Advanced Practitioner (Social Worker) - Hospital Discharge Team

Overview

Are you looking for a new challenge? Do you want to become part of a hospital discharge team that places a premium on listening and learning, and is determined to make a difference?

We have a fantastic opportunity for a dynamic Advanced Practitioner, who is passionate about enabling clients to fulfil their potential, to join our Hospital Discharge North and East Team based at Stoke Mandeville Hospital.

If you have experience in enabling clients to achieve or maintain independence, thrive working in a fast-paced environment and enjoy working alongside individuals, supporting them to achieve their goals of living independently, then we want to hear from you!

This is a newly created post for an Advanced Practitioner to work in collaboration with Buckinghamshire Healthcare Trust (BHT) to support the integrated front door team and the Emergency Department. The focus will be on admission avoidance and early resolution of complex matters to enable patients to leave hospital in a timely manner.

The post holder will be required to work on site daily Monday to Friday.

In addition to the salary advertised, you will receive a market premium of £2,525 per annum, you will also receive a ‘Golden Hello’ lump-sum payment of £2,500 paid on successful completion of your probationary period.

About us

Our vision is simple. To make a real difference to the people and communities we serve. Now, and for the future. This means safeguarding the vulnerable, creating opportunities, building self-reliance, and keeping Buckinghamshire thriving and attractive. All whilst ensuring that we’re delivering value for money.

Our local communities are at the heart of everything we do, and they really rely on the work we do. Whether its new roads being built, helping parents get their children a school place or providing essential support to vulnerable children or elderly residents, what we do touches the lives of everyone in Buckinghamshire.

If you'd like to hear from some of our current adult social care employees, take a look at our Bucks Careers pages Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram

About the role

To ensure the highest standards of service are provided to the residents of Buckinghamshire, Advanced Practitioners will:

• Work in accordance with the Better Lives framework.
• Promote and deliver goal-based support with people to achieve greater independence.
• Promote equality as an integral part of the role and treat everyone with fairness and dignity.
• Provide a proactive personalised approach to the delivery of care and practice.
• Respond to people’s needs in a timely manner.
• Focus on improving people’s well-being.
• Give people greater choice and control over the care that they receive.
• Take account of people’s risks and safety at all times, identifying mitigations to reduce that risk.
• Support people to achieve the outcomes that are most important to them using all available resources and taking responsibility for the public purse.
• Provide personalised information and advice, safeguarding, assessment, support planning and review to individuals/families and their carers.

• Supervise and support colleagues within the team.
• Work as part of both the Adult Social Care/Integrated Discharge Team and the Integrated Front Door Team.
• Participate in Ward rounds/daily board meetings/ED huddles.
• Proactively work with MDT and partners to facilitate admission avoidance/early discharges.
• Escalate unusual needs that may be out of specification that could result in an early discharge were resource available.
• Support return to ordinary place of residence wherever possible.
• Act as a senior member of the IDT in the front door space.

About you

Naturally, you will be a great people person, familiar with working to a strength-based approach where you think outside of the box and enable people to prevent, reduce or delay the need for care. Bringing your in-depth knowledge of the latest legislation and statutory guidance, you’ll work independently and with colleagues to support adults and their families. Persistence and an adaptable approach are needed in an outcome focused way with our partners - such as health services, community sector, housing, care providers and other stakeholders.

You must be a qualified Social Worker (holding a social work degree or equivalent) and be registered with Social Work England.

Please see the job summary for more information.

Other information

For more information about this position, please contact  Jo Towner at [email protected]

Interview date: Friday 26^th September 2026

This post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and therefore applicants are required to declare:

• All unspent convictions and conditional cautions
• All spent convictions and adult cautions that are not protected (i.e. that are not filtered out) as defined by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (as amended in 2020 and 2023).

For further information on filtering please refer to Nacro guidance and the guidance published by the Ministry of Justice (see, in particular, the section titled ‘Exceptions Order’).

We reserve the right to close the vacancy once we have received sufficient applications, so please be advised to submit your application as early as possible.

Buckinghamshire Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and adults at risk.

Our values and culture

We have a set of values, which our employees have chosen, that represent what we are – Proud, Ambitious, Collaborative and Trustworthy.

By joining us, you can expect:

• a fair and inclusive culture
• the chance to really make a difference to those around you
• health and well-being initiatives including an Employee Assistance Programme, Mental Health First Aiders and mindfulness workshops
• a unified voice through our Employee Representative Group
• ongoing support, and the opportunity to develop and progress in your career with us
• opportunities to take part in fun activities such as fundraising and social events

We know that our biggest strength comes from the people that work for us, and that’s why we’re working hard to ensure we continue to be an accessible and inclusive organisation.

From dedicated staff networks overseen by our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Steering Group, to proudly standing as a Disability Confident employer, it’s important to us that all our colleagues feel engaged, listened to, and valued. Our offer of flexible working empowers a productive and happy workforce and allows employees to combine work with other responsibilities and commitments.

We believe our workforce should reflect the diverse communities we service in Buckinghamshire, and are looking for like-minded individuals to join us in promoting equality, fairness, and inclusion for everyone.

About the Service Area

Buckinghamshire Council is committed to ensuring that our residents stay as independent as they can, for as long as possible. Everyone has the right to live a fulfilling and nourishing life, and for many people, social care plays a key role in achieving that.

We are looking for dynamic Social Workers who are passionate about enabling clients to fulfil their potential, whilst promoting self-determination, and who are passionate, supportive, motivated, and confident when supporting and communicating with people - either on the telephone or face to face.

Your work will include carrying out needs assessments, creating person-centred and strengths-based care plans, ensuring delivery of services, and reviewing outcomes with the individual, their personal networks, and support providers.

You will work in partnership with other professionals and organisations to support our residents effectively and holistically. Our Social Workers will endorse and act by the principles of personalisation, ensuring that care and support plans are person-centred, and as far as is safely possible, you will put the people with whom you work in control of their lives.

You will also demonstrate emotional resilience and intelligence - which is the ability to maintain focus and to ‘keep going’ despite setbacks and stressful situations, a real desire to enable clients to achieve or maintain their goals of living independently and enjoy working in a fast-paced environment.

 So, if you are looking for a new challenge, want to become part of a team that places a premium on listening and learning, and which is determined to make a difference – we want to hear from you!

We recognise and reward you

Hard work and success deserves recognition. That’s why we pride ourselves on the benefits we give our people. We actively encourage a good work-life balance and promote flexible and agile working arrangements. We provide discounts on various Cafés, restaurants, shops and auto enrolment onto our generous Pension Scheme. In addition to the opportunity to gain membership to Costco, we have discounted gym memberships, travel discounts with Arriva and much more.

https://jobs.buckinghamshire.gov.uk/working-buckinghamshire-council/