Social Services Specialist II - Children, Youth and Families

Social Services Specialist II - Children, Youth and Families Print (https://www.governmentjobs.com/careers/fairfaxcounty/jobs/newprint/4588588) Apply  Social Services Specialist II - Children, Youth and Families Salary $64,190.88 - $106,984.59 AnnuallyLocation FAIRFAX (EJ27), VAJob TypeFT Hourly W BNJob Number24-01814DepartmentFamily ServicesOpening Date07/27/2024Closing Date8/9/2024 11:59 PM EasternPay GradeS23Posting TypeOpen to General Public

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Job AnnouncementThis position includes a signing bonus of $2,500 (full-time) for new county hires.Appointees to this position will receive an environmental stipend. This stipend will be paid out at a rate of $138.46 per pay period (26 pay periods annually). Works as a part of the Division of Children, Youth and Families (CYF) to provide clinical casework services to stabilize and support families experiencing abuse/neglect or at-risk of further abuse/neglect. DFS is committed to strengthening the well-being of its diverse community by protecting and improving the lives of all children, adults, and families through assistance, partnership, advocacy, outreach, and quality services. To learn more about DFS and its Mission, Vision, and Values, please click here.This position is a member of the Protection and Preservation Services (PPS). Work hours are Monday-Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., however, evening and/or weekend work is required as well as being part of an on-call rotation for CPS that includes evening, overnight, weekend, and holiday hours which may require immediate response into the field are required.Duties and responsibilities include the following:

Uses child welfare framework to perform comprehensive assessments of children and their families, including home visits. Areas of assessment include child abuse and neglect; parenting capacity; family relationships; mental health, substance abuse, and developmental concerns; social supports; physical health challenges and disabilities; and basic needs including shelter, food, and clothing

Collaborates with the parents/caretakers, key members of the family, and children, if appropriate, to develop a service plan to ensure children’s safety and reduce risk of future harm to children

Collaborates with the family and multidisciplinary team to coordinate casework services and ensure progress towards achieving service plan goals

Coordinates care and delivery of services such as financial, food, shelter, and housing assistance; psychiatric, psychological, or mental health evaluations; and domestic violence interventions to family members

Responds to and provides crisis intervention to maintain child safety and well-being

Documents assessments, critical incident reports, detailed case contacts, progress notes, and service plans

Prepares court petitions and testifies in court

Collaborates with various multi-disciplinary professionals and facilitates family engagement activities

Performs other duties as assigned to ensure child safety and improve outcomes in families

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

Knowledge of child protection laws, rules, and regulations

Knowledge of conducting child protective services assessment and investigation

Knowledge of foster care and adoption laws, rules, and regulations

Ability to interview, assess needs, counsel, and refer clients to other resource as needed

Ability to assess safety, risk, and protective capacity

Possess critical thinking skills and ability to apply critical thinking and knowledge and research

Ability to meet deadlines and keep up with documentation

Ability to work collaboratively with families to identify solutions to specific issues and/or challenges such as parenting, behavior management, childcare, financial stability, housing, mental health, substance abuse, etc.

Requires the ability to develop goals and to use decision-making tools and resources for the safety and well-being of children

Note: All Fairfax County Government employees are expected to adhere to the Standards of Conduct. In maintaining a drug free workplace, employees are prohibited from manufacturing, distributing, possessing, using or being under the influence of alcohol or illegal drugs while at work or on county premises.Illustrative Duties(The illustrative duties listed in this specification are representative of the class but are not an all-inclusive list. A complete list of position duties and unique physical requirements can be found in the position job description.)Conducts comprehensive clinical assessments and prepares and implements service plans;Works with clients to develop a plan of service to meet social, health, emotional and economic needs. With the client, formulates objectives and identifies actions to resolve the clients' problems;Advocates for and assists families and individuals in obtaining services (e.g., mental health, intellectual disability, alcohol and drug, housing referrals, financial assistance for basic needs, home based services, training and medical services);Works with the community to identify families, children and individuals needing social services and coordinates these services using a wrap-around approach;Provides family counseling and conducts mediation services to families in conflict;Performs emergency removal of children from their homes when required, places children in foster homes and residential programs, and coordinates services for them as needed;Investigates complaints of alleged abuse or neglect, and in consultation with supervisor, makes assessment of risks posed to clients in accordance with state and local policies, and works to ensure risks are eliminated or minimized;Provides crisis intervention on a timely basis to clients or families whose well being are seriously and imminently threatened, to include Adult Protective Services and Child Protective Services after-hours;Represents the agency in court proceedings and prepares testimony and testifies in Juvenile, Circuit, Criminal, Civil and Federal Courts;Interviews and counsels natural parents, adoptive parents, foster parents and children to be placed in foster homes or residential facilities and those involved in adoption placement;Evaluates child's readiness for placement and recommends placement ensuring compliance with legal provisions;Conducts and documents interstate and intrastate family home studies to evaluate and make recommendations on the family's ability to provide a safe and nurturing environment for children;Evaluates and may assist in training foster and adoptive parents;Communicates and works with colleagues, clients and the community in a manner that supports the agency and program goals and objectives;Participates as a contributing member on interagency, multi-disciplinary teams, community groups and professional organizations;Collaborates and contributes to child specific teams on non-agency cases as assigned to assist in identifying community resources and services for families;Participates, collaborates and contributes to Comprehensive Services Act activities for families on caseload;Provides training and community education on a variety of social work topics;Assesses and authorizes purchase of social services to qualifying clients that will help to meet their social, health, emotional and economic needs;Conducts home visits to families for the purpose of monitoring, counseling and supervision;Recruits, develops, trains, and monitors individual service providers. Recruits volunteers and manages volunteer services;Uses automated technology and hard copy files to maintain and update case data, notes,documents, records, contacts and summaries of information. Maintains case notes, documents and records, enters and updates case load data, contacts and summaries of information;Prepares and provides reports on casework;Performs or reviews initial assessment of client's presenting need and conducts additional assessment as necessary to develop a coordinated service plan that establishes goals, tasks, and time frames with appropriate county and community-based service providers;Addresses, and if necessary diffuses, initial crisis situation with clients, assesses safety issues and refers clients to emergency services as needed (e.g., mental health services, child protective services, adult protective services, women's shelter, homeless shelter);Demonstrates expertise in community service resources to identify, classify and describe services that address a broad array of client service needs-collaborates with service delivery professionals from all disciplines to identify service resource information requirements-translates those requirements into an automated catalog of resources necessary for client referrals and the development of client service plans;Negotiates, facilitates, and coordinates the creative use of limited community-based service alternatives and assists staff from other county human service agencies in creative use of community resources;Consults with community-based organizations (CBO) staff on resources and service strategies that support service area work with individuals and families.Required Knowledge Skills and Abilities(The knowledge, skills and abilities listed in this specification are representative of the class but are not an all-inclusive list.)Knowledge of the principles and practices of social work;Knowledge of current social service problems and methods/approaches to address issues;Knowledge of regulations and guidelines relating to the assigned area of social service specialization;Ability to analyze case information and to reach sound decisions on the basis of such information;Ability to communicate clearly and concisely, both orally and in writing;Ability to use automated technology to establish and maintain case records;Ability to maintain professional ethics and confidentiality of client information;Ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with a variety of individuals;Ability to schedule and manage workload sufficiently to meet deadlines.Employment StandardsMINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS:Graduation from an accredited four-year college or university with a bachelor's degree, plus two years of professional social work experience. A master's degree in a related field may be substituted for one year of the required experience.CERTIFICATES AND LICENSES REQUIRED:Valid driver's license.NECESSARY SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS:The appointee to the position must satisfactorily complete a criminal background check, driving record check, and a Child Protective Services check.This position is considered essential personnel and will be required to report to work during times designated countywide as approved for unscheduled leave regardless of the emergency situation (i.e., weather, transportation, other disaster).PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:

A master's degree in Social Work, Counseling, Psychology, or other directly related clinical discipline

Experience in performing child protective investigations, foster care and/or family preservation

Experience in working with the court system and family group facilitation

Experience in performing case management services in a child welfare setting (child protective services, foster care, adoption, family prevention, permanency planning, or domestic/sexual violence)

PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS:Sufficiently mobile to attend home visits, court, meetings, and community events outside the office. Ability to communicate clearly and concisely, both orally and in writing. Ability to use automated technology. Work requires performing tasks with risks of secondary traumatic stress (STS) Ability to navigate through and make decisions in stressful and crisis situations. All duties performed with or without reasonable accommodations.SELECTION PROCEDURE:Panel interview and may include practical exercise.The population of Fairfax County is very diverse where 38.7% of residents speak a language other than English at home (Spanish, Asian/Pacific Islander, Indo-European, and others (https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/demographics/fairfax-county-general-overview) ) and we encourage candidates bilingual in English and a foreign language to apply to this opportunity.Fairfax County Government prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions, age, marital status, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetics, political affiliation, or military status in the recruitment, selection, and hiring of its workforce. Reasonable accommodations are available to persons with disabilities during application and/or interview processes per the Americans with Disabilities Act. Contact 703-324-4900 for assistance. TTY 703-222-7314. DHREmployment@fairfaxcounty.gov EEO/AA/TTY. #LI-RS1