Not all mental health issues can be helped on a hospital ward. Sometimes you need to look into the wider world and work towards changing it to be a more inclusive and tolerant place. That's where our social workers at Sussex Partnership Foundation Trust come into play. We have 130 social workers employed by us, however, you wouldn’t even know most of them are social workers, they work in a variety of different levels and departments.
Our social workers protect and support vulnerable adults, children, families and communities to improve their lives. They work to figure out the best way to help our service users in dealing with whatever challenges they face, along with protecting their human rights and wellbeing. We do this by offering face-to-face engagement with service users, along with using a mix of social work skills to connect with that person. This helps us to support them, to see what their needs are, and to decide the best way that we can care for them. We also help them work through any issues they may be facing, from social to ecological factors. For example, lack of employment, home life, etc. While working at the Trust as a social worker, you will be able to see the impact you will have on our users' lives.
"We are really committed to supporting our social workers and the vital role they can play in the lives of people who use our services. The work that we do can help people to manage the social factors in their lives - like relationships, money and housing and thereby empower individuals to lead fulfilling, independent lives within their community."
Bryan Lynch | Director of Social Work
We know that our social workers have so much to offer us, so in return we want to give you excellent opportunities within your career. We offer all of our social workers access to a bi-monthly social forum, professional supervision and an annual social workers conference where we bring all of our social workers across the Trust together. We also hold a bi-monthly journal club, where members can discuss relevant articles about mental health and social work, and anything that we can take from them for use within the Trust. This helps us make sure that we can offer the most up to date care possible.
We want to make sure that you have every opportunity to grow in your career while at Sussex Partnership. This is why we offer a range of different opportunities for you to develop your skillset in a variety of areas, from mental capacity to safeguarding. We also offer progression in our complete range of services and life stages, from perinatal to older people. Because we offer such a broad range of services across the partnership, we can work with you, whatever your goals are. Lastly, we offer great pay, starting on a Band 5 rate with plenty of room for progression.
We have also started offering limited places on our ASYE program for newly qualified social workers who join us. The main aim of our program is to help make sure you are confident in your new role. We are looking to increase the number of placements we can offer to this program. We want to give as many newly qualified social workers as possible the option to start their social work career here and undertake their ASYE year with us.
Want to work as a social worker but not yet qualified? We have you covered. We are working with Brighton University to offer Social Work Apprenticeships for those who want to come work in our social care team. This allows people already in the Trust to progress in their careers to become social workers. We are planning to increase the number of apprenticeships available in Sussex and Hampshire soon, so keep an eye out!