About Us:

THE EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF ROCHELLE'S COMPASSION

The Joint Homelessness Team (JHT) in Westminster City Council is a world of extraordinary stories. Where kindness is key and community connection comes first.

Our people lead with empathy, always. Nobody lives those values better than Rochelle. Building on her experience from the frontline, she now leads a team, thinking creatively and ensuring they go above and beyond for the local people they work with.

Take Peter, a man struggling to settle into his new flat after a lifetime on the streets. Faced with loneliness, and a distrust of authority, he found it difficult to adjust to his new reality. Rochelle was not only his housing officer; she was a friendly face in good times and bad, and the support system he needed to get him back on his feet. The work she did with him was invaluable. And the change almost immediate. Now she's on a mission to change more lives, and to transform the way that homelessness and mental health is looked at throughout Westminster.

The Role:

As a Senior Social Worker within our Joint Homelessness Team, you can make your own powerful contribution to changing people's lives for the better. Working within a large network of organisations providing services for people with mental health problems who sleep rough in the local area, you'll also be part of a close-knit, committed, experienced team from a wide range of professional backgrounds, including healthcare.

Combining outreach work and direct contact with service users with some management responsibilities it's a great opportunity to maintain clinical social work practice while developing your career. Working closely with the JHT Manager, you will provide operational management and leadership to social workers within the multidisciplinary team. In particular, you will ensure that Approved Mental Health Professional (AMHP) practice adheres to the Mental Health Act.

About You:

As you'll be working with some of the city's most vulnerable and disadvantaged people, you'll need empathy and excellent communication skills, combined with a flexible and creative approach. You'll be a qualified and registered social worker, with current or recent warranting as an AMHP and experience of working with homeless people. This should include thorough working knowledge of the Care Act including assessments and safeguarding. You'll also demonstrate leadership skills: the ability to manage and motivate other people in a high-pressure work environment is important.

The Council is committed to achieving diverse shortlists to support our desire to increase the number of staff from underrepresented groups in our workforce. We especially encourage applications from a global majority background and, while the role is open to all applicants, we will utilise the positive action provisions of the Equality Act 2010 to appoint a candidate from a global majority background where there is a choice between two candidates of equal merit. If you are from a Global Majority background you can self-declare this to the hiring manager as part of our positive action commitments.

What We Offer:

Westminster is an amazing place. We are home to more than 200,000 residents from all backgrounds, over 50,000 vibrant and vital businesses and three-quarters-of-a-million people work in Westminster.

Westminster City Council's strategy is to work towards a Fairer Westminster. A Fairer Westminster is one in which our communities are at the heart of our decision-making and help to determine the city's future. By working directly with our communities and other partners, we can build a more inclusive city that celebrates our diverse communities, and where residents, workers and visitors from all backgrounds will feel welcome and safe.

At Westminster City Council, we pride ourselves on being an inclusive workplace and employer of choice. We encourage and welcome applications from people from all backgrounds and aim to have a workforce that, at all levels, represents the communities we serve. We champion equality, diversity, inclusion and wellbeing and aim to create a workplace where everyone feels valued, has a sense of belonging and is empowered to be their best, that is the Westminster Way.

As a forward thinking Council we appreciate that people work in different ways, therefore our staff benefit from working a range of flexible working patterns as well as Agile working.

The Council is a Disability Confident Employer. If you have declared a disability in your application, we guarantee an interview if you meet the essential criteria of the job. If you are invited for interview, you will be asked if you need any reasonable adjustments in order to attend, and we will make these wherever possible.

Closing date: 14 January 2024.

Vetting Requirements: Enhanced DBS Check.

Contact details for an informal discussion: Andy Knight, Team Manager (Joint Homelessness Team), via email: