Social Worker IA&T-Assesments

Craven County•New Bern, NC

6d•Onsite

About The Position

The primary purpose of this position is to provide family-based social work services designed to strengthen and empower families while ensuring the safety of children in cases where abuse, neglect, and/or dependency have been alleged or found. This is accomplished by conducting a child protective services assessment and/or in-home services. This position also conducts assessments and participates routinely in the back-up on-call rotation. This position assesses relatives and other kinship-type persons as possible caretakers in the event the child cannot remain safely in the home. The work is performed within the Child and Family Services Division. This position provides services to 10 or more families at any given time, which may include both assessments and in-home services cases. In-home services cases are generally open for 3 to 9 months. The worker may find financial problems within the family and assist with these by appropriate referrals and/or counseling. In some cases, the worker may provide protective payee services. The worker is required to attend all state-mandated CPS training and 24 hours of additional training each year. Assignment to emergency shelter duty during times of potentially dangerous or man-made disasters is an essential function of this position and you shall be required to fulfill these duties when instructed. Position may perform other duties as assigned by the Social Work Supervisor III, Social Worker Program Administrator I, Social Work Program Manager, Director, and Deputy Director.

Requirements

Master’s degree from an accredited school of social work and one year of social work experience; or a Bachelor’s degree from an accredited school of social work and two years of social work or counseling experience; or Master’s degree in a counseling field and two years of social work or counseling experience; or a four-year degree in a human services field or related curriculum and three years of social work or counseling experience; or graduation from a four-year college or university and four years of experience in rehabilitation counseling, pastoral counseling or a related human service field providing experience in the techniques of casework, group work or community organization; or an equivalent combination of training and experience.
One year of work experience can be credited for completion of the social work collaborative.
Subject to SBI criminal history record check prior to hire.
Must possess a valid North Carolina driver's license; any restrictions on North Carolina’s driver's license must not prohibit the performance of the essential functions of the position.

Nice To Haves

MSW or BSW degrees are preferred.
Other appropriate combinations of education and experience will be considered for trainee / work-against status.
Directly related experience is defined as human services experience in the areas of case management, assessment and referral, supportive counseling, intervention, psycho-social therapy and treatment planning.

Responsibilities

Continually assess information from various collateral contacts and resources in the community to determine whether abuse, neglect and/or dependency have occurred or continue to occur.
Utilize state-mandated assessment tools to aid in determining the level of risk to the children.
Work with clients who are children from newborn to 18 years of age who have not been emancipated or married that are suspected or found to be abused, neglected and/or dependent.
Work with clients who are the parents or caretakers of these children who frequently are uncooperative or hostile regarding mandatory intervention with their family.
Work with cases received from Child Protective Services Intake Worker, transfers from other counties, the Courts, other child protective services agencies outside the state.
Meet all federal, state and county policies in the provision of CPS intake and initiation; and other assigned duties.
Stay abreast of and comply with all changes in program policies, laws and regulations.
Arrange and accompany children to medical examinations in order to gather information for the assessment and/or for initial placement into Foster Care.
Write court reports if court action is required on their caseload and testify in court cases.
Maintain regular contact with the families and various collaterals including but not limited to education personnel, medical and mental health providers and comply with state policy.
Coordinates with involved professionals to include Work 1st, including them in the development of the plan; organizes and assigns tasks for effective and efficient service delivery.
Advocates for the client when the service delivery system fails.
Complete the Initial Kinship/Temporary Safety Provider (TSP) Placement Assessment including checking and reviewing CPS history, Central Registry and criminal records on possible kinship/TSP placement providers if it is determined that a child cannot remain at home safely and a kinship placement is available.
Participate in child and family team meetings at the designated intervals according to policy.
Consult with management and complete and file petitions and other initial required paperwork to initiate Juvenile Court action when children cannot safely remain with their family.
Testify and provide written or oral recommendations to the Court.
Write court reports when a petition has been filed on a family in the worker's caseload.
Enhances the client's problem-solving skills through the use of role modeling, advising, instructing and reinforcing positive behavior to prevent out-of-home placement.
Responds to family crisis by altering or redirecting inappropriate behavior.
Prepares child and family for a proposed change in the child's placement and resulting separation and grief.
Educates parents in basic child development and behavioral management techniques.
Provides feedback to parents and foster parents regarding effects of child-rearing and child management practices used by each.
Prepares families for self-sufficiency when case is to be closed.
Observes client's verbal and non-verbal behavior in various settings to assess overall progress.
Consults with other service providers involved with the client to determine progress towards specified objectives and goals.
Monitors compliance of any court orders to parent/guardian and child.
Documents progress, barriers and new problems through progress notes, court reports, social histories, case plans and reviews.
Initiates and completes CPS assessments re: reports of abuse, neglect and/or dependency by assessing the risk of harm to children involved in the report, gathering information from the family collateral, and staffing with unit members to determine if the family is in need of mandated services according to N.C. General Statutes.
Review all reports on previous and current treatment modalities and prior contacts within the family.
Interview children and families to determine family dynamics and their assessment of the problems.
Assesses children and parent's problem-solving skills.
Identifies support systems within the family and community.
Determines the need for auxiliary community resources.
Analyzes problems in relation to the family's cultural, environmental and socioeconomic situation.
Identifies and carefully documents the strengths, needs and areas of potential growth within the family structure.
Identifies and analyzes the social worker's biases relevant to assessing and/or providing services.
Develops a therapeutic relationship with the clients.
Develops jointly a safety plan and/or an in-home services agreement which includes concurrent planning with the family which identifies the goal of the agency intervention, describes specific desired outcomes, identifies the necessary behavior changes, gives time-oriented steps to reach the objectives, and states whom is responsible for the requisite actions and tasks and ensure safety of all children and addresses concerns or abuse neglect or dependency.
Utilize the state mandated tools for on-going assessment and services provision.
Provides on-going risk assessments to determine risk to children in order to guide the case planning process.
Consults with supervisor on cases with significant barriers or lack of progress.
Consults with school personnel, foster families, professionals, other agency staff and other involved parties when appropriate.
Share his/her expertise while training lower-level social workers or consulting with co-workers.
Cases are staffed within the team, division, or peers when a family is particularly challenging, when a new approach is needed, and before closing the case for services.
Team as needed with other agencies or community persons to monitor case process.
Certain cases are staffed with a member of management prior to closing.
When a child must be removed from his/her home, the Supervisor, Program Manager and Staff Attorney is included on the team.
May be required to gather, prepare and present evidence in a variety of court proceedings as deemed appropriate by each case.
Responsible for preparing court reports and providing testimony.
Consults with family services staff or completes on emergency assistance applications for clients in their caseloads.
With supervisor's approval, provides short-term individual and family adjustment services for clients who are no longer in need of in-home services but may still need short-term supportive services.
Stays abreast of and follows policies and procedures as outlined in manuals provided by N.C. Division of Social Services and as mandated by N.C. law.
Seeks technical advice from appropriate professionals who have skills in the detection, diagnosis and treatment of child abuse and neglect.
Represents the agency in orienting and training other community resources and persons on legal basis and procedures regarding CPS programs.
Assists in disaster relief efforts that includes but is not limited to shelter duty.