Qualified Social Worker Grade 3

• Full Time / Permanent position

• Fitzroy location

• Leadership opportunity

• No after hours or on-call roster

About the Role

Based at St Vincent's Hospital in Fitzroy, an opportunity currently exists for a Social Work Team Leader to be appointed on a permanent basis.  To be successful in being offered this role you must have a number of years of experience working across a range of inpatient hospital settings. 

You will be required to lead a team of hospital Social Workers so the successful candidate will have highly developed skills in communication, supervision and leadership.  In addition to this, you will need advanced assessment, complex risk management and an ability to build and maintain a positive working culture within the team.  In this role you will also carry a small clinical caseload.

Main Duties

• Promote high standards of social work service delivery

• Coordinate the operational and service development activities of your allocated team

• Provide supervision to staff and students

• Coordinate or contribute to allocated/agreed portfolios, projects and research activities

• Demonstrate leadership and management skills and provide consultation on complex professional issues within organisation

• Provide expert consultation and direction in clinical care and respond to complexity and risk

Classifications for this position will range from SC31 to SC34 ($104, $118,981.20 per annum).

Your Contribution

• Bachelor Degree or Qualifying Masters in Social Work

• Achieved or working towards a post-graduate Masters of Social Work

• In excess of 5 years of experience in a hospital setting is essential

• Highly developed leadership and supervision skills

• Demonstrated ability to work with complex, high-risk situations

• Current National criminal history check, or willing to obtain

What we offer

• Salary Packaging – Increase your take home pay

• Employee Assistance Program

• Ability to join Fitness Passport - Your pass to an extensive choice of fitness facilities

• CBD Location, close to Public Transport

• Career development & advancement encouraged

• Culture of continuous improvement

About the Social Work Department

The Social Work Department at SVHM is recognised as a leader in developing and delivering best clinical practice to highly vulnerable groups such as people experiencing homelessness, family violence and addiction.  In addition to this, SVHM has a widely respected Aboriginal Health Unit and over 10 years of experience in designing a comprehensive clinical model of responding to Elder Abuse.  As a social worker at SVHM, your social work values will fit well within an organisation whose mission and strategy clearly sets out its commitment to advocating for vulnerable groups and providing excellent and compassionate health care.

With a strong focus on innovative service delivery and continuous practice improvement, you will also benefit from the knowledge and support of a Grade 4 social worker who is dedicated to research and quality improvement.

Working at St Vincent's
St Vincent's Hospital Melbourne (SVHM) is a leading teaching, research and tertiary health service. SVHM provides a diverse range of adult clinical services and is driven by values of Compassion, Justice, Integrity and Excellence.

Application

Please attach your resume and cover letter to your application.

Shortlisting for this position will commence immediately. We encourage you to apply promptly as the advertisement may close early should a suitable applicant be sourced.

We encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and abilities. Inclusion is essential to our mission and diversity reflects the community we serve.

Please visit our website, for further information regarding our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Employment at SVHM.

SVHA has a duty of care under work health and safety legislation to eliminate and/or control the risk of transmission of vaccine preventable diseases in healthcare settings. You may therefore be required to undergo mandatory immunisations/vaccinations (including flu vaccinations).

Contact

Penny Lording

Position Description

3. LOCAL WORK ENVIRONMENT
Social Work is situated in the directorate of Community Services and reports to the General Manager, Allied Health and Pharmacy. The Social Work Department, is managed by the Chief Social Worker and is comprised of 3 service teams: Cancer and Chronic Illness, Acute Medicine and Sub-Acute.The department staff are governed by the policies and procedures of the health service and additional department specific protocols. Social Workers are formally employed through the Social Work Department and allocated to work areas according to demand. Staff may be required to change their unit allocation, area 
of work or site in the interest of the most efficient use of staff resources and in order to maximize staff development opportunities.
St Vincent's Social Work is formally affiliated with the School of Social Work at the University of Melbourne for fieldwork teaching. Academic links also exist for both under graduate and post graduate teaching and 
education.

4. POSITION PURPOSE
The Grade 3 Social Worker is required to support the Chief Social Worker and Grade 4 staff to maintain excellence in social work services and promote the work and values of the profession. This position needs to manage and demonstrate leadership in complex assessment, planning and intervention, risk
minimisation with demonstrable attention to professional values, skills, knowledge and theory. The position requires leadership within teams and active problem-solving, negotiation and conflict management. This position needs to demonstrate advanced clinical knowledge incorporating Social Work and organizational mission, vision, goals, policies and procedures. Additionally, education, supervisory and research responsibilities are undertaken, as are evaluation and quality improvement activities. This position provides opportunities to develop social work skills and expertise in both acute and sub-acute care through an allocated clinical caseload and education and quality improvement activities are undertaken. This position may be required to work cross campus.

5. POSITION DUTIES
 Promote and foster clinical excellence
 Promote high standards of social work service delivery
 Coordinate the operational and service development activities of their allocated team
 Manage own workload autonomously
 Supervision of staff and students
 Coordinate or contribute to allocated/agreed portfolios, projects and research activities
 Undertake teaching/training as required
 Undertake evaluation, professional development and quality improvement activities
 Demonstrate management skills and provide consultation on complex professional issues within organisation
 Special projects and positions of responsibility as negotiated with the Chief Social Worker
 Provide expert consultation and direction in clinical care and respond to complexity and risk
 Foster a culture of clinical excellence and evidence based practice through the development, delivery and evaluation of a comprehensive staff/student education program
 Extensive experience in staff support initiatives including supervision, professional development and mentoring and coaching of students and staff
 Establish and maintain strategic links and work effectively with internal and external stakeholders appropriate to this senior role.
 Operational duties including the collection and evaluation of data to inform management activities
 Support the Chief Social Worker as required

6. INCUMBENT OBLIGATIONS
 Perform duties of the position to best of their ability and to a standard acceptable to SVHM.
 Comply with all SVHM policies, procedures, by laws and directions
 Treat others with respect and always behave professionally and in accordance with the SVHM
 Only access confidential information held by SVHM when this is necessary for business purposes, maintaining the confidentiality of that information once accessed
 Participate in the annual SVHM performance review process
 Display adaptability and flexibility to meet the changing operational needs of the business
 Comply with applicable Enterprise Bargaining Agreement provisions
 Display a willingness to develop self and seek to improve performance
 Attend clinical orientation upon commencement
 Always work within approved scope of practice under supervision by more senior clinical staff as appropriate.
 Take personal responsibility for the quality and safety of workundertaken
 Complete organisational and department l clinical competencies
 Maintain skills and knowledge necessary to safely and skillfully undertake clinical work
 Consult with peers and other experts and refer to other healthcare workers when appropriate and in a timely manner
 Participate in clinical risk management and continuous quality improvement activities as part of day-to-day work
 Ensure consumers receive information in an appropriate and accessible format
 Actively support consumers to make informed decisions about their treatment and ongoing care
 Ensure consumers are aware of their rights responsibilities and how to provide feedback

Health and Safety
 Protect the health and safety of self and others, complying with all health and safety related policies, 
procedures and directions 
 Complete required Fire and Emergency Training annually
 Complete required Workplace Culture and Equity Training annually
 Attend general hospital orientation within 3 months of commencement
 As required, comply with fit-testing and PPE requirements
 Participate in reporting and analysis of safety and quality data including risks or hazards,
 Report any hazards, near misses and incidents (regardless of whether an injury occurred or not) into Riskman 
 Identify and report any variance to expected standard and minimising the risk of adverse outcomes

7. INCUMBENT CAPABILIITY REQUIREMENTS (Level 2)
The incumbent of this position will be expected to possess the following corecapabilities:

• Capability Demonstrated behaviour
• Personal Personal effectiveness Takes responsibility for accurate, timely work results
• Learning Agility Identifies personal development needs and seeks information from a range of sources
• Outcomes Patient/Resident/client centred Strives to meet and exceed expectations, demonstrating sound judgement
• Innovation and Improvement Contributes to improvement by reviewing strengths and weaknesses of current processes
• Strategy Driving Results Manages own work load to deliver results
• Organisational Acumen Understands the interdependencies between units/departments
• People Working with and Managing others Takes responsibility for ensuring productive, efficient teamwork
• Collaboration Works collaboratively within and outside the team

8. SELECTION CRITERIA
ESSENTIAL REGISTRATION, LICENSE OR QUALIFICATIONREQUIREMENTS
 Bachelor of Social Work Degree/Qualifying MastersDegree
 Achieved or working towards a post-graduate Masters inrelevant professional area
 Eligible for membership of the Australian Association of Social Work (AASW)

OTHER ESSENTIAL REQUIREMENTS
 A minimum of seven or more years experience in hospital socialwork
 Ability to work well both organisationally and within an interdisciplinary setting.
 Actively promotes the incorporation into medical care of knowledge of the behavioural and social sciences and of the interrelationships between illness, illness behaviour, family process and the wider social system.
 Demonstrates an understanding of relevant social work theories and their relationship to clinical practice.
 Ability to utilise clinical knowledge and skills in program leadership and to identify opportunities for service improvement and innovation.
 Solid knowledge of health, aged care and relevant policy areas and of the service network.
Ability to identify global trends impacting on social work practice in health care.
 Significant demonstrated experience in staff and student supervision and ability to take on teaching and consultative roles in Social Work and the Hospital and committee work in the area of clinical specialization, student teaching and other aspects of social work practice/healthcare.
 Well developed written and verbal communications skills. Evidence of papers presented, report writing undertaken and/or publications.

At St Vincent's we acknowledge the importance of creating a work environment that is welcoming, safe, equitable and inclusive for Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Employees. As part of our Commitment to Reconciliation and Closing the Gap in employment related outcomes, we encourage applications from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.

For further information, visit or get in contact at

View Reconciliation Action Plan

View Code of Conduct