Social Worker or Social Care Leader
 (Minimum 3 years relevant experience)

Job type: Full-time

Working pattern: 37.5 hours per week typically from 9am-5pm on Monday to Friday.

Salary: Commensurate with experience, in line with HSE March 2023 payscales. 51,666-72,549.

Specialism: Children in Care, Fostering, Child Protection, Mental Health, Challenging Behaviour

Reporting to: Service Manager

Location: Cork City & County

Childhood Matters are recruiting a Therapeutic Social Worker and/or Social Care Worker (minimum 3 years relevant experience) to work across clinical services and strengthen our multidisciplinary team.

The successful candidate will be a member of Childhood Matters, providing high quality, trauma informed child and family assessment and support services while working on a multidisciplinary team. They will be naturally curious about, and able to work within a therapeutic framework, and be highly self-reflective and able to model this with the children/parents/foster carers/staff they are working with. Childhood Matters has a combination of site-based and home-based services and the role may involve travel and some unsociable hours. Interventions are attachment-focussed and incorporate dyadic and systemic ways of working with the child, carers and team around them, drawing on models such as Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP); Theraplay; Mentalisation-Based Treatment (MBT) approaches, Sensory Attachment Intervention (SAI), Therapeutic Life Story Work (TLSW), among others. Our wider Multidisciplinary Team is currently comprised of clinical psychologists, assistant psychologists, a play therapist, child art psychotherapist and specialist occupational therapist and social care staff.

Successful candidates will take a key role in contributing to MDT discussions of each referred child’s needs as well as those of the system around them, formulating the presenting difficulties and considering appropriate intervention. Clinicians joining the team will provide both direct and indirect therapeutic input. They will liaise with partner agencies to endeavour to achieve positive outcomes for children in care and their carers, working to build/restore placement stability and enhance key relationships in the child’s family/support network.

The role will include offering specialist training and consultation to colleagues and the wider team/system around the child, such as social workers, teachers, foster carers, and residential and support workers supporting children in care. We are committed to embedding an evidence-based culture of trauma-informed care and therapeutic practice and therefore keen to continually assess the effectiveness of our service. All clinicians are asked to complete routine outcome measures and carefully consider the effect(s) of their interventions in collaboration with the MDT.

Childhood Matters is a trauma-informed and equal-opportunity employer. We offer competitive salary packages as well as benefits including enhanced maternity leave; pension contribution scheme; health care plans; flexible working hours; internal and externally provided training opportunities, and competitive annual leave entitlement.

The successful candidates will be expected to:

• Work as a member of the multi-disciplinary therapy team, providing high quality therapeutic input to children in care and their families/carers as well as offering support and guidance to the system around the child via telephone or video conference, email, consultation, professionals’ meetings, attending and participating in statutory Child in Care Reviews etc.
• Support and promote empirically-based practice within the team through engaging in consultation, supervision, formulation and training /education
• Be responsible for holding and managing a clinical caseload and exercise autonomous professional responsibility (where appropriate) for the planning and prioritising of own workload and the assessment, treatment and discharge of clients within the bounds of the service’s operational policies
• Compile comprehensive assessment and treatment reports and any other reports as required relating to the children and carers to whom they are offering input
• Promote the team’s trauma-informed and trauma-responsive ethos, supporting colleagues and other departments within the organisation as well as referred children/carers/networks
• Contribute to developing and maintaining equality of opportunity in working practices by complying with legislation and organisational policies. Advise colleagues about equality, diversity and human rights policies and procedures and ensure they are followed
• Facilitate support groups and learning opportunities for foster carers
• Providing good quality, thorough and analytical recording and reports.
• To maintain personal and professional development to meet the changing demands of the job, work within their code of professional ethics and participate in appropriate professional supervision and training activities.
• Work as part of a team of family members, staff and service providers to evaluate safety and identify interventions that can reduce risks to children.
• Assess the risk of future abuse or neglect of children in the family and make recommendations for future welfare and safety of children and parents.
• To provide high quality appropriate assessments, formulations and interventions, communicating in a skilled and sensitive manner with the clients, clinical team and family support/residential workers at Childhood Matters and referring agents.
• Write court ready reports and testify in family court and other legal proceedings as necessary.
• To deliver a psychologically-informed service model to children and families with complex emotional, social and psychological problems and managing these within the context of multidisciplinary working.
• To carry out assessments and risk management of individual clients presenting with a behavioural profile which may include substance abuse, personality disorder, mental health related issues, self-harm and/or risk of harm to others alongside multidisciplinary team
• To provide general advice and assist the management team in identifying, developing and delivering training for the staff and other professionals on aspects of risk assessment, management and care.

Person Specification

Communication and Relationships 

• Provides and receives highly complex, sensitive or contentious information in possible contexts of significant barriers to acceptance.
• Highly emotive atmospheres may be encountered.
• Communicates highly complex assessment related information to clients, who may be hostile or limited in their abilities to grasp such concepts.
• Excellent English language skills both written and verbal.

Knowledge, Training and Experience 

• Professional qualification in related area.
• Has a high level of current theoretical & practical knowledge.
• Has a high level of professional knowledge through academic studies, supplemented by specialist courses.
• Undertakes regular clinical supervision and further specialist training and experience.
• Has a capacity to deliver training in the specialism

Analytical and Judgement Skills 

• Able to operate in an environment of complex facts or situations,
• Able to interpret complex situations and compare / choose from a range of options
• High level of skills and compassion in assessing clients, relatives / carers
• Interprets client, family situation & develops appropriate formulation,
• Considers alternative expert opinions and research materials that may differ or present alternative approaches

Planning and Organisational Skills 

• Plans and organises activities, potentially covering a range of complex requirements
• Formulates, adjusts plans or strategies
• Plans & prioritise own job / case workload, co-ordinates with other services as required
• day to day supervision/ professional/ clinical supervision of other less experienced psychologists, assistant(s), trainees etc as required
• Is open to working out of hours

Responsibility for Information Resources 

• Responsibility to update and maintain records of personally generated information
• Updates and maintains client records to the required standards
• Maintains data protection and confidentiality

Research & Development 

• Responsibility to undertake R&D activities as required
• Develops and implements measures of impact of the service
• Develops new or modifies resources, training materials, tip sheets, forms, records, policies, procedures etc.

Emotional Resilience 

• Able to cope with frequent highly distressing or emotional circumstances
• Deals with family breakdown, serious mental illness, etc.
• Working conditions may comprise occasional unpleasant conditions, some exposure to hazards such as verbal aggression, some risk of physical aggression
• Able to cope with stressful situations e.g. as an expert witness in a Court environment or meeting stringent timing

Qualifications:

• CORU registered (Social Worker and Social Care Worker)

Experience:

• Minimum three years’ experience in a social work/social care role
• Experience of providing therapeutic input to children who have experienced developmental trauma is essential
• Experience of working with children in a therapeutic context with existing knowledge of care planning, behaviour management psychoeducation and basic counselling skills

Reporting Relationships

The successful candidate will work in close cooperation with the various teams in Childhood Matters. Reporting is directly to the Senior Psychologist/Clinical Lead while maintaining a professional relationship with the Service Managers and CEO.

This job description indicates the main functions and responsibilities of the post and is subject to review and amendment in the light of service developments and changing circumstances and may include other duties and responsibilities as may be determined from time to time by Bessborough Centre Management in discussion with the post holder.

To apply 

Please submit a cover letter and CV to hr@childhood-matters.ie
HR Department, Childhood Matters, Blackrock, Cork

Closing date is: 12noon Monday 27th November 2024

Interviews will be held Wednesday 4th December 2024