Locum Transitional Mental Health Social Worker – Early Help & Wellbeing Team

Locum Transitional Mental Health Social Worker – Early Help & Wellbeing Team

Temporary, Full Time

Rate: £266 Umbrella

Location: Countywide

Working Style: Community-based worker

Closing Date: 16th September 2025

The Team

The Early Help & Wellbeing Team is a welcoming, compassionate and exciting team to work in, offering preventative and early help to connect people to opportunities in their own communities and provide support that enables them to achieve personal ambitions, goals and aspirations.

Mental health social care is transforming into a new operational delivery model improving our early intervention and prevention offer to Essex residents with a focus on people currently not receiving services or falling through existing gaps. The offer is to ensure care act compliance across the system offering information advice and guidance and providing support to improve wellbeing outcomes. Within this service there will be a mixture of the team carrying out direct work alongside adults and completing care act assessments relevant to wellbeing outcomes  and the completion of care act reviews.

The Opportunity

ECC Adult Social Care, through effective practice, is moving towards a transformational shift from a focus on long-term care support, to a model with four key principles: - prevention; early intervention; enablement and safeguarding.

This will enable people, their families, and carers to access information and tools, live healthily and independently and for our function an opportunity to respond pro-actively to growing service demand in a sustainable way, within the financial constraints of the Council.

Social workers manage a caseload, including assessment of risk and purposeful intervention through direct work, commissioned services, and review.  Quality assuring interventions and balancing need with finance.

Within Essex County Council we are trying to take an all age approach to mental health. Transitions has been highlighted as an opportunity to improve outcomes for young people. The Early Help and wellbeing team are therefore expanding the age range to work with young people 17+ to allow for transition planning (direct work 17 ½) to align with the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (EPUT) transitions protocol.

This position will co-work with CAMHS and EPUT to support transitions for those that don’t meet EPUT criteria. The position sits within Adult Social Care but will be supervised and supported by Children and Families social care as well.

The Early Help and Wellbeing team provide early intervention support to the residents of Essex with their wellbeing within a social context. We provide direct support to improve people’s mental wellbeing to meet their outcomes, build confidence, coping strategies and resilience.

Joining the Early Help and Wellbeing team at Essex means you will be working in a supportive and innovative environment enabling you to develop your own ideas to make meaningful changes to the service user’s lives. Working with community groups, family and carers you will ensure advocacy for people with Mental Health difficulties. This role enables you to build meaningful relationships with service users and make a difference in their lives.

The team will be countywide community based with a mixture of working from home, local office-based working and working directly with adults in community settings.

Educated to degree level with current registration and the ability to demonstrate practice in accordance with professional standards.  Experience of developing strong working relationships with partners, other agencies, and the voluntary sector to deliver improved outcomes.

Accountabilities

• Assess children's and young people's suitability for mental health and emotional wellbeing services and take part in their planning and review processes
• Accountable for assessment and identification of appropriate systems of support, facilitating service user choice which empowers people and enables them to live healthily, safely and independently.
• Raise knowledge and awareness of children and young people's mental health issues and preventative strategies across C&F colleagues
• Actively participate in case discussions, professionals meetings, team around the child / placement meetings, Strategy Meetings and statutory reviews (as applicable)
• Build strong working relationships across the Council and with members of other statutory organisations and voluntary agencies.
• Accountable for working within the statutory legal framework, policy and guidance and determining when the threshold for statutory intervention has been reached in line with legislative and organisational standards within legislation applicable to Children, Care Act 2015 (e.g. MCA / DoLs / CHC etc).
• Significant experience of working in a recognised model of therapeutic intervention with children, adults and families
• Evidence of direct engagement with young people and adults, with successful delivery of 1-1, group and indirect interventions.
• Accountable for conducting assessments and plan responses to safeguard a vulnerable adult, include intervention as required.
• Attends meetings, reviews, case conferences and court hearings to provide information, insight and evidence, providing reports where appropriate.
• Work collaboratively building effective relationships with internal and external partnerships, stakeholders, and the voluntary sector which facilitates the delivery of joint objectives which deliver improved outcomes.

The Experience You Will Bring

• Educated to degree level i.e., Diploma or degree in social work, CQSW, CSS or equivalent. Current registration with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) as a registered social worker

• Evidence of continuing professional development and demonstrable capability of practice in accordance with current professional standards e.g., professional capability framework, knowledge, and skills statement.

• Experience within a social care setting with evidence of challenging social and family situations.

• Strong communication skills and an ability to develop a rapport and engage with diverse groups of individuals.

• Developing strong relationships with partners, other agencies, and the local community to achieve joint objectives and offer a supportive framework for children and vulnerable adults.

• Understand the financial implications of care packages commissioned

• Evidence of clear decision making to highlight and limit the potential risks associated with intervention.

About You

To apply you should be a qualified social worker with a current Social Work England registration. You’ll bring at experience in working within mental health and delivering direct work, along with evidence of continuing professional development, and capability of practice in accordance with current professional standards.

As, as a subject matter expert in relevant professional practice, you should have a comprehensive understanding of current legislation, regulations, and guidance. With experience of chairing meetings involving clients, family members, carers, and other multi-agency professionals, and the ability to deliver direct work, we’re looking for your ability to develop strong relationships with partner agencies and the local community to provide a supportive framework for vulnerable adults.

Please note the role will require you to be mobile throughout the Essex County Council area. Therefore, it is essential the post holder will need to have a driving licence and access to a vehicle, or the ability to meet the mobility requirements of the role through other means.

Why Essex? Essex County Council has a location to be proud of. Our 1,300 square miles stretch from Constable Country to the Thames Estuary, from the dynamic M11 corridor to the traditional seaside resorts of Clacton and Walton. England’s oldest town, Colchester, and two of its newest – Basildon and Harlow – are right here. Along with the City of Chelmsford, the county town, they form our major population centres. It means real choice and makes Essex the ideal place for your career. Read more about us.

Essex County Council is proud to be a Disability Confident Leader. We’re committed to interview all disabled applicants who choose to apply under our Job Interview Scheme if they meet the minimum requirements of the job. Please speak to our Recruiters if you require any reasonable adjustments during the process.

We’re also committed to interview all veterans and care leavers, who meet the minimum requirements of the role for which they are applying.

What you should do next

If you are interested in finding out more about this role, we would love to hear from you. Please apply via the Working for Essex website.

Please note that Essex County Council has determined that the off-payroll working rules will apply to this assignment and where a worker elects to provide their services through an intermediary (such as a personal services company) then income tax and primary national insurance contributions will be deducted at source from any payments made to the intermediary.

As part of employment with Essex County Council (ECC) should your role require a DBS check you will be required to register with the DBS update service.  The DBS update service ensures all registered DBS certificates are kept up to date and allows authorised parties to view the status of your certificate.  This is an annual subscription, and you will be responsible for ensuring this is maintained.  For further information on the DBS update service please go to https://www.gov.uk/dbs-update-service

Essex County Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults, and expects all employees and volunteers to share this commitment.

If you would like to be kept up to date on other relevant opportunities, blogs, news, events and industry related news at Essex County Council, please join The Essex Talent Community.  

If you have queries on this role or require anything further, please email essexsharedservices@essex.gov.uk