Employment Type: Full Time, Temporary 6 months with possibility of extension and or permanency
Classification: Health Professional Level 1, Health Professional Level 2 (PN LP6930)
Health Professional Level 1 Salary: $80,861 - $97,932 (Plus 12.5%25 Super)
Health Professional Level 2 Salary: $91,028 - $108,691 (Plus 12.5%25 Super)
Location: North Canberra Hospital, Bruce
Section: Allied Health, Palliative Care & Ambulatory Care
Closing Date: 23 October 2026
Make a Difference When It Matters Most – Join Our Social Work Team
We’re looking for passionate and skilled Early Career Social Workers to join our North Canberra Hospital team on a contract basis. Whether you're working in the Commonwealth, State or Territory Government sector or in the not for profit or community sector, this is an opportunity to be part of a dedicated social work team and to contribute meaningfully in a dynamic, supportive environment
Why this Role Might Be Right For You
• | You thrive in fast-paced settings and want to be there for people during life’s most critical moments, |
• | You bring relevant experience working across and within complex systems be they hospitals, families, aged care, disability, health and mental health, social services, child protection or family violence. |
• | You value flexibility, collaboration, and purpose-driven work with a commitment to supporting vulnerable people, |
• | You’re an excellent communicator, solutions focused, kind and respectful with a passion for advocacy and social justice. |
What can we offer you:
• | A work environment that supports you to make the most of living in Canberra - the 2025 Oxford Economics best city in the world for quality of life. |
• | We are renowned for strong community connections and have excellent working relationships with Canberra’s tertiary institutions, government and non-government agencies. |
• | You'll have all the benefits of working for Canberra’s person centred, innovative, high performing public health system including access to relevant professional development allowances and/or leave. |
• | Recognition of your experience and service with portability of leave balances to and from Commonwealth, State and Territory government departments across Australia (as per the relevant EAs) |
• | Competitive pay rates and excellent working conditions |
• | Salary Packaging with many options that provide full fringe benefits tax concessions |
About the role:
As an early career Social Worker at NCH, you will:
• | Make a unique contribution to the hospital system by providing services to meet the multidimensional needs of patients and their families/ cares including clinical assessments, patient education, therapeutic interventions, advocacy and service coordination. |
• | Respond to presentations involving family violence, homelessness, child protection, mental health, bereavement, socio legal issues and ethical decision making, carer stress, trauma and cultural complexity. |
• | Collaborate with multidisciplinary teams to ensure safe, timely, and compassionate care. |
• | Contribute to student supervision, service improvement, and quality initiatives. |
• | Develop culturally responsive and inclusive interventions. |
For more information regarding the position duties click here:
Health Professional Level 1: Position Description.
Health Professional Level 2:Position Description.
ABOUT YOU
You're a new graduate looking for the right place to start your career or an early career passionate and proactive clinician who thrives in collaborative settings and is committed to continuous learning and service excellence.
You may also be:
• | a mid – career professional seeing a new challenge or to be embedded in a dedicated social work team |
• | A passionate advocate for social justice, self-determination and person-centred care. |
We recognise our strength comes from the diversity of our people and so we encourage people of all genders, ethnicities, ages, abilities, languages, sexual orientation, and family responsibilities to apply.
You’ll bring:
Mandatory
• | Relevant tertiary qualifications in social work and a minimum of 1 year experience working professionally in Social Work for HP2. (NO experience required for HP1 applicants). |
• | Professional membership or eligibility for professional membership of the Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW) |
• | The successful applicant will need to be available for irregular after-hours work and will be required to work shutdown. |
• | CHS is leading the drive to digitally transform health service delivery in Australia through the implementation of a territory wide Digital Health Record. Computer literacy skills are required which are relevant to this role as you will be responsible for completing required documentation and becoming a proficient user of the Digital Health Record and/or other Information Technology systems; once proficient, you will need to remain current with changes, updates and contingencies. |
Highly Desirable
Please note prior to commencement successful candidates will be required to:
• | Undergo a pre-employment National Police Check. |
• | Prior to commencing this role, a current registration issued under theWorking with Vulnerable People (Background Checking) Act 2011 is required. |
• | Comply with Canberra Health Services Occupational Assessment, Screening and Vaccination policy. |
• | Comply with CHS credentialing and scope of clinical practice requirements for allied health professionals. |
To Apply:
IMPORTANT PLEASE READ CAREFULLY
Finding people who are a good fit with our existing values based and high performing social work team is a key objective for the panel. That’s why our application process is quite different to other Government roles.
• | Applications do need to include a CV that includes the name of 2 professional referees. 1 must be a current or former supervisor. The other must be a social worker who is familiar with your practice if your other referee is not a social worker. |
• | We do require a cover letter. In it you should include a brief introduction and describe your areas of interest within the acute hospital setting and your current availability for work. |
• | To ensure timely and accurate assessment of your written application by the panel please ensure that all documents are saved with the name of the applicant in each document title and the name of the applicant is present on every page in the header/ footer. |
• | We do not require a selection criteria report. Please do not submit one. Selection criteria are listed in the position description however a selection criteria report is not required and will not be assessed as part of your application and may mean that your application does not progress to interview if you include one. |
Only applications that are submitted online via the E-Recruitment system will be accepted and include both required documents with the requested document naming
***Please note applications submitted via an agency will not be accepted for this position***
If you would like further information regarding this opportunity, please see the full contact details and how to apply on theCHS Careers Page.
WHAT YOU REQUIRE
For Health Professional 1 (New Graduate) applicants
These are the key selection criteria for how you will be assessed in conjunction with your resumé and experience.
• | Ability to develop clinical Social Work interventions, including assessment, counselling, advocacy, planning, and patient/carer education. |
• | Ability to develop prioritisation and management of a caseload, under supervision, with awareness of and adherence to risk management processes. |
• | Ability to develop an understanding of working in a multidisciplinary team, including establishing and maintaining effective dialogue and working relationships with staff, people, carers, and service providers. |
• | Demonstrated effective oral and written communication skills. Including the ability to establish and maintain effective dialogue and working relationships with the people who access our service, staff and other service providers, and the ability to utilise a range of information technology applications to maintain documentation and data collection. |
• | Demonstrates understanding of, and adherence to, safety and quality standards, work, health and safety (WH&S) and the positive patient experience. Displays behaviour consistent with CHS’s values of reliable, progressive, respectful and kind. |
For Health Professional 2 applicants
These are the key selection criteria for how you will be assessed in conjunction with your resumé and experience.
• | Proven knowledge of and ability to provide assessment, counselling and care planning interventions which are responsive to patient needs in a healthcare setting. |
• | Demonstrated effective communication skills, both written and verbal, with an ability to communicate sensitively with patients and colleagues and work effectively with hospital and community-based stakeholders. |
• | Demonstrated ability to work within multidisciplinary team/s and prioritise workload according to clinical indicators, risk management frameworks and organisational requirements. |
• | Demonstrated ability to participate in professional supervision, performance management, continuing professional development and assist in the education of students. |
• | Demonstrates understanding of, and adherence to, safety and quality standards, Work Health and Safety and the positive patient experience. Displays behaviour consistent with CHS’s values of reliable, progressive, respectful, and kind. |
A merit pool will be established from this recruitment process and will be used for the next 12 months to fill various positions both on a temporary and permanent basis with full-time and part-time opportunities available
***Please note applications submitted via an agency will not be accepted for this position***
About the Hospital:
North Canberra Hospital (formerly Calvary Public Hospital Bruce) and Clare Holland House are now run and operated by Canberra Health Services (CHS). This is a significant milestone as the ACT Government moves towards delivering a new billion-dollar hospital on Canberra’s Northside.
The current North Canberra Hospital is a level 4 public hospital that provides a range of acute and sub-acute services including community-based care to the residents of the north side of Canberra and Southern NSW. North Canberra Hospital operates a 24-hour Emergency Department.Inpatient services include general medicine, surgery, maternity, ICU, CCU and stroke unit.
Other service modalities include day surgery, specialist outpatient clinics, Hospital in the Home and the Geriatric Rapid Acute Care Evaluation service (GRACE) that reaches into aged care facilities across the ACT.
We're making our hospital bigger and better to make it easier for our growing community to get the health care they need. We'll have more beds in a modern, purpose-built hospital. Until then, it's business as usual at the NCH, and we'll keep providing high-quality care to our patients and community.
Canberra Health Services (CHS) is focussed on the delivery of high quality, effective, person centred care. It provides acute, sub-acute, primary and community‐based health services, to the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) and surrounding region. More information can be found on theCHS website.
Our Vision: creating exceptional health care together
Our Role: to be a health service that is trusted by our community
Our Values: Reliable, Progressive, Respectful and Kind
CHS is committed to workforce diversity and to creating an inclusive workplace. As part of this commitment, we welcome applications from all diversity groups. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, people with disability and people who identify as LGBTQIA+ are particularly encouraged to apply.
If you would like further information regarding this opportunity, please contact Karen Dell on (02) 5103 6314 or atKaren.Dell@act.gov.au
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