Assistant Team Manager - Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards Team

This role has a starting salary of £50,047 per annum, based on a 36-hour working week.

We are excited to be hiring a new Assistant team Manager to join our fantastic Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards Team. The team is county-wide, based at Quadrant Court; however, there is an opportunity to work flexibly, including from your own home and at other Surrey County Council offices.

This is a 24-month fixed term / secondment opportunity.

Rewards and Benefits

• 26 days' holiday (prorated for part time staff), rising to 28 days after 2 years' service and 30 days after 5 years' service
• Option to buy up to 10 days of additional annual leave
• An extensive Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) to support health and wellbeing
• Up to 5 days of carer's leave per year
• Paternity, adoption and dependents leave
• A generous local government salary related pension
• Lifestyle discounts including gym, travel, shopping and many more
• 2 paid volunteering days plus 1 team volunteering day per year
• Learning and development hub where you can access a wealth of resources
• Reflective practice sessions
• Annual BIA legal updates

About the Team

The team consists of administrative staff, Best Interest Assessors and Senior Practitioner Specialist Leads who work collaboratively together to ensure that the objectives of the team are achieved. In doing so, there is an established ethos of supporting each other and team working, as well as working independently.

This role offers a fantastic opportunity to further develop your understanding and experience of the Mental Capacity Act and the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards, and you will be helping to support MCA practice across adult social care in Surrey. Furthermore, you will receive regular supervision, reflective practice sessions and annual BIA legal update training as part of your role.

About the Role

Primarily, you will assist with leading, motivating and managing a team to ensure the service provided is consistent, effective and delivers positive outcomes for individuals, their carers and families. You will also contribute to and support the development of practice, procedures, and policy within the team, and provide day to day management and oversight of team processes. This oversight will extend to the team's busy duty system, which includes triaging incoming DOLS authorisation requests, quality assuring assessments, responding to email and telephone queries, and providing support and advice to both external agencies and other adult social care teams.

You will provide supervision to Best Interest Assessors and DOLS coordinators within the team. You will undertake Best Interest Assessments in care homes and hospitals where people are being deprived of their liberty; often these will be the more 'complex' requests and will require you to have detailed understanding and knowledge of the application of DOLS and the Mental Capacity Act.

Shortlisting Criteria

To be considered for shortlisting for this position, your application will clearly evidence the following:

• Best Interest Assessor qualification and relevant post qualifying experience.
• Ability to prioritise workload and to make decisions concerning people's liberty.
• Excellent interpersonal skills and ability to communicate in a clear and concise manner.
• Ability to use IT systems with confidence and capable of producing reports of a high standard that will bear legal scrutiny.
• Excellent working knowledge of the Mental Capacity Act, Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards and other related legislation.

Contact us

Please contact us for any questions relating to the role. This could be to discuss flexible working requests, transferable skills or any barriers to employment.

The job advert closes at 23:59 on 07/04/2024. We look forward to receiving your application, please click on the apply online button below to submit. For internal applicants looking for a secondment opportunity please seek your line managers approval before applying

Our Commitment

Surrey County Council is proud to be a Disability Confident Employer. A guaranteed interview will be offered to all disabled applications where:

• The candidate has evidenced the minimum criteria for the role through their application
• The candidate has chosen to share that they have a disability on the application form

Our application form and onboarding process will provide an opportunity to request any reasonable adjustments for the interview and/or the role. We want to be an inclusive and diverse employer reflecting the community we serve and particularly welcome applications from all underrepresented groups.