Social Worker I/Aandt (10569)

Primary Purpose
\ This position is located in the Child and Family Services Division. It is a staff position and reports to their supervisor on a Children\'s Services Team.\

• This position assesses relatives and other kinship type persons, as possible caretakers in the event the child cannot remain safely in the home.
• 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 in which 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 on call rotation.

\ Essential Functions

• State mandated assessment tools are utilized to aid in determining the level of risk to the children.
• Clients are also the parents or caretakers of these children who frequently are uncooperative or hostile regarding mandatory intervention with their family.
• Arranges and accompanies children to medical examinations to gather information for the assessment and/or for initial placement into Foster Care.
• Must stay abreast of and comply with all changes in program policies, laws, and regulations.
• Works 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.
• Continually assesses information from various collateral contacts and resources in the community to determine whether abuse, neglect and/or dependency have occurred or continue to occur.
• Worker must maintain regular contact with the families and various collaterals including but not limited to education personnel, medical and mental health providers.
• The work is performed within the Child and Family Services Division.
• Works with cases received from Child Protective Services Intake Worker, transfers from other counties, the Courts, other child protective services agencies outside the state.
• Writes the background section of court reports if a child is taken into foster care from their caseload and testify in court cases during the adjudication or non-secure custody hearing.

45% Management / Counseling / Monitoring

• Coordinates with involved professionals especially Work 1st, including them in the development of the plan; organizes and assigns tasks for effective and efficient service delivery.
• As per state standards and the needs of the family, consults with other service providers involved with the client to determine progress towards specified objectives and goal.
• Educate parents in basic child development and behavioral management techniques.
• Responds to family crisis by altering or redirecting inappropriate behavior.
• Advocates for the client when the service delivery system fails.
• Provides feedback to parents and foster parents regarding effects of child-rearing and child management practices used by each.
• Enhances the client\'s problem-solving skills using role modeling, advising, instructing, and reinforcing positive behavior to prevent out of home placement.
• Writes the background for court reports when a petition has been filed on a family in the workers caseload.
• Prepares child and family for a proposed change in the child\'s placement and resulting separation and grief.
• Observes client\'s verbal and non-verbal behavior in various settings to assess overall progress.
• Assesses relatives and other kinship type people as possible caretakers in the event the child cannot remain safely in the home.
• Manages the coordination of child and family team meetings at the designated intervals according to policy.
• Prepares families for self-sufficiency when case is to be closed.
• Interprets any court orders to parent/guardian and child and monitors ompliance.
• As per state standards, documents progress, barriers and new problems through progress notes, court reports, social histories, case plans and reviews.

30% Assessment

• Analyzes problems in relation to the family\'s cultural, environmental, and socio-economic situation.
• Identifies and analyzes the social worker\'s biases relevant to assessing and/or providing services.
• Assesses children and parent\'s problem-solving skills.
• Identifies support systems within the family and community.
• Determines the need for auxiliary community resources.
• Reviews all reports on previous and current treatment modalities and prior contacts within the family.
• Identifies and carefully documents the strengths, needs and areas of potential growth within the family structure.
• 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.
• Interviews children and families to determine family dynamics and their assessment of the problems.

15% Development of Case Plan

• Provides ongoing risk assessments to determine risk to children in order to guide the case planning process.
• Develops jointly 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.
• Utilizes the state mandated tools for ongoing assessment and services provision.
• Develops a therapeutic relationship with the clients.
• Arranges, facilitates and/or participates in child and family team meetings.

5% Consultation

• 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.

3% Teaching / Training
Shares 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.
Workers should also 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.
This position provides services to ten families at any given time, which may include both assessments and in home services cases. In home services cases are generally open for three to nine 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.
Court or legal responsibility: Worker may be required to gather, prepare and present evidence in a variety of court proceedings as deemed appropriate by each case. Worker may be responsible for preparing court summaries and providing testimony.
Consults with family services staff or completes on emergency assistance applications for clients in their caselo