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Social Services Specialist II - Child Protective Services

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Social Services Specialist II - Child Protective Services

Salary

$64,190.88 - $106,984.59 Annually

Location

RESTON (EE26), VA

Job Type

FT Hourly W BN

Job Number

24-02388

Department

Family Services

Opening Date

10/12/2024

Closing Date

10/25/2024 11:59 PM Eastern

Pay Grade

S23

Posting Type

Open to General Public

• Description

• Benefits

• Questions

Job Announcement

This position includes a signing bonus of $2,500 (full-time) for new county hires.

Appointees to this position are eligible for an environmental stipend. This stipend will be paid out at a rate of $207.69 per pay period and will be in effect until further evaluation of the position class warrants other considerations.

Do you want to be a part of a team that makes a difference in the lives of children and families? As a Child Protective Services (CPS) Specialist working with our afterhours team, which we call Team B, you will engage with parents and their children who are at risk of or victims of abuse or neglect and strengthen families so they can safely care for their children. This life-changing work involves taking decisive and appropriate actions when a child needs protection, analyzing complex information, and employing intervention services and strategies to achieve the best outcomes for children.

We are looking for people who are committed to children’s safety and family preservation, possess good critical thinking and decision-making skills, and thrive in a fast-paced environment. While this job is challenging and may have long and sometimes unconventional hours, this is more than a job—it is an opportunity to make a difference in the lives of children and families. This team works from 1:00 – 9:30 p.m., Monday-Friday, however additional evening, weekend, or daytime work 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 of the CPS Lead Specialist:

In this job, you will be supported by a team of caring people working together to keep children safe and strengthen families. You will make an impact by:

• Assessing allegations of child abuse and neglect, which includes interviewing children, parents, and other involved parties, often in their homes or community spaces

• Using our practice model to comprehensively assess children and their families, including assessments of protective, risk, and safety factors

• Taking appropriate actions based on informed decisions and relevant policy to keep children safe and support families. This may include creating and monitoring safety plans, connecting families with services, providing brief clinical interventions to address immediate concerns, de-escalating tense situations, supporting families’ decisions for alternate living arrangements, or separating children and placing them in foster care.

• Collaborating with other professionals to gather and share information and inform decision-making.

• Taking legal action when needed to ensure children are safe. This includes preparing and filing court paperwork and attending and testifying in court hearings.

• Documenting interactions and observations related to assessments and decision-making in a timely manner.

• Assisting on the CPS Hotline and screening new referrals of child abuse and neglect (if applicable)

• Supporting practitioners who are providing clinical casework services to children and their families as part of in-home or family support services (if applicable)

What you need to be successful:

• Ability to manage conflict and cope with pressure in a professional manner

• Ability to work flexible hours as needed, including on-call rotation

• Ability to work collaboratively

• Knowledge of child development and family functioning

• Ability to use critical thinking skills to analyze information and develop goals for the safety and well-being of children

• Ability to partner with families to address issues such as parenting, financial stability, mental health, substance abuse, intimate partner violence, etc.

• Ability to work with individuals and families across cultures

• Strong verbal and writing skills

• Ability to plan and organize your work while adjusting to changing situations and priorities

• Commitment to learning about process, policy, best practices and our practice model and apply the learning to daily tasks.

Grow your career with Fairfax County!

With more than 16,000 employees, Fairfax County is a diverse workforce offering employees stimulating and challenging opportunities across a broad scope of career opportunities. As a Fairfax County employee, you impact the well-being of our community every day.

This is an exciting time to join Fairfax County Government as we shape racial and social equity policies in the county through the One Fairfax Policy. Using this framework, we intentionally consider equity when making policies or delivering programs and services. To learn more, we highly encourage you to watch the Becoming One Fairfax—An Introduction to Key Concepts video and visit the One Fairfax webpage here.

Finally, click here to learn more about learn more about our Department of Family Services, meet our director and some of our practitioners, watch a short video to learn more about this position, read the top 5 reasons to come work with us, and check out the great benefits, including excellent paid leave, health plans, and retirement plans. In addition to the many county benefits, working with us gives you access to supervision towards becoming a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, our Child Welfare Institute onboarding academy, and practice guidance grounded in the Safe & Connected™ practice model.

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 Standards

MINIMIMUM 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, a 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:

• Master's degree in social work (MSW) or a related human services degree

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

• Experience in working with the court system and family group facilitation

PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS:

Ability to navigate through and make decisions in stressful and crisis situations Work requires performing tasks with risks of secondary traumatic stress (STS). Sufficiently mobile to travel outside the office for client contact, court appearances, community events, and to conduct family assessments and investigations of allegations of child abuse and neglect. Ability to communicate clearly and concisely, both orally and in writing. Ability to use automated technology. Must be able to operate a motor vehicle and make use of personal vehicle. Ability to lift up to 40 lbs. All duties performed with or without reasonable accommodation.

SELECTION PROCEDURE:

Panel interview, 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.

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