About the role
An exciting opportunity has arisen for a full time, Best Interest Assessor in the Cambridgeshire DoLS Team.
The DoLS team have an important role in upholding the human rights of residents in care homes and hospitals across Cambridgeshire.
You will be working with a dedicated and skilled team of Best Interest Assessors, DoLS coordinators, as well as the MCA DoLS manager.
The role involves travel across Cambridgeshire and neighbouring counties.
If you would like to know more about the role, please contact Nora Hanna – MCA DoLS manager – nora.hanna@cambridgeshire.gov.uk / 07789 942 155.
We are looking for exceptional Social Workers to join us on our journey. For an informal discussion about our vacancies, contact Beth on 01480 372 425 or e-mail welovesocialworkers@cambridgeshire.gov.uk.
This is a rolling campaign, and we will review applications daily so please don't wait for a closing date to apply, we want to speak to you now!
Appointment to this post will be subject to the outcome of an Enhanced Disclosure obtained through the Disclosure and Barring Service. The Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.
What will you be doing?
You will be assisting the supervisory body to fulfil its’ statutory roles. The role is interesting and diverse and includes (but is not limited to) completing Mental Capacity and Best Interest Assessments under the DoLS framework, reviews, prioritisation of referrals, signing off the work of others and offering shadowing opportunities to other staff members. In the role you will have access to a range of training and CPD opportunities.
As a Best Interest Assessor, you will be a Senior Practitioner and in this role you are expected to provide professional leadership in situations which have highly complex case arrangements, provide expert guidance to other professionals, provide written and verbal reports which are concise, informative, and based on analysis of complex evidence, act in a DoLS signatory capacity and provide cover for the Team Manager during short term absences.
About you
As a qualified Best Interest Assessor, you will need to be a registered Social Worker, Nurse or Occupational Therapist with at least two years post qualifying experience.
Please do not apply if you do not hold the Best Interest Assessor Qualification.
You will need to have excellent working knowledge of the Mental Capacity Act, The Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards frameworks and up to date knowledge of relevant case law.
Please see the job description for full job specification.
Our benefits
We value our colleagues in Cambridgeshire County Council and have developed a number of benefits in addition to the basics like annual leave, sick pay, pension and mileage…
- A comprehensive wellbeing package to cover all aspects of wellbeing, both in and out of work, which can also be accessed by your family
- Buy up to 4 weeks additional annual leave (pro-rata) through our salary sacrifice scheme
- Take your bank holidays flexibly to better suit your personal circumstances
- Make Additional Voluntary Contributions (Shared AVCs) to your pension with tax and National Insurance savings
- Access to development opportunities, apprenticeships and qualified coaches to support your personal and professional growth
- Paid volunteering hours each year so you can make a positive impact on our community during your normal working day
- Access to Peer Support Groups through our IDEAL staff equality, diversity and inclusion network
- Opportunities to nominate and receive Employee Recognition Awards
- An Our Cambs Rewards account, giving you access to in-store and online discounts as well as our Car Lease and Cycle to Work schemes
About us
Cambridgeshire is a great place to work and live with a diverse population, an urban centre in Cambridge, historic Isle of Ely, Huntingdon and St Ives as well as more rural landscapes.
Our four values are central to our culture, driving everything we do.
We are proud to serve the diverse communities of Cambridgeshire and want our workforce to be reflective of this diversity, which we firmly believe benefits our colleagues, the organisation and our communities. If you don’t meet every single requirement in the job role but think this could be you, please don’t be put off. We are committed to building a workplace that is compassionate and inclusive as well as diverse, so if you think you could be a good candidate for this role please consider applying and speak to the recruiting manager if you have any questions.
Our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, along with our employee network 'IDEAL' and self-organised peer support groups help us to foster an inclusive, supportive and safe working environment where people feel valued, respected, and empowered. We collect relevant diversity data for monitoring as part of the recruitment process to understand the diversity of our applicants and monitor any trends throughout the recruitment processes so that we can take meaningful action.
We are proud to be a Disability Confident Employer. We fully support providing reasonable adjustments throughout our recruitment process, as well as when you join us, and we encourage candidates to contact the Hiring Manager, whose details can be found in the advert, to discuss any adjustment needs. Some examples of adjustments could include additional time to complete an assessment or printing a document on pastel coloured paper with larger font size and line spacing. We would value talking about what might be possible to enable you to join us and thrive, so if there is something that would help you to do your best during your journey with us, please get in touch.
Visit our jobs and careers section to find out more about our wide range of learning and development opportunities; apprenticeships; our wellbeing package; staff benefits; our commitment to equality, diversity and Inclusion.