Social Worker – CPS
Purpose of Position:
Under the direction of the Children, Youth, and Families (CYF) Program Manager this position determines the need for and provides individuals and families with a wide range of social services designed to overcome personal, family, financial, or health issues. This position maintains a caseload, provides exploratory and diagnostic intake, and performs social services tasks appropriate to the client’s issues/concerns/needs. This position coordinates and collaborates with the CYF Unit Program Manager and CYF Unit staff. This position provides child protection investigation and family assessments or ongoing child protection case management to families that have encountered abuse and neglect; primary duties are dependent on agency needs. This position assesses safety, provides resources, makes referrals for services, monitors case plan progress, and makes permanency plans for children in need of protection and services.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities:
To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential function satisfactorily and in a timely manner. The following duties are normal for this position; they are not to be construed as exclusive or all inclusive. Other duties may be required or assigned.
• Ensure safety for all children on caseload.
• Take appropriate custody action when safety threats require court involvement.
• Manage paper and electronic files in accordance with state standards, and maintain confidential client information.
• Ensure the minimum of one face-to-face contact occurs every month with every child on assigned caseload; and, ensure monthly face-to-face contacts occur with parents.
• Supervise family interaction between parents and their children; make determinations regarding child safety and shifting to unsupervised interaction.
• Engage with children, families, relative providers, foster parents, and community partners to promote reunification and safe case closure.
• Engage in strengths-based, family-centered social work practice.
• Prepare testimony and documents for Court.
• Maintain contact with service providers and collaterals (e.g., schools, law enforcement, foster parents, mental health, AODA, courts).
• Provide Access coverage.
• Attend internal meetings and case consultations, including providing mandated reporter in-services to school staff, daycare center staff, and high school and college students.
Determine need for assistance for families and children:
• Provide juvenile court intake, child protection investigations and family assessments, and ongoing services as needed for child protective services, delinquency cases, and child welfare.
• Provide services or make referrals in the areas of family counseling, parenting skills, domestic violence, chemical dependency and support services.
• Coordinate with other agency personnel on services for families and children.
• Provide necessary counseling services to, and locate resources for, children in foster care or other alternate care and their natural families to establish permanency as soon as possible.
• Monitor and provide services to children placed under supervision of the department and provide required reports to the court; testify as needed.
• Complete studies as assigned, including Interstate Compact and other court-ordered studies.
• Conduct home visits, office visits, collateral contacts, and consultation with other agencies to ensure provision of services.
• Attend in-service training and staff development activities.
• Provide 24-hour on-call emergency service for after hours, assigned on a rotating basis.
• Provide Friday same-day response coverage, assigned on a rotating basis.
Leadership and coordination:
• Attend meetings (e.g., regional CPS worker, board meetings, community groups) to represent the agency as requested.
• Assist supervisor as resource to Human Services Board, Director, and/or community.
• Assist supervisor in policy and program development and implementation.
• Chair and facilitate committees as required.
• Communicate any staff or unit issues to the supervisor.
• Gather necessary data for grant reports and special projects as assigned.
• Complete necessary paperwork related to job performance and other related duties as assigned.
Minimum Qualifications:
Bachelor’s degree in Social Work or closely related field from an accredited university or college. Certified Social Worker preferred. Must obtain Wisconsin Social Work Certification within two years of hire. MN Social Work licensure will be considered.
Preferred Qualifications:
One (1) to two (2) years of experience in child protective services or Juvenile Court services to children and families. Knowledge of Wisconsin Statutes Chapters 48 and 938. Courtroom experience.
Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:
Ability to understand, follow directions, and read and write reports. Interviewing, counseling, and communication skills. Knowledge of juvenile and criminal law, social work practices, and Federal and State laws, statutes, policies, procedures, rules, and guidelines with regard to child welfare and juvenile justice case work. Demonstrated leadership skills. Demonstrated client communication, relationships, service delivery, and ethical practices. Demonstrated knowledge and experience with Wisconsin State statutes and child protective services, juvenile justice, and child welfare cases. Ability to organize work and develop work procedures with minimum supervision; ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with County officials, County administrators County employees, and general public; ability to prepare and maintain records. Must be dependable, tactful, and maintain confidentiality. Ability to add, subtract, multiply, and divide in all units of measure, using whole numbers, common fractions and decimals. Ability to compute rates, ratios, and percentages. Must be able to read, write, and understand English. Must be proficient with computers.
Physical Requirements:
This work requires the frequent exertion of up to 10 pounds of force and occasional exertion of up to 50 pounds of force; work requires speaking and hearing, repetitive motions, frequently requires standing and reaching with hands and arms and occasionally requires sitting, walking, climbing stairs, balancing, stooping, kneeling, crouching, pushing, pulling and lifting. Work requires close vision, ability to adjust focus, color perception and peripheral vision, vocal communication is required for expressing or exchanging ideas by means of the spoken word and conveying detailed or important instructions to others accurately, loudly or quickly; hearing is required to perceive information at normal spoken word levels and to receive detailed information through oral communications and/or to make fine distinctions in sound; work requires preparing and analyzing written computer data, operating machines and observing general surroundings and activities.
Special Requirements:
Must be able to pass a background check. Must be able to see and hear in order to perform all required duties. Must possess a valid driver’s license.
Environmental Ability:
Ability to work under generally safe and comfortable conditions where exposure to environmental factors poses limited risk of injury.
Pierce County is an Equal Opportunity Employer. In compliance with the American Disabilities Act, the County will provide reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities and encourages both prospective and current employees to discuss potential accommodations with the employer.
Deadline Note: Open Until Filled
