Social Services Specialist II - Protection & Preservation Services (PPS)

Job Announcement

• 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 of child protection laws, rules, and regulations
• Knowledge of conducting child protective services assessment and investigation
• 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

The Department of Family Services is greatly committed to the professional development of staff. The HR Professional Development and Training Team includes dedicated staff and in-house clinical training offerings in support of the clinical licensure requirements and overall professional development of staff seeking to increase their clinical practice capabilities. Employment Standards

MINIMUM 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.

Contingent upon the area of assignment, some positions within this class may require specific certification(s) prior to employment and/or the ability to acquire necessary certification(s) within a specified time period following employment. The certifications are identified in the position description and employment advertisement.

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; may include practical exercise.

This job announcement is listed with a closing date of 4/12/24 and interested applicants are advised to submit their applications as soon as possible. Interviews will be conducted on a regular basis throughout the recruitment with candidates whose qualifications best fit our needs. If your application is received later in the recruitment process, it may not be reviewed or considered. The application process may close prior to the currently advertised closing date when the position has been filled.

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) 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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