Senior Social Worker IA&T

Senior Child Protective Services In-Home Social Worker

CPS In-Home Unit. Two+ years CPS Investigations experience required. Candidate must have excellent communication and interpersonal skills, the ability to adapt to frequent changes, court experience and leadership skills.

Primary Purpose of Organizational Unit:
The Child Protective Services In-Home Unit's primary purpose is to execute the agency's legal mandate to serve families in which abuse, neglect or dependency has been substantiated or found in need of Services. Work in this unit entails:

• Counseling and planning with the child's family intended to strengthen the ability of families to protect and care for their own children, to minimize harm to children and youth, and to ensure permanence in children's lives.
• Arranging for provision of and assisting families in utilizing appropriate services and community resources.
• Obtaining the cooperation of law enforcement agencies as required obtaining suitable care and services for the children in or out of their family origin.
• Initiation of court action when necessary.

Primary Purpose of the Position:
The agency is mandated to provide services to children who have been identified as neglected, abused, or dependent. The primary purpose of the Senior Child Protective Services In-Home Social Worker, Investigations, Assessment and Treatment, (SW IA&T) is to execute this mandate. This is an advanced, professional level case work position, providing counseling and case management services for children who are identified as neglected and/or abused or dependent.

This is done so by assessing family situations to determine the strengths and weaknesses of the family system and to evaluate the level of risk the child may face in the home. The Senior Social Worker also provides other services to families with children under the age of 18 years who have requested such services from the agency in conjunction with protective services.

Treatment and immediate responses will be provided to crisis situations for at risk children in the most complex and hostile of cases.

Work Schedule:

Regular working hours are from 8:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday. However, in order to make the mandated number of face-to-face contacts, in some situations, clients may need contact after hours and overtime may be required. Employees are given the option of flexing their workday to accommodate their clients' schedule without putting the Senior Social Worker in an overtime situation.

Employee serves on a rotation basis for periodic radio coverage.

Knowledges,

Skills and Abilities:

• Thorough knowledge of social work principles, techniques, and practices and their application to complex casework and community problems in order to effectively work with the wide cross section of clients and their presenting problems.
• Considerable knowledge of family and group dynamics and a range of intervention techniques.
• Considerable knowledge of developmental stages and tasks, human behavior and social economic problems and their treatment as the worker is responsible for identifying children who are abused, neglected, or dependent, assessing the contributory factors and making recommendations for solutions to the identified problems.
• Considerable knowledge of laws, regulations, and policies which govern Child Protective Services.
• Ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with clients, associates, administrative superiors, social medical, legal, civic and religious organizations.
• Ability to express ideas clearly and concisely-orally and in writing.
• Ability to plan and execute work effectively and meet deadlines.
• Ability to operate an automobile.
• Ability to use a personal computer and access the State Network.
• Ability to effectively function under stress and to deal with conflict situations and hostile personalities.
• Ability to function with a high level of autonomy.
• Ability to function cooperatively with members of a team.
• Ability to accept constructive criticism.
• Ability to refrain from causing or contributing to disruptions or hostility in the workplace.
• Ability to make thorough assessments through intense observation skills, interviews and social work practice and be able to accurately orally and in writing communicate the process and results of the assessment.

Desirable

Education and Experience:

Two years directly related experience in NC Department of Social Services. License or Certification Required by Statute or Regulation:
Minimum North Carolina…