Feeling supported during a time of ill health is important and comforting and the Hospital Social Care team provides that and much more. If you are a person who has listening skills and wants to assist someone to leave hospital, then you are the right person for this team. The team is made up of social workers and social care practitioners. The social worker workforce has an incredible spectrum of experience from practitioners who have just qualified to very experienced practitioners. This is also the case with our social care practitioners who start in the team with no experience in the role but have the attributes of passion, caring and problem solving. There is the opportunity to be supported to qualify as a social worker, as an apprenticeship is available after working 2 years for Warwickshire. There is also lots of learning and development opportunities to enable practitioners to fulfil and grow in their role, gain promotion, and maintain registration if applicable to the post.
The team is part of the Integrated Care Service which comprises of the Hospital Social Care Team, Social Care Occupational Therapy and Reablement. The service is led by a Service Manager, all are county-wide services and all work very closely together and with fellow social care colleagues.
The hospital team is led by an Operations Managers North and South, who have smaller teams operating across the county:
- Team – Warwick Acute hospital (South Warwickshire residents
- Team - Ellen Badger, Stratford, and Leamington Spa Rehabilitation hospitals (South Warwickshire residents)
- Team - George Eliot hospital (North Warwickshire residents)
- Team - University Hospital Coventry & Warwickshire (UHCW) and St Cross hospitals (Coventry & Rugby residents).
- Team Out of Area hospitals (countywide)
- Discharge to Assess beds (countywide)
All teams 1-6 have a Team Leader who provides daily leadership, 1:1 support and represents the team on the daily multi-disciplinary team meeting with our different health providers in Warwickshire. This meeting is important as the pace of work is fast and every customer needs to have a discharge plan and an estimated date of discharge. Relationships with all medical, nursing, therapy and discharge teams is incredibly good and all work well together to deliver the best care and support we can for our customers.
The team is agile operating a hybrid model of work from home and hospital sites. The key function of the team is to discuss and set up with customers and their relatives initial support needs on leaving hospital and then carrying out a Care Act Assessment at a later point in time either via technology or face to face. In some situations, the practitioner will need to undertake other assessments such as Mental Capacity Assessment, Safeguarding enquires, Self-neglect enquires, Continuing Health Care checklists / Decision Support Tool with health colleagues.