Principal Social Worker

About The Role

Job Title: Principal Social Worker
Contract: Permanent
Location: Hereford
Hours: 37
Salary: £55,594 - £61,655
Closing date: 23.03.2025
Interview date: TBC

The role

We are seeking a dedicated Principal Social Worker to join our Adult Social Care service. This role is pivotal in ensuring we provide high-quality social work services to adults and the community of Herefordshire, reflecting our commitment to ethical standards and social responsibility. As a Principal Social Worker, you will lead a team of experienced professionals, offering guidance and support to ensure the best outcomes for our residents. You will play a key role in policy development, staff training, and service improvement initiatives. Be the change maker! This is your chance to lead, innovate and make a real difference to the community of Herefordshire.

Our mission as a directorate is to "enable diverse, inclusive, vibrant, connected communities where people feel safe, keep well and look out for each other". If you are passionate about overseeing the delivery of high quality social care and thrive in a dynamic and challenging environment, we invite you to apply for this exciting opportunity. Join us in shaping the future of Herefordshire Council and contributing to our mission of delivering outstanding public services. We are a stable, well run and established unitary council, proud to be the local authority for one of England's most beautiful counties.

The location for this role is Plough Lane Offices, Hereford. It is expected that you can split your time between the office for two days a week and working remotely.

What will you be doing?

As the Principal Social Worker in Adult Social Care, you will work with Team Managers, Social Care staff and Heads of Service as well as the Service Director and DASS to manage resources and performance.

You will also:

• Contribute to the development of policies, procedures and practice models.

• Provide training to social workers to support professional development.

• Develop and maintain effective working relationships with multi-agency partners.

• Work and represent adult social care at our safeguarding adult's board.

• Lead adult social care safeguarding and support the development of the safeguarding team at Herefordshire Council.

About You

As the Principal Social Worker, you will be:

• Degree level qualified in Social Work or related field with Social Work England registration

• Able to demonstrable expertise and significant record of achievement in adult social care

Please contact Zakia Loughead, Service Director - Adult Social Care and Housing for an informal discussion about this role on or .

In preparation for this advert, Zakia has shared the below statement with all prospective candidates: "I am excited to be seeking someone who is passionate about social work practice and able to provide leadership to social workers and practitioners and represent their views to senior managers. You will be someone who can support social work teams to ensure positive outcomes for adults and families here at Herefordshire Council and work with me to drive and provide quality assurance to help social workers navigate complex decisions as well as be able to use different models of practice and learning to guide decision-making. Together we can make a real difference to our communities. So don't delay and apply now!"

We Offer

• A competitive salary, holiday entitlement, and access to our contributory pension and staff benefits scheme, which includes:

• Starting Salary of £55,594 - £61,655

• Pension Scheme Enrolment in the Local Government (LGPS)

• Annual Leave: 31 days' annual leave (pro rata) plus bank holidays. You can also purchase an additional 10 days per annum.

• Flexible working: hybrid working with a balance of days onsite and working remotely.

• Employee Assistance Programme: 24/7 access to support and counselling

• Payment of professional membership fees

• Pick your perks - our benefits include access to a range of retail, leisure, holiday and health benefits. This includes savings, cash back and discounts.

Why Choose Us?

You will probably have heard a lot about how beautiful it is in terms of countryside and open spaces (and it is!) but there is so much more going on here, including world-class cultural assets like the Mappa Mundi, vibrant theatres and a thriving food and drink sector. One of Herefordshire's biggest assets is the strong and diverse communities. Our Talk Community approach brings that together supporting people to help themselves, encouraging them to help their communities and identifying how communities can help individuals. Our ambitious transformation programme aims to further build on this to offer an all-age approach. We're excited about the potential of what we can achieve for the benefit of all residents of Herefordshire, stronger together and building brighter futures.

Reasonable Adjustments

Our recruitment process runs in partnership with Hoople Resourcing. If you require any reasonable adjustments or alternative methods for the online application process, please contact the resourcing team by email: .

Creating an inclusive workplace

Employee Network Groups play an important role in strengthening the voices of employees at Herefordshire Council. Embedded in the Council's values is a commitment to listen to people's views and needs.

Employee Network Groups are a collective of colleagues who often share identities, life experiences or cultures and who come together to initiate positive change in their work place. Our groups include: Black and Asian Staff Networking Group, LGBTQ+, Parents & Carers, Climate and Nature Emergency, Diff-abilities and Armed Forces/ Veterans. For more information on our Employee Network Groups please click here .

How to apply

To apply for a position, please complete the online application form demonstrating your knowledge, experience, skills and abilities for the role Be sure to include reference to the job description and person specification! If you are successfully shortlisted, Hoople Resourcing will contact you via email to arrange your interview and/or assessment. They will confirm the date, time and location of your interview, so please keep an eye on your email inbox. Good luck, we're looking forward to meeting you!

Community Wellbeing is connecting and belonging to the place where you live, feeling safe and having pride in your community.

We welcome applicants whatever their personal characteristics or social identity. All requests for flexible working arrangements and reasonable adjustments will be considered.

The following candidates will be interviewed if they meet the essential criteria for the post they are applying for:

• Those who indicate that they have a disability. This is part of our commitment to the "Disability Confident" scheme;

• Those who indicate in their supported statement that they serve in the Armed Forces, whether Regular or Reserve, those who have served in the past, or their families. This is part of our pledge to support the Armed Forces Covenant.

• Those who indicate in their supporting statement that they are a Herefordshire care leaver. This is part of our commitment to supporting young people leaving our care.

Stronger Together, Building Brighter Futures