Meet the Adult Social Care team

Adult Social Care is rapidly changing in Suffolk. We are continuing our exciting journey of change. This is an exciting time, and you will be at the forefront of integrated working with health.

Our Integrated Neighbourhood teams bring together practitioners from both health and social care, to work closely with a range of organisations within their own community to support our customers to live healthier, longer lives, promoting independence and well-being, whilst delivering personalised services in partnership with them.

You will be managing a caseload and will be part of a team where we take pride in our positive working relationships with our colleagues both externally and internally. There are real opportunities to make a difference to the quality of people’s lives as part of an integrated neighbourhood approach.

The Flexible Care and Support Teams (FCST) work across the whole of the area working closely with locality Neighbourhood teams, the Hospital to Home team and key health and community partners. These innovative teams reflect local need and work flexibly across the locality to respond to emerging demand. Being a flexible team will mean that the exact nature of the activity will change from area-to-area and over time.

Activities include:

• Area safeguarding support and expertise,
• Support for Hospital to Home activity,
• Support for the neighbourhood/INTeams,
• Targeted review activity,
• Flexing to support demand for assessments,
• Supporting new initiatives i.e. CHC assessments, Discharge to assess,
• Responding to provider failure,
• Support for customers with dementia.

Learning Disabilities and Autism teams

Learning Disability and Autism teams, working closely with colleagues in the Service Development team, the Review and Audit team, the Complex Case team and partner agencies, are pivotal to the successful delivery of services to people with learning disabilities and autism, supporting a more personalised approach to helping people to live their lives. The Review and Audit team is a joint Operations and Service Development team with close links to our Direct Payments and Legal teams. The team initiates comprehensive and innovative approaches to conducting reviews with people, working closely with our existing Learning Disability and Autism teams and colleagues in Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust (NSFT).

Mental Health teams

The Access and Assessment team is the first point of contact for all referrals coming onto Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust (NSFT). Social Workers are responsible for triaging and assessing new referrals and making sound decisions based on information presented. Working as part of a busy but supportive multi-disciplinary team in carrying out these duties and linking closely with the Integrated Delivery teams to support the seamless transition for people who require ongoing treatment and support interventions. Applicants for this role require recent, relevant experience of working with individuals with mental ill-health and the skills, knowledge and confidence to make decisions based around risk management in a challenging and fast-paced environment.

The Independence and Wellbeing Service (IWS) sits at the sharp end of service delivery and is focused on working with people to maintain their independence by drawing on their strengths, personal networks and local community assets. The team help keep people safe and by intervening early, help reduce, prevent, and delay demand for services. The team work in an agile way, responding flexibly to competing needs and constantly prioritising workloads. The Independence and Wellbeing Service work closely with our social care contact centre, providing specialist advice and guidance at the earliest stages of the customer journey and supporting the team to promote opportunities for independence. The IWS maintains a good balance of both qualified and unqualified staff, providing opportunities to develop in a range of different specialisms.

Ipswich and West Suffolk Hospital teams work very closely with our health colleagues to support people to live healthier, longer lives, promoting independence and well-being, whilst delivering personalised services in partnership with them. We are looking for experienced and motivated people who will enjoy working in an acute hospital setting. You will join an enthusiastic, friendly and well-established team. You will be managing a case load and working closely with health colleagues in the assessment process to achieve timely discharges in line with the Care Act 2014 and Discharge to Assess policy. You will work within a multi-disciplinary work environment, where we take pride in our positive working relationships with our colleagues both externally and internally.

The Adult Safeguarding Service is made up of three teams, the Deprivations of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) team, Adult Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) team and the Central Adult Safeguarding team.

The DoLS team are responsible for receiving, assessing and issuing all Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards applications. The team is made up of social work professionals who hold the title of Best Interest Assessors and Business Support Co-ordinators. The team are passionate about upholding the human rights of the people they are required to assess.

The Adult MASH team are co-located with other MASH teams such as the police and health. They are a dedicated, committed team of Social Workers and adult social care practitioners who receive initial adult safeguarding concerns. There role is to liaise with the other MASH teams and partner organisations to gather information and make decisions as to whether the Safeguarding Care Act duties are met. The team's role includes speaking to referrers and the person to ensure that their views are central from the beginning of any safeguarding intervention.

The Central Safeguarding team's primary remit is to carry out safeguarding enquiries under the Care Act in the following situations:

• When there has been allegations of organisational abuse,
• When a person does not meet the the statutory criteria for a safeguarding enquiry but the local authority feels they may benefit from the support of a safeguarding enquiry,
• High risk situations when previous safeguarding interventions have not been effective to keep the person safe.

The Central Safeguarding team is a small team but made up of highly-skilled and experienced Social Workers and Practitioners who are dedicated to Making Safeguarding Personal. The team are viewed as a team of safeguarding excellence who support the wider Adult Social Care directorate.