Senior Social Worker

This is a Gloucestershire County Council job.

• Job Title: Senior Social Worker
• Job Location: Shire Hall, Block 5, 2nd Floor
• Salary: £43,149 - £48,738 per annum (pro rata)
• Hours per Week: 37.00
• Contract Type: Permanent
• Closing Date: 20/10/2026
• Job Requisition Number: 14945
• This post is not open to job share

Are you a Social Worker passionate about working with people to promote independence, dedicated to making a difference and looking for your next career move?

We would love to hear from you!

About the role:

We have a full-time Senior Social Worker position available in our Mental Health Team.

The Senior Social Worker role could be the perfect next step of your career; with this role offering you more challenge and complexity, without the added management responsibility. We look to our Senior Social Workers to provide expert social work practice in complex situations, assessing and managing higher levels of risk. You will work closely with a range of professionals and more senior managers to ensure a balance of support and independence is achieved, through offering expert evidence based opinion.

About the team/service:

The Mental Health Service at Gloucestershire County Council supports adults who have social care needs arising from a primary, nonorganic mental health condition/s. Our service works across a range of settings, including community and inpatient, providing high quality, person-centred support that empowers people to live as independently and safely as possible.

We take a recovery-focused, strengths-based and trauma-informed approach, placing wellbeing, prevention, and personal autonomy at the heart of everything we do. Our work is grounded in partnership, collaboration, and a deep commitment to improving outcomes for the individuals and communities we serve.

This is an exciting time to join us, as the council re‑establishes its Mental Health Service following a Section 75 agreement which is being led by our Leadership team with extensive knowledge and experience of Mental Health Social Work. If you are passionate about supporting adults with mental health needs, share our values, and want to contribute to a service built on compassion, respect and empowerment — we want to hear from you.

About you:

As a Senior Social Worker, we understand the work you do on a daily basis and provide the support you need to make a difference to the people of Gloucestershire. To join us, you must:

• Have a social work qualification and be SWE registered
• Have completed your ASYE programme and have at least 2 years post completion service
• Enjoy working in a fast-paced environment
• Have the passion to promote people’s strengths and the ability to make a difference in a safe working approach to social work practice
• Have up to date knowledge of legislation and demonstrable experience of providing credible approaches to practice.
• Be able to prioritise, using a risk based approach

Our values are at the heart of everything we do and how we treat each other. They provide essential guiding principles about the way that we work and set the tone for our culture, and identify what we, as an organisation, care about. Read more about our values on our website.

If you hold the same behaviours and approach, then we want to hear from you! In exchange, we will provide you with full training and support to help you succeed in your role.

About us:

Why Gloucestershire?

Enchanting Cotswold villages, picturesque countryside backdrops, and a never-ending selection of exciting days out, attractions and events; Gloucestershire really does have something for everyone. Gloucestershire is the perfect place to live and work with a great mix of rural and city locations. Find out more about living and working in Gloucestershire.

This is a fantastic opportunity to join our Stroud team. You can be confident of becoming part of a welcoming, supportive, passionate, innovative and very experienced team. We use the Three Conversation approach, a model that re-emphasises focus on people, their strengths and the networks and community around them. The suitable candidate will be well supported within their role and will receive regular supervision. We fully support hybrid and agile working and ask teams to be in the office on days they are working together and holding their ‘huddles’ (where teams work together on exploring how to support the people we work with.)

Gloucestershire County Council provides the following rewards package in return for your hard work:

• 25.5 days annual leave rising to 30.5 days after 5 years’ service, plus bank holidays (pro rata for part time employees)
• Option to purchase up to 10 days of additional leave per year (pro rata for part time employees)
• Access to the Local Government Pension Scheme
• Free off-site parking
• Regular formal and informal support
• Safe, supportive and positive working environment with regular, robust supervision
• Training and development opportunities
• Clear career progression pathways, to support you in progressing professionally and personally
• Personal licences to Adults CCINFORM
• Reimbursement of professional Social Work registration fees
• Family friendly policies and benefits to help support you and your family
• Staff discount scheme that offers access to great savings including discounts with major supermarket chains and high street retailers
• Access to our Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) that provides free, confidential, counselling and advice for employees, available 24 hours a day, online and by telephone
• Cycle to Work scheme
• Links to employee networks such as Prism (LGBT+) network and the Young Employees Network

We’re closer than you think:

We are an easy commute from many locations, view our commuting times map to see what we mean. However, we understand that commuting isn’t for everyone, so if you are in the process of relocating, why not email us to discuss opportunities further. Subject to meeting qualifying conditions, we offer relocation of up to £8,000 to use towards the cost of relocating to Gloucestershire.

Applying:

Please write your application with consideration for the criteria in the Job Profile. This should include examples of why you should be considered and the experience, skills and knowledge that you would bring to the post. You will find a link below to our Job Description.

For an informal discussion with the team manager, please contact ASCrecruitment@gloucestershire.gov.uk

Additional Information:

To access the Job Profile for this role, please follow the link below:-

Senior Social Worker Job Profile

This position is a subject to an Enhanced Adults DBS with Barred List Check.

Gloucestershire County Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people or vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

The council is not currently able to offer sponsorship for this role. Candidates will need to have the right to work in the UK that enables them to commit to at least six months' employment. Right to work is not transferable from a sponsored role held with another employer.

We want to be an employer of choice, attracting and retaining excellent people to work for us, so that we can best serve all of Gloucestershire’s diverse communities. Our promise to you is that we will provide an inclusive and supportive working environment that enables you to bring your whole self to work and realise your full potential.

It is a legal requirement, under the Immigration Act 2016, that anyone appointed to a ‘customer facing role’ must be able to demonstrate an ability to fulfil all spoken aspects of the role with confidence in fluent English.

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early due to the volume of applications received and / or due to the needs of the service. If you are interested in applying, we encourage you to submit your application as early as possible.

If you are an Internal applicant and consider yourself to have a disability* as per the Equality Act (2010), please declare this in an email to recruitment@gloucestershire.gov.uk, as this is NOT currently covered in the application due to a technical error. By providing this information, you can choose to be considered for a guaranteed interview under our Disability Confident pledge if you meet all essential criteria. It also enables the recruiting manager to arrange any reasonable adjustments you may need during the process.

*a disability is defined as: a physical or mental impairment, which has a substantial and long-term (more than 12 months) adverse effect on a person’s ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities.

Applications from any Gloucestershire County Council's employees who are currently on the redeployment register or at risk of redundancy will be considered first at shortlisting stage.