Social Work Lead Practitioner

Employer King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust Employer type NHS Site Denmark Hill Town London Salary £66,274 - £73,496 per annum, including high cost allowance Salary period Yearly Closing 16/09/2026 23:59

King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is one of the UK’s largest and busiest teaching Trusts with a turnover of c £2.1 billion, 1.5 million patient contacts a year and more than 14,000 staff based across 5 main sites in South East London. The Trust provides a full range of local hospital services across its different sites, and specialist services from King’s College Hospital (KCH) sites at Denmark Hill in Camberwell and at the Princess Royal University Hospital (PRUH) site in the London Borough of Bromley.

We encourage all our staff to have a healthy work/life balance. In doing so, you can apply for flexible working from the beginning of your employment. We offer a range of options which are designed to suit different circumstances and priorities in line with service requirements.

The Vulnerabilities department brings together a number of services within the trust including, Maternity, Children and Adult Safeguarding, Social Work, the KHP Homeless Service, Violence Reduction, specialist MH, Learning Disabilities, Domestic Violence and End of Life Care under one model. This new department is an innovative approach for Kings College Hospital, with the aim of developing a holistic and responsive service to risk and vulnerability within all hospital sites.

The post holder will work collaboratively with the Deputy Head of Social Work, to provide high quality social work service to the division and the wider trust, managing a range of existing social work posts. They will also manage the Kings Health Partners (KHP) Homeless Service, in partnership with GSTT, providing cross-site management support of any posts that fall under the jurisdiction of the homeless service.

In addition to the line management of this service they are also expected to lead in the strategic development of homeless services across the KHP Network.

Alongside these core duties, the post holder will be expected to work in partnership with the wider Vulnerabilities service, supporting duty functions in responding and addressing the safety and wellbeing of vulnerable patients across the trust. The candidate will be expected to perform their role across multiple hospital sites, including Guys and St Thomas Trust & Kings College Hospital

1. Provision of a high quality social work service to teams identified by the Deputy Head of Social Work, to be the principle link person with system partners for these services and to foster collaborative working relationships with internal and external stakeholders. The post-holder is expected to work with Local Authority Adult Social Care and Housing Departments across London and report into the wider Safeguarding and Vulnerabilities service on emerging themes within the areas of social work and Homelessness.

This role will require exclusive oversight of the KHP homeless team.

2. Management, supervision, support and professional accountability for Social Workers as agreed with the Deputy Head and Assistant Director of Social Work. This will include ensuring that Social Workers meet the requirements of Social Work England at all times are acting at the appropriate level descriptors on key Frameworks such as the Professional Standards (SWE) and Professional Capabilities Framework (BASW) for social work.

3. To undertake senior tasks as part of the King's Senior Social Work structure and support good standards of governance across the portfolio

The Trust provides a full range of local and specialist services across its five sites. Transforming Healthcare is the vision at the heart of the King’s Strategy – 2026 to 2031. Together, we are pursuing six strategic ambitions: delivering high-quality patient care; being a great place to work; leading pioneering research, innovation and education; building strong and successful partnerships; providing timely and efficient care;

and ensuring long-term financial sustainability. Achieving these…