Child & Family Services Case Manager

Job Description

The Iowa Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Division of Family Well-Being and Protection, Bureau of Child Protective Services, is seeking a Child & Family Services Case Manager to join our team! This position is located in Osceola and will cover that and surrounding counties. This is a full-time opportunity, Monday – Friday with typical hours being from 8:00 AM- 4:30 PM with paid overtime as needed, including after-hours and weekend on call rotation.

All paid overtime must be pre-approved by leadership.

The primary purpose for this position is to work with families in which child abuse and/or neglect has occurred. The focus is to decrease the likelihood of continued abuse while preserving families. We do our best to keep families together; however, there are times when this is not possible. In these circumstances, children may have to be removed from parental custody and placed in another home, preferably still with family.

As a Social Work Case Manager, there will be times in which you will have to remove children. This can be a difficult and challenging process.

• Assess the ongoing risk to children, develop safety plans, assess the strengths and needs of the child and family, and make recommendations to various county attorneys and courts.
• Frequent interaction with law enforcement, medical/mental health community partners, schools, and other relevant agencies.
• Apply Iowa Code, agency policy, and sound professional judgment to highly complex situations involving crises and or chronic abuse or neglect.
• All cases require home visits, detailed interviews, and thorough narrative documentation.
• Troubleshoot problematic situations to find innovative solutions to present to administration and the supervisor.
• Confront crisis situations and high stress situations in a calm and orderly manner, while maintaining confidentiality and ensuring safety is a top priority.
• Obtain information from a wide variety of sources, including written materials, telephone conversations, and computer databases, and be able to read and interpret the data.
• Identify rules, principles, or relationships that explain reasonable facts, data, or other information that analyze information and draw accurate conclusions.
• Interact in a team environment to manage group processes, facilitate, and encourage cooperation, pride, trust, and group identity, fostering commitment and team spirit.
• Provide Division support to a large segment of the agency by managing internal and external requests, legislative reviews, and other communications.
• Work with others to achieve goals.
• Maintain positive customer service in interactions with employees and customers.
• This position requires work or standby during nights and weekends on a rotational basis.

• Successful management of a full case load.
• Strong observational and analytical skills, and the ability to respectfully engage families as partners in planning for safety and establish a working relationship with families.
• Excellent judgment and communication skills and the ability to provide good written documentation in a timely manner.
• Ability to develop case plans, use critical thinking skills, prioritize work, and work under pressure.
• Use independent judgement to make sound decisions, demonstrate integrity and confidentiality, and have a strong work ethic.

• Health, Dental, and Vision Coverage.
• Paid Time Off: 96 hours/year of vacation (increasing with years of service), 144 hours/year of sick leave, and 9 paid holidays.
• Retirement Plans: IPERS (employees contribute 6.29% and the State of Iowa contributes 9.44%) and RIC, Employer Sponsored Retirement Plan with dollar-for-dollar matches up to $75/month.
• Flexible Spending Accounts for medical and dependent care expenses.
• Life insurance and free long-term disability insurance.
• Employee Assistance Program.
• Employee Discount Programs.

Applicants will be required to complete a background check to be considered for this position.

The State of Iowa is an equal opportunity employer and encourages adults who were fostered as youth, foster parents, and/or parents who were in the DHS…