE programme for newly qualified social workers. CPD pathways beyond the ASYE include AMHP/Leadership Academy/AMCP/Practice Educator/ASYE Assessor training structures. Bespoke training opportunities are available as part of your yearly appraisal.
In short; now is a good time to be working as a social worker for ELFT in Central Bedfordshire!
Main duties of the job
- We are looking for an enthusiastic and motivated Social Worker to work as part of our team. You will be registered with Social Work England and ideally have one year of post qualifying experience in a relevant health or social care setting; however with our new ASYE programme we would be happy to work with a newly qualified social worker who is able to demonstrate how their pre-qualifying experience and value base would benefitour team.
- As a Social Worker, you will work as a member of the multi-disciplinary team, providing high quality social care services to adults experiencing mental ill-health. The core functions of the role will be to provide assessment, care planning and coordination of care from a social perspective to adults accessing the service.
- You will hold a caseload of adults experiencing a wide range of mental health and social care needs. You will ensure that you maintain constant reflection and development of your practice and will ensure your continuing professional development in line with the standards set out by the professional regulator, Social Work England.
Job responsibilities
In the role, you will liaise with acute inpatient units, the Crisis Team, Primary Care services, the Voluntary and Private Sector and contribute to providing a recovery focused model of care. You will play an active role in the discharge of our service users from hospital and will commission health and social care services as required.Partnership working is a key component of this post and you will need to be innovative in ensuring that there is a range of appropriate services locally to support individual recovery journeys.
Person Specification
Education/Qualification/Training
Essential
- An appropriate social work qualification
- Registration with Social Work England
- Education to degree level
- Master’s degree or equivalent post-qualifying training
- Approved Mental Health Professional training and qualification (or prepared to undertake training within a year of appointment to role)
Desirable
- Relevant post-qualifying training for social workers
- Other relevant post-qualification training (e.g. CBT, family therapy)
- Best Interest Assessor training
Experience
Essential
- Extensive knowledge of legislation, statutory guidance, theory, and policy in relation to adult and children’s social care
- Experience of undertaking assessment focused on personalisation, choice and control, and care planning
- Understanding of and experience of use of personal budgets and direct payments
- Evidence of multidisciplinary and collaborative working
- Evidence of partnership working with service users and carers, demonstrating dignity and respect, particularly in very challenging situations
Knowledge and Skills
Essential
- Excellent ability to communicate with a wide range of stakeholders, including service users and carers, other professionals and colleagues, members of other organisations and locally communities – verbally and in writing
- Evidence of successful management of challenging meetings
- Experience of using electronic record systems and ability to produce accurate, appropriate, and timely reports
- Experience of undertaking small scale audits and surveys
- Understanding of basic research methods
- Demonstrable ability to working sensitively with diverse needs and environments
- Commitment to anti-discriminatory practice
Desirable
- Ability to manage highly sensitive information
Other
Essential
- Ability to visit and attend meetings at a variety of locations and environments
- Experience of using a computer (PC literate to ECDL standard)
- Car driver (unless you have a disability as defined by the Equality Act 2010 which prevents you from driving)
- Ability to meet deadlines and respond to crises as appropriate
- Flexibility and ability to respond to a variety of tasks and to prioritise own workload
- Ability to manage others and convey information which may be contentious sensitively so that it achieves required improvements and outcomes
- Ability to deal with distressing and sometimes aggressive behaviour of service users and carers.
- Experience of working in an integrated health and social care environment
Benefits
Certificate of Sponsorship
Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications.
Required Documents
- CV/Resume
- Cover Letter
Application Process
To apply for this role, please visit the NHS WEBSITE
Application Deadline
August 17th, 2025