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• Central Adelaide Local Health Network
• Social Work Department
• Salary AHP3 - $104,180 to $111,746 p.a. (pro rata) + Superannuation + Salary Sacrifice Benefits
• Permanent and Multiple temporary contract positions available at the Royal Adelaide & The Queen Elizabeth Hospital

Exciting social work team leadership opportunities!

Join over 2,600 passionate allied health professionals at CALHN and be part of a safe, connected and values-driven team delivering world-class care across every stage of the patient journey.

About the Role

Are you a passionate leader ready to make a meaningful impact in people’s lives? As a Principal Social Worker, you’ll guide and inspire a team of dedicated social workers and allied health assistants across CALHN’s Royal Adelaide Hospital, The Queen Elizabeth Hospital and Hampstead Rehabilitation Centre. In this pivotal team leadership role, you’ll foster a culture of compassion, inclusion and professional excellence, ensuring the delivery of high-quality, person-centred social work services. Working within a collaborative, multidisciplinary environment, you’ll lead a team with empathy, advocate for those most in need, and help shape a service that puts the wellbeing and dignity of patients and families at its heart.

This is your opportunity to bring your clinical expertise and leadership to a role where your values truly matter. You’ll nurture the growth and capability of your team through reflective supervision, workload support, education, and evidence-informed practice. You’ll also contribute to research and quality improvement initiatives, helping to drive practice innovation and continuous learning across the Single Service, Multiple Site model. If you're motivated by equity, collaboration and making a difference every day — this is the role for you.

For more information about the role, and essential educational/vocational qualifications that may be required, please refer to the role description.

About You

You are a qualified and compassionate social work professional with proven leadership skills and a commitment to delivering person-centred, evidence informed care. With advanced clinical knowledge and supervision skills, you thrive in collaborative environments and are motivated to support, guide and grow others while driving service excellence and innovation across diverse health settings.

To be successful in this role, you will have:

• A recognised Social Work degree that entitles full membership with the AASW
• Extensive experience in complex clinical practice and supervising staff and/or students
• Highly developed leadership, communication and interpersonal skills, with a calm and ethical approach
• A strong commitment to teamwork, quality improvement and inclusive workplace culture

If you're ready to take the next step in your leadership journey and make a real difference across our health network, we’d love to hear from you.

About CALHN

At Central Adelaide (CALHN), we’re shaping the future of health through excellence in clinical care, research, and innovation. As South Australia’s largest health network, we deliver exceptional, safe and connected healthcare—for our patients, our community, and our people. With more than 17,000 dedicated employees, every day at CALHN presents an opportunity to make a real impact—not because it’s expected, but because our values guide us to be our best. Join us and be part of a team that’s driven by a commitment to a seamless safe and connected experience for all.

Find out more about our stories, our network, and the opportunities to be part of CALHN.

Benefit of joining CALHN 

At CALHN, we're dedicated to your career satisfaction and wellbeing, offering tailored benefits for healthcare professionals, including:

• Salary attractions: Flexible options for salary packaging covering living expenses, meal and entertainment allowances, and novated leasing.
• Relocation support: Up to $10,000 reimbursement of approved relocation expenses for transitioning to CALHN, for eligible applicants. Further information can be found here.
• Annual leave: Enjoy paid recreation leave for essential rejuvenation, with leave loading applied.
• Flexible work arrangements: The South Australian public sector promotes diversity and flexible ways of working including part-time. Applicants are encouraged to discuss the flexible working arrangements for this role.
• Health and fitness benefits: Access to Fitness Passport, a discounted workplace health and fitness program available to CALHN staff and their families.
• Employee Assistance Program: Confidential counselling and support services are available via our Employee Assistance Program.
• Team Support: Experience collaborative culture and professional supervision guiding your career journey.
• Career opportunities: Explore career growth within the SA Health system with opportunities for skill development and movement across various metropolitan and regional sites.

Join CALHN for a fulfilling career bolstered by comprehensive benefits and unwavering commitment to your success.

Our commitment to diversity and inclusion

CALHN is an equal opportunities employer committed to providing an inclusive workplace that embraces diversity and inclusion for all employees. We strongly encourage applications from people of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent, culturally diverse backgrounds, disability, all genders, and LGBTQI+ community.

Application information:

• Appointment will be subject to a satisfactory Criminal History Check and compliant Immunisation screening as indicated in the role description.
• SA Health Services are required to implement the Addressing vaccine preventable disease: Occupational assessment, screening and vaccination policy in the workplace.

Please note that unsolicited applications from recruitment agencies or third parties will not be accepted for this position.

Job ref: 904454

Enquiries to:

Sarah Macdonald

Director, Social Work CALHN

0401 117 790

sarah.macdonald@sa.gov.au

Application Closing Date

11:55 pm Sunday 20 July 2025

Refer to the SA Health Career Website - How to apply for further information

 904454 RD Principal Social Worker.pdf

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