Senior Social Worker

About the Borough

Found in zone 6 with good transport links in and out of London, Kingston is a vibrant and diverse university town which creates the rich sense of community shared across the borough and its Residents. Kingston boasts an idyllic riverside location, good shopping and great restaurants, as well as a mix of modern and historic town centre. Kingston has lots of open parklands and cycle routes that help connect the district town centres into an enjoyable place to live and work.

We are passionate about working closely with our residents and vulnerable groups to help them maintain their independence and create a balance between support and independent living.

About the Service and Team

About the New Malden Hub

The New Malden Hub is one of three locality teams operating within Adult Social Care at the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames. We are a dedicated, welcoming multi-disciplinary team comprising Social Workers and Support Coordinators. Together, we deliver targeted, strength-based interventions for adults aged 18 and older who present with long-term care needs, primarily supporting older adults and individuals with physical disabilities.

Our practice is rooted in early, proactive engagement. We work closely with residents and their carers immediately following initial referral to assess complex needs and co-produce outcome-focused support plans. Collaboration is central to our success; we partner closely with our Reablement service to maximise independence, choice, and overall quality of life for our service users.

To ensure continuity of care and a seamless service delivery model, we provide targeted, ongoing support to our community. Social Workers and support coordinators within our team manage a rich and varied caseload, benefitting from direct access to, and collaboration with, specialist practitioners and multi disciplinary professionals across the wider council network. This environment offers an exceptional opportunity to promote positive outcomes, lead safeguarding initiatives, and champion independence across the borough.

Work-Life Balance & Team Wellbeing

At the New Malden Hub, we understand that high-quality social work requires a supportive, resilient environment. We heavily focus on staff wellbeing, deliberately balancing our daily statutory duties with regular team-bonding activities, reflective peer groups, and shared learning spaces and protected focus time.To support a healthy work-life balance, we operate a hybrid working model that requires two days per week office-based at our Guildhall office, allowing you to collaborate in person with your peers while enjoying the flexibility of working from home for the remainder of the week.

About the Role and Our Ideal Candidate

Key Responsibilities & Leadership Focus

• Safeguarding Leadership: Act as the Lead Enquiry Officer for high-risk, complex Section 42 safeguarding enquiries, proactively robustly mitigating risk and protecting adults at risk of harm or neglect.
• Practice Mentoring & Supervision (Grade I): Provide high-quality professional guidance, reflective peer supervision, and mentoring to newly qualified social workers (ASYE candidates), support coordinators, and students.
• Complex Casework: Manage a complex caseload utilising strength-based, preventative principles to support individuals with physical or cognitive disabilities to retain their autonomy.
• Legal Accountability: Conduct thorough Mental Capacity Assessments, chair Best Interests meetings, and apply the principles of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and Care Act 2014 to challenging scenarios.
• Service Development: Champion best practice within the hub, contributing to regular peer-review sessions, solution circles and cross-departmental practice improvements.

Requirements

• Qualifications: A recognised degree in Social Work (BA, BSc, MA, DipSW, or equivalent).
• Professional Registration: Active registration with Social Work England.
• Legal: knowledge and application of the Care Act 2014, Mental Capacity Act 2005, and local adult safeguarding frameworks.
• Leadership Experience (Grade I): Proven post-qualifying experience managing high-risk adult care cases, with a demonstrated ability to model best practices, supervise colleagues, and make sound clinical decisions under pressure.
• The legal right to work in the UK

Our Offer to You

As an organisation that values and nurtures talent, we’re committed to helping you fulfil your potential and will offer you a supportive, friendly and collaborative environment to grow and develop your career and skills. We’re constantly striving to improve our ways of working so putting your ideas across however big or small; will be fully encouraged and supported by your colleagues and our dynamic and experienced management team.

Employees have access to a wide range of benefits to enable staff to achieve a work life balance, some of which include:

• A generous annual leave entitlement of 25-32 days, plus bank holidays (pro-rata if part-time working hours apply) depending on service and grade.
• Enhanced Maternity, Paternity, shared parental, adoption and dependents leave
• Three volunteering days per year in Kingston
• Hybrid working (dependent on the role)
• Flexible and agile working arrangements using Google Chromebooks
• Learning and development portal offering a range of courses
• Discounts on a range of local shops, restaurants, gyms and leisure centres
• Interest free season ticket loans
• Local Government Pension Scheme
• Bicycle loan facilities and cycle to work scheme
• Electric vehicle leasing scheme
• Confidential health & wellbeing and counselling support

Application Process

Apply online outlining what skills, abilities and experience you can bring which makes you an ideal candidate for this role. Please refer to the requirements outlined in the job profile when completing your application and check your CV details have been uploaded correctly in the relevant sections.

We understand and recognise the benefits of using Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the workplace and are embracing AI where appropriate, to boost our productivity and streamline how we deliver our Council services efficiently; to provide the best possible outcomes for our residents and communities. 
However, we reserve the right to reject applications where it is apparent that AI-generated content has been used in isolation and without personalised responses. At Kingston we value authenticity and are looking for individuals who can clearly demonstrate their own skills, experience and motivation for the role that they are applying for and embrace and demonstrate our STAR values.
Here at Kingston we have core values of Transparency and this is to be demonstrated during the application process and completion of the supporting statement and will be further tested at interview and selection stage for those who progress forward.

The closing date is given as a guide. We reserve the right to close this vacancy once a sufficient number of applications has been received, it is strongly advised that you complete and submit your application as soon as possible to avoid disappointment. 

As part of our award winning Diversity Programme we anonymise all applications received to reduce conscious and unconscious bias enabling every application to be reviewed on the knowledge, skills and experience shown in your application. We encourage our interview panels to be as diverse as possible (age, cultural, neurodiverse etc.) to reduce bias where possible. We are fully committed to removing barriers and enhancing the diversity of