Social Care Apprentice within the Adult Mental Health Team
Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council
Oldbury (B69 3DB)
Closes in 25 days (Friday 12 September 2025 at 11:59pm)
Posted on 18 August 2025
Contents
Summary
Do you have an interest in Social Care and are aged 18 years or over? If so we have an exciting apprenticeship where you can assist our Adult Mental Health Social Care Team to support customers in and around the Sandwell borough **
- Wage
-
£14,526.20 for your first year, then could increase depending on your age
National Minimum Wage rate for apprentices
- Training course
- Lead adult care worker (level 3)
- Hours
-
Monday to Friday between the hours of 9.00am and 5.00pm
37 hours a week
- Start date
-
Monday 3 November 2025
- Duration
-
1 year 6 months
- Positions available
-
2
Work
Most of your apprenticeship is spent working. You’ll learn on the job by getting hands-on experience.
What you'll do at work
Working within Sandwell Council Social Care Services, you will learn what the various teams within the service do, as you will assist Social Workers and other professionals in assessing, safeguarding, supporting and advocating for service users. During the apprenticeship, you will contribute to the delivery of services that enable the best outcome for service users and their families. ** Unfortunately we cannot accept applications from young people receiving social care services themselves, or who are aged under 18 years old.
You will undertake a wide range of duties such as:
- Helping to provide an immediate response when receiving information or being aware of situations concerning risks to service users
- Assist others when working with service users to improve their quality of life
- Actively undertake Training to improve own performance, including the Shadowing of Social Workers
- Support others to advocate on behalf of others, to obtain the best outcomes
- Gather and share information from service users with all relevant parties/professionals involved
- Support the Team by carrying out follow-up calls, taking any actions as authorised
- Promote service users cultural needs, and challenge any discrimination and racism
- Help ensure that social work care planning for service users, is carried out by working with them and other professionals, in family homes or elsewhere with a range of therapeutic interventions
- Be accountable for the quality of your work and take responsibility for maintaining and improving your knowledge and skills
- Meet relevant standards of practice and working in a lawful, safe and effective way
- Maintain clear and accurate records as required by procedures established for your work
- Work openly and co-operatively with colleagues, and treat them with respect
- Recognise that you remain responsible for the work that you have been asked to undertake
- Recognise and respect the roles and expertise of workers from other agencies and work in an effective partnership with them
- Work flexibly to support the department, by working late on occasional evenings
Where you'll work
Freeth Street
Oldbury
B69 3DB
Training
Apprenticeships include time away from working for specialist training. You’ll study to gain professional knowledge and skills.
Training provider
SANDWELL COLLEGE
Training course
Lead adult care worker (level 3)
Understanding apprenticeship levels (opens in new tab)
What you'll learn
Course contents
- Support individuals they are working with according to their personal care/support plan
- Take the initiative when working outside normal duties and responsibilities
- Recognise and access help when not confident or skilled in any aspect of the role that they are undertaking
- Implement/facilitate the specialist assessment of social, physical, emotional and spiritual needs of individuals with cognitive, sensory and physical impairments
- Contribute to the development and ongoing review of care/support plans for the individuals they support
- Provide individuals with information to enable them to exercise choice on how they are supported
- Encourage individuals to actively participate in the way their care and support is delivered
- Ensure that individuals know what they are agreeing to regarding the way in which they are supported
- Lead and support colleagues to understand how to establish informed consent when providing care and support
- Guide, mentor and contribute to the development of colleagues in the execution of their duties and responsibilities
- Demonstrate dignity in their working role with individuals they support, their families, carers and other professionals
- Support others to understand the importance of equality, diversity and inclusion in social care
- Exhibit empathy for individuals they support, i.e. understanding and compassion
- Exhibit courage in supporting individuals in ways that may challenge their own cultural and belief systems
- Demonstrate and promote to other workers excellent communication skills including confirmation of understanding to individuals, their families, carers and professionals
- Use and facilitate methods of communication preferred by the individual they support according to the individual’s language, cultural and sensory needs, wishes and preferences
- Take the initiative and reduce environmental barriers to communication
- Demonstrate and ensure that records and reports are written clearly and concisely
- Lead and support others to keep information safe, preserve confidentiality in accordance with agreed ways of working
- Support others, to recognise and respond to potential signs of abuse according to agreed ways of working
- Work in partnership with external agencies to respond to concerns of abuse
- Lead and support others to address conflicts or dilemmas that may arise between an individual’s rights and duty of care
- Recognise, report, respond to and record unsafe practices and encourage others to do so
- Lead and mentor others where appropriate to promote the wellbeing of the individuals they support
- Demonstrate the management of the reduction of infection, including use of best practice in hand hygiene
- Promote healthy eating and wellbeing by supporting individuals to have access to fluids, food and nutrition
- Carry out fire safety procedures and manage others to do so
- Develop risk assessments and use in a person centred way to support individuals safely including moving and assisting people and objects
- Manage, monitor, report and respond to changes in the health and wellbeing of the individuals they support
- Take the initiative to identify and form professional relationships with other people and organisations
- Demonstrate, manage and support self and others to work within safe, clear professional boundaries
- Take the initiative to evaluate and improve own skills and knowledge through reflective practice, supervision, feedback and learning opportunities
- Demonstrate continuous professional development
- Carry out research relevant to individuals’ support needs and share with others
- Demonstrate where necessary mentoring and supervision to others in the workplace
- Demonstrate good team/partnership working skills
- Demonstrate their contribution to robust recruitment and induction processes
Training schedule
You will undertake a Level 3 Adult Care Worker Qualification.
The apprenticeship training will be delivered in the workplace and you will receive regular visits from a college assessor
The apprenticeship will also include a proportion of 20% off the Job Training and a robust programme of Mandatory Apprentice Training provided by Sandwell Council to include:
- Fire Awareness
- Prevent
- Safeguarding
- Data Protection & Cyber Security and Equality & Diversity
Requirements
Essential qualifications
GCSE in:
- English (grade 9-4/A-C)
- Maths (grade 9-4/A-C)
Other in:
- Adult Care (grade Level 2)
- English (grade Level 2)
- Maths (grade Level 2)
Share if you have other relevant qualifications and industry experience. The apprenticeship can be adjusted to reflect what you already know.
Skills
- Communication skills
- IT skills
- Attention to detail
- Organisation skills
- Customer care skills
- Problem solving skills
- Presentation skills
- Administrative skills
- Number skills
- Analytical skills
- Logical
- Team working
- Creative
- Initiative
- Non judgemental
- Patience
- Physical fitness
- Empathy
- Safeguarding
- Data Protection
- Confidentiality
- Equality
- Flexibility
- Professionalism
- Respect for others
Other requirements
Proof of Qualification Certificates will be required during the recruitment process. This position will ideally suit someone with a confident and outgoing personality, and who enjoys talking to a wide variety of people. You must be willing to shadow senior post holders and attend any relevant training, as well as being flexible to support the needs of the post and travel around the Sandwell Borough. Please be aware that you will come into contact with sensitive information, of which data security must be maintained and you will need to have a mature a professional approach and have a due regard for Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of vulnerable adults, therefore you will be required to undertake an Enhanced DBS check prior to commencing in the post. We reserve the right to close vacancies prior to their advertised date, if we receive a large number of applications. Therefore, you are strongly advised to complete and return your application as soon as possible. ** Unfortunately we cannot accept applications from young people receiving social care services themselves, or who are aged under 18 years old.
About this employer
Sandwell is a large, multicultural metropolitan borough situated in the heart of the Black Country, to the west of Birmingham, within the West Midlands conurbation and with a population of over 280,000. The Council is one of the largest employers in the Borough with employees in a variety of occupations, providing a comprehensive range of services. For more information about Sandwell Council’s apprenticeship programme and our recruitment process please visit our YouTube channel. Find out more information on Sandwell’s Values and Behaviours on the council’s webpage. For more information on careers in local government you can view a copy of the Local Government Career Guide.
After this apprenticeship
- This apprenticeship is a fixed term contract
- However, the skills, knowledge and experience gained in this apprenticeship will allow you to gain future opportunities in the sector
Ask a question
The contact for this apprenticeship is:
SANDWELL COLLEGE
elle_walker@sandwell.gov.uk
The reference code for this apprenticeship is VAC1000337604.
Apply now
Closes in 25 days (Friday 12 September 2025 at 11:59pm)
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