Job Description

The Social worker shall be responsible for reporting to the Board about the child and maintaining the child‘s record in the Child Care Institution. (All the children in the CCI shall be assigned social/case worker who shall be responsible for the child assigned to him by the Superintendent/Person-in-charge in all respects care, protection, rehabilitation, reformation and development of the child. )He/she must protect the child living in a CCI , he/she shall intervene when the chils is in danger of neglect or abuse. The Social worker helps to cope with personal and psychological issues and supervises school performance, behavior and socialization. He/ she also helps families in need of assistance( find services, apply for benefits…)

Specific duties

• Welcome the child and the gurdians to the CCI, explain routine, rules, obligations, expectations of the child,
• Understand child‘s expectations of the institution, explain the code of conduct, what the child should expect from staff and what staff will expect from child and guardias, explain the status of the his case and provide tentative timelines so that the child understands his/her situation fully, permit adequate time for the child to ask questions and seek information and clarification.
• Meet the child more than once a day to ensure that he/she feels safe and comfortable.
• Facilitate processes such as required tests, assessments and examinations of the child conducted by the professionals in the institution (counselor/teacher/doctor/psychologist).
• Gather information about the child within the initial five days to ascertain the child‘s education, vocational status and aptitude and emotional status.
• Use positive methods to introduce the child to the other children so that the child feels welcome.
• Introduce the child to the house mother. ( supervise the provision of materials- clothes, footwear, … be ensure that any ongoing treatment of the child is not interrupted or neglected…)
• Introduce the child to children‘s committee members.
• Prepare the tracing of the family and visit the place where the child cames from ( check the truth of the information and the documents ).

• Prepare and maintain the case file of the child. and reports to track child problems and progress and to recognize patterns in behavior. Once issues or behavior problems have been identified and comunicated to the team
• Collect the child‘s medical, mental status, cognitive assessment, psychosocial and addiction status reports from the persons concerned and place them in the medical record of the child.
• Prepare and maintain the medical record of the child and ensure that the treatment of the child is not interrupted or neglected;
• Update the Individual Care Plan and the case file to record goals achieved and another relevant information related to the child‘s progress: shall include any complaints received by the child, complaints received against the child, behavioral problems displayed by the child, good behavior displayed by the child,conversations had with child by the social worker, counselor, psychologist, which shows positive changes, and shifts made by the child in his/her thinking, plans for himself/herself/family.
• All the case files maintained shall, as far as possible, be computerized.

• Study the reports and prepare in consultation with the child and his family members, consult the counsellor, psychologists, house mother or such other person as he/she deems fit in this regard.
• In keeping with the individual care plan, a daily routine shall be developed for the child and explained to him.
• Ensure that the child adheres to the routine so developed and take timely reports from the caregivers in this respect.
• Ensure that special programmes for children with recidivism are formulated and incorporated in the ICP such as counseling, follow up and referrals.
• Include the reintegration plan and all the activites necessary for it as family visits, meeting with the guardians, family counselling …)

• Review periodically the implementation and effectiveness of the individual care plan and if necessary, suitably modify the individual care plan and the routine activities of the child with the approval of the Management Team.
• Assist the child to adjust to the life in the Child Care Institution. A newly received child shall be met more often than once a day.
• Keep track of all important dates for the child such as dates of production, hearing, appointments for medic al treatment, and others.
• Ensure the child makes it to all appointments and accompany the child/ensure that the child is accompanied as far as is possible.
• Have meetings and interactions with other care-givers in the CCI to ensure that the child is receiving all required inputs which are outlined in his/her individual care plan.
• Assist the child to develop contact with family and also provide guidance and assistance to family members by being present during parent child interactions on family meeting days in the CCI.
• Facilitate interaction between the child and the Director/ Team.

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• Participate in the orientation, monitoring, education, vocational and rehabilitation programmes in respect of the child and attend the parent teacher meetings in schools in respect of children assigned to.

• Participate in the pre-release programme and help the child to establish contact with family which can provide emotional and social support to the child after the release.
• Ensure that the child makes contact and interacts positively with family during the period of stay in the CCI.
• Interact with child and family together and separately to provide information, assess child‘s needs, obtain information towards updating progress , understand services and support required by the child and the family.
• Help parents find services, such as child care, or apply for benefits.
• Lead discussions on each child‘s progress during the period of stay in the CCI at monthly meetings convened by Director/ Superintendent/Person-in-charge/ House mother in the CCI (Home Management Team)
• Maintain contact with the children after their release and extend help and guidance to them.
• Visit regularly the residence of the child under his supervision and also places of employment or school attended by the child ( Follow up)

The prefered requirement to be eligible to work as a social worker is a bachelor’s degree in social work but other professional qualification at degree level in courses such as sociology, psychology and other related field.

Other skills required for social work include:

• Emotional maturity, unprejudiced and sensitivity to children and their problems
• Effective listening skills and ability to ask related questions per time
• Ability to manage information verbally transmitted and which is essential to the counseling aspect of social work
• Be conscious of body language and social forms of cultural behavior
• Ability to reach a compromise and work effectively with multiple parties
• Ability of resolving conflict (mediation)
• Power of adaptability to the situation