Social Worker, Specialist Assessment Team

Are you an experienced social worker ready to specialise in complex assessment work
Are you confident producing robust, evidence-informed assessments for care proceedings?
Are you skilled in working with families affected by adult substance use, trauma, mental health difficulties or learning needs?

We are seeking an experienced, full-time Social Worker to join Southampton City Council’s Specialist Assessment and Family Drug and Alcohol Court Team.

The Specialist Assessment and Family Drug and Alcohol Court Team is a highly skilled multidisciplinary team comprising of experienced social workers and family practitioners. We complete specialist assessments and deliver targeted interventions across Children’s Services, alongside leading Southampton’s Family Drug and Alcohol Court service.

Our practice is trauma-informed, relationship-based and systemic, enabling us to understand complex family histories, patterns of risk and the impact of adversity while identifying strengths, capacity for change and opportunities for safe, family-led solutions.

The team undertakes some of the service’s most complex assessment work, including assessments within care proceedings and the Public Law Outline process, including Parent Assess and adult sexual risk assessments. We work with families where substance use, learning needs, mental health difficulties and trauma are significant factors. Our analytical and evidence-informed assessments place children’s lived experiences at the centre and support timely, robust care planning.

As a Social Worker in the Specialist Assessment & FDAC Team, you will have at least two years’ post-qualifying experience, strong assessment skills and a proven background in court work. You will complete high-quality specialist assessments and contribute to care planning for children and families where needs and risks are complex. This will include work within Care Proceedings and the Public Law Outline process, and assessments involving substance or alcohol use, learning needs, mental health difficulties, trauma or sexual risk.

You will work closely with skilled family practitioners who deliver targeted interventions alongside the assessment process, providing families with practical opportunities to learn, develop and demonstrate change. The team’s intervention offer includes the Resolutions Approach, pre-birth and post-birth support, Non-Violent Resistance and emotional coping skills interventions.

Southampton’s Family Drug and Alcohol Court service is also based within the team. It provides an intensive, problem-solving approach for families where substance use is a central factor in care proceedings. The service supports parents to address substance use, improve family functioning and work towards safe reunification where this is achievable. We are therefore looking for a Social Worker who is also confident and skilled in direct work with adults affected by substance use difficulties.

For further information about this role, please view the job description.

• Qualified and registered Social Worker with a minimum of two years post-qualifying experience in children and families social work
• Strong specialist assessment skills, with formal training and proven experience in one or more areas such as Parent Assess, substance and alcohol misuse, sexual risk assessment or complex parenting capacity assessments
• A proven track record of work within care proceedings or complex Public Law Outline processes – including both written work and in providing oral evidence
• Confidence in producing analytical, evidence-informed assessments that are proportionate to risk and support timely care planning
• Additional skills in systemic practice, trauma-informed…