Lead Social Worker | St Catherine’s Hospice, Preston | £42,791 FTE | Office based
Could you lead compassionate, high-quality psychosocial support for people and families living with life-limiting illness?
At St Catherine’s Hospice, we help people to have quality of life to the end of life, alongside supporting their families before, during and after bereavement. Our Social Work, Counselling, Bereavement and Remembrance Services provide compassionate, timely and effective support throughout each person’s hospice journey.
We’re looking for an experienced and values-led Lead Social Worker to provide professional, clinical and operational leadership across these vital services.
This is a varied senior role combining professional leadership, safeguarding oversight, team management, service development and direct clinical practice. You’ll lead a multidisciplinary team while maintaining a specialist caseload of patients and families with complex psychosocial needs.
You’ll also help shape and improve our services, using evidence, feedback and data to strengthen quality, accessibility and outcomes, while ensuring practice meets legal, professional, regulatory and Hospice standards.
What will you be doing?
No two days are likely to look exactly the same. You could be: leading Social Work, Counselling, Bereavement and Remembrance Services; managing a specialist caseload and supporting people with complex psychosocial needs; providing expert safeguarding, mental capacity and risk-management advice; facilitating family meetings and coordinating care with the multidisciplinary team; supervising and developing staff, students and volunteers; overseeing referral, triage, allocation and review processes; monitoring demand, waiting times, outcomes and experience; leading service improvement, audit and quality assurance; delivering education and reflective learning; and building strong partnerships across health, social care and the voluntary sector.
Most importantly, you’ll help ensure patients, families and carers receive person-centred support that protects their rights, respects their preferences and helps them navigate illness, loss and bereavement.
Who are we looking for? You’ll be a qualified Social Worker with current Social Work England registration, significant post-registration experience and a strong understanding of safeguarding adults, mental capacity, human rights and end-of-life care. You’ll have experience of managing complex caseloads, working with multidisciplinary teams and leading, supervising and developing others. You’ll be able to communicate complex and sensitive information clearly and compassionately, build collaborative relationships and translate evidence, feedback and priorities into sustainable service improvements. Hospice or specialist palliative care experience, and experience of counselling, bereavement or volunteer services, would be an advantage.
Above all, we’re looking for someone who is compassionate, professional, calm and approachable, and who shares our values of being Caring, Compassionate and Committed.
A leadership role where your expertise will make a lasting difference
This is more than a casework role.
You’ll provide visible professional leadership, support colleagues to deliver safe and effective practice, and help develop responsive services that meet the changing needs of our community.
The role is based at St Catherine’s Hospice and involves working closely with colleagues across the Hospice and with NHS, local authority, education, safeguarding, community and voluntary-sector partners. Flexibility will be needed to respond to service requirements and represent the Hospice at relevant forums.
Salary: £42,791
Department: Clinical
Location: St Catherine’s Hospice, Lostock Hall, Preston
Benefits: Enjoy 36 days’ holiday (including bank holidays), an extra wellbeing day for your birthday, up to 8% employer pension contributions, Blue Light Card discounts, discounted on-site meals, career development opportunities, life insurance, cycle to work scheme, employee assistance programme and great free parking within our fabulous grounds.
If you’re ready to combine specialist social work practice with compassionate leadership and service development, we’d love to hear from you. Come and help us ensure people and families receive outstanding psychosocial support when it matters most.
To find out more or arrange an informal conversation, please contact the People Team at peopleteam@stcatherines.co.uk.
To apply for this post please send your CV and a covering letter, outlining how you meet the requirements for the role as outlined in the person specification, to peopleteam@stcatherines.co.uk.
Closing date – 6th November
We reserve the right to close the vacancy early.
If you have not heard within 2 weeks of the closing date then on this occasion your application has not been successful but we thank you for your interest in working at St Catherine’s Hospice.
All candidates must be able to demonstrate they are eligible to work in the UK.
The role is subject to appropriate pre-employment checks, including a Disclosure and Barring Service check.