Head of Supportive Care/Senior Social Worker

About us:
St Nicholas Hospice Care is an adult hospice in the beautiful, historic, market town of Bury St Edmunds. The hospice, which is proud to be at the heart of its communities of West Suffolk and Thetford, has just celebrated the charity’s 40th anniversary year and its 30th anniversary of being on the purpose-built hospice site.

Our 12-bedded hospice is set within the grounds of West Suffolk Hospital and backs onto heathland. Although a great place to live, Bury St Edmunds is on a main train line with regular connections to Newmarket, Cambridge, London, Stowmarket and Ipswich as is within an easy driving distance of the picturesque villages and coast of Suffolk.

In line with our mission, we continue to ‘strive for something better’ in ensuring the best end of life and bereavement care for our beneficiaries, and the role of Head of Supportive Care/Senior Social Worker will play a pivotal part in driving this mission forward. Alongside a multi-professional leadership team will will help shape and deliver our strategy and operational plan, thereby making a difference to those in our community (both adults and children) who experience the challenges of living with dying, death and bereavement.

About the role:

The Head of Supportive Care/Senior Social Worker will report to the Director of Care. The successful candidate will manage a significant portfolio; in addition to a small palliative care social work caseload; they will lead our adult and child bereavement services and our therapies service. The post holder will work closely with the Director or Care to relaunch our Compassionate Communities and locality-based Day Hospice services, as well as supporting our widening access and equality, diversity and inclusion work.

About you:

As an experienced, registered, social worker you will bring a unique and vital set of skills to complement the current senior clinical team. Skilled in psychosocial (individual and family) assessment and will good knowledge of benefits, care packages and key legislation (e.g. the mental capacity act, the health and care act and current safeguarding legislation and best practice) you will contribute to ensuring that all of our care is person-centred, and respects the autonomy and choices of individuals (both adults and children) who are towards the end of life or experiencing bereavement.

Experience of managing both staff and volunteers is important and ideally you will have experience of managing people from a range of disciplines. Commitment to equitable access for all and the ability to influence and support colleagues to structure services accordingly will be a key skill, as is the ability to work with adults and children of all backgrounds, individually or in group work settings.

If you are an enthusiastic, team player and have a passion to make a difference, every single day, then we invite you to apply for this role which will be shaped by your social work thinking, experience and practice; extending the psychosocial care that people under the care of St Nicholas Hospice Care receive. In return we will offer you encouragement, support, supervision and ongoing development opportunities as well as either continuation of a pre-existing NHS pension or entry into our occupational pension. Working alongside great colleagues, this post proffers a deeply satisfying role, valued by the people who provide our services and the people who access them alike.

We strong recommend that you seek an informal conversation and/or visit to the hospice. For an informal discussion or to find our more about this opportunity, please contact Adrienne Jackson, Executive Assistant to the CEO, by e-mail at adrienne.jackson@stnh.org.uk or Sharon Basson, Director of Care, by e-mail at sharon.basson@stnh.org.uk or by phone to either of these colleagues by calling 01284 766133.