Locum ASC Senior Social Worker
Temporary, Full Time
£233 PAYE / £299 Umbrella
Location: Braintree
Working Style: Anywhere worker
Closing Date: Monday 23rd February 2026
Locum Senior Social Worker
Braintree
£233 PAYE / £299 Umbrella per day
Temporary, Full Time
Essex County Council (ECC) is one of the largest and most dynamic local authorities in the UK, serving a population of 2 million residents, and has a very successful track record of delivering transformational change. ECC anticipated change was needed in the public sector and has worked to deliver better quality at lower cost. We have an ambitious transformation agenda – one with the scope to reach every part of the council. We are changing the way we think, the way we work, and the ways in which we deliver our services. We are committed to becoming a place where individuals, partners and communities feel proud to play their role and genuinely want to belong. We’re immensely proud of our flexible working options.
Why Join Us?
With us, you can achieve more – for yourself as well as the vulnerable adults you work to support. We’re always looking for new ways to deliver even better services, Social Workers play an integral role in our preventative approach to Social Care. We encourage our multi-disciplinary teams to share their ideas and experience. We work together to get things done. Bring your positive, proactive attitude, and we’ll empower you to make the most of your experience within Essex County Council (ECC) Adult Social Care services.
Whatever you want to achieve in your social care career, you can do it here.
Visit our brochure to find out more about ECC's Adult Social Care services.
About the Role
Senior Social Workers are passionate in demonstrating expert and effective practice ability in complex situations. Managing your own complex caseload, as well as supporting colleagues with theirs, you’ll be a source of specialist advice and enable the mitigation of high levels of risk. You’ll also bring your professional expertise to contribute to the development of practice standards and our four key principles of prevention, early intervention, enablement and safeguarding.
The team operates within the Mid Essex area covering rural and urban area (Chelmsford, Maldon and Braintree). Forming part of a Neighbourhood approach, linking closely with our partners in health, housing and voluntary sector, the team undertakes a wide range of duties including assessment, reviews, mental capacity assessments and adult safeguarding activity. We work with adults over the age of 18, and across all specialisms.
We work with adults to support their independence and enable them to live their life the way they wish to. Our work includes supporting people with complex needs and diverse situations and our focus on recovery and independence when supporting adults, enables them to achieve their individual outcomes. This includes working closely with our partners, building professional networks, and strengthening community resilience.
The team offers a dynamic range of experiences from Safeguarding Vulnerable Adults as well as completing annual reviews with a focus on recovery. This includes working closely with partners and building networks and community resilience.
About Us
At Essex County Council Adult Services our mission is clear. We want to make the best and most sustainable use of all resources available to the adult, their families, and carers. To ensure they have access to information and tools to enable them to live healthily and independently for as long as possible, and to exercise choice and control over their lives. And to ensure the safety, dignity, and quality of life for all the adults we work with. To make sure we achieve our goals, we’ve transformed our service to be far more proactive. Moving from focusing on long-term care and support, our new model is centred on four key principles - prevention, early intervention, enablement, and safeguarding. We’re very proud of our service and the work we’re doing with all our partners to build community capacity and resilience.
To find out more about what it’s like working within ECC’s Adult Social Care services, please see a short video here.
About You
You’ll bring strong leadership and behavioural skills, giving you the ability to develop a highly motivated, high-performing professional team to deliver the best solutions for those using our services. We’re also looking for your experience of working in a social care setting, along with the ability to deal with challenging social situations and develop strong relationships with partner agencies and the local community to provide a supportive framework for vulnerable adults.
You’ll also bring:
- Evidence of continuing professional development and capability of practice in accordance with current professional standards.
- An in-depth understanding of the financial implications of commissioned care packages.
- Experience of leading change in a complex environment and ensuring the organisation delivers best practice within financial constraints.
- The ability to make clear decisions, to highlight and limit potential risks associated with intervention.
- At least 3 years’ experience in a qualified Social Worker role.
This role involves travelling around Essex and beyond, transporting service users and their belongings – sometimes in an emergency. A driving licence and car - or the ability to meet the mobility requirements of the role through other means - is essential.
Why Essex? Essex County Council has a location to be proud of. Our 1,300 square miles stretch from Constable Country to the Thames Estuary, from the dynamic M11 corridor to the traditional seaside resorts of Clacton and Walton. England’s oldest town, Colchester, and two of its newest – Basildon and Harlow – are right here. Along with the City of Chelmsford, the county town, they form our major population centres. It means real choice and makes Essex the ideal place for your career. Read more about us.
In February 2025, Greater Essex was accepted onto the Government’s devolution priority programme, which will see local authorities in Essex work towards establishing a Mayoral Combined County Authority by May 2026. You can read more about devolution and local government reorganisation (LGR)) on our careers site
Essex County Council is proud to be a Disability Confident Leader. We’re committed to interview all disabled applicants who choose to apply under our Job Interview Scheme if they meet the minimum requirements of the job. Please speak to our Recruiters if you require any reasonable adjustments during the process.
We’re also committed to interview all veterans and care leavers, who meet the minimum requirements of the role for which they are applying.
What you should do next
If you are interested in finding out more about this role, we would love to hear from you. Please apply via the Working for Essex website.
Please note that Essex County Council has determined that the off-payroll working rules will apply to this assignment and where a worker elects to provide their services through an intermediary (such as a personal services company) then income tax and primary national insurance contributions will be deducted at source from any payments made to the intermediary.
As part of employment with Essex County Council (ECC) should your role require a DBS check you will be required to register with the DBS update service. The DBS update service ensures all registered DBS certificates are kept up to date and allows authorised parties to view the status of your certificate. This is an annual subscription, and you will be responsible for ensuring this is maintained. For further information on the DBS update service please go to https://www.gov.uk/dbs-update-service
Essex County Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults, and expects all employees and volunteers to share this commitment.
If you would like to be kept up to date on other relevant opportunities, blogs, news, events and industry related news at Essex County Council, please join The Essex Talent Community.
For more information contact courtney.jode@essex.gov.uk