Clinical Lead - Paediatric Social Work

Clinical Lead - Paediatric Social Work, Starship Child Health

• Full Time, Fixed term (parental leave cover – until Jun 2026)
• Great opportunity to use your established leadership skills within social work professional practice

Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora is firmly grounded in the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and is committed to building a health system that serves all New Zealanders.

About the role

Starship Social Work in Child Health has an exciting opportunity for a highly motivated and experienced social work leader to provide clinical and operational leadership for a team of dedicated paediatric social workers. We are seeking a full-time, fixed term Clinical Lead - Paediatric Social Work.

The Paediatric Social Work team provides holistic assessment and intervention to support positive, psychosocial well-being for tamariki and whānau. This includes supporting people during periods of grief and loss, crisis intervention and management and management of complex family situations. Services are provided from Monday to Friday and an on-call weekend service is a critical part of overall service delivery.

For all aspects of this role and experience/knowledge required please see the position description.

About the Team

The Paediatric Social Work team cover inpatients and outpatients at Starship and also work at Te Puaruruhau, the Auckland Regional Child Protection team, providing services to the wider Auckland region and supporting the national services at Starship Hospital.

Starship Child Health is a dedicated paediatric healthcare service and major teaching centre, providing family centred care to neonates, children and young people throughout New Zealand and the South Pacific. Starship is a part of Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora and is the only comprehensive children’s hospital in New Zealand serving a population of approximately 1 million children.

About you

To be successful in this role, you will have:

• Experience in leadership and management
• The capacity to initiate, support and contribute to enhanced service delivery, including the capacity to ‘think outside the box’ in order to solve complex problems
• Experience in child protection & family violence work, particularly within a health environment and/or an ability to adapt to new working environments
• Awareness and capacity to work effectively with multiple ethnicities and cultures
• Experience of working within a multi-disciplinary team environment
• A Social Work qualification recognised by the Social Work Registration Board in New Zealand and will hold a current APC

Working at Health New Zealand

Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora is dedicated to ensuring excellent healthcare for the people of New Zealand. We embrace a workforce that is diverse and inclusive so that we are better positioned to understand and service our community. We welcome applications from our diverse Māori, Pacific, disabled, and rainbow communities.

How to apply

To apply please click on the ‘Apply’ tab below, outlining your experience and motivation to apply to this role and attaching your updated CV and Covering Letter.

If you have any accessibility or technical issues with the online process, please contact Anél Foord, Recruitment Consultant at Anel.Foord@TeWhatuOra.govt.nz quoting ADHB22454 to discuss how we can best support your application.