Social Worker III

GENERAL STATEMENT OF DUTIES

Employees in this class may work in Public Health, Mental Health, or Social Services settings and focus on the restoration of the client's physical, social, and economic functioning.  Positions are typically located in Adult Services, Family and Children Services in such programs as Adoptions, Foster care, and Foster Home Finding within the Department of Social Services; Individual and Family Outpatient settings in mental health environments; and Family Planning/Maternity and Child Health Clinics to name a few.  Work requires more intensive or specialized services; employees respond to the more complex individual, family, health, or personal problems.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Essential Duties and Tasks

Employees may be assigned to one of the following areas:

Foster Care/Guardianship
• Responsible for ensuring safe, permanent and nurturing families for children/adults who are in DSS custody and for whom DSS has placement responsibility.
• Responsible for providing services to strengthen, preserve and/or reunite families by helping them to improve the conditions that caused Agency intervention.
• Responsible for ensuring appropriate temporary living arrangements for children in DSS custody and achieving an alternative safe, permanent home for children that cannot return home.
 
Adoptions
• Responsible for helping children, whose parents are incapable of assuring continuing parental responsibilities, to become a part of a new family by finding an appropriate home for them.
• Responsible for recruiting of potential adoptive families and providing on-going services (supervision) to adoptive children and adoptive parents that will provide for their needs and protect the interests of all parties to an adoption.

Treatment
• Responsible for providing treatment services to families and children who have been substantiated for abuse, neglect, and/or exploitation.
• Responsible for providing treatment services to children determined to be in need of protection, with the goal of preventing out of home placement or if out of home placement cannot be prevented, provide the necessary services to affect an appropriate placement.

Investigations
• Responsible for making prompt and thorough investigations when a report of abuse, neglect, or dependency is received by the department.
• Responsible for ascertaining the facts of the case, the extent of the abuse or neglect, and the risk of harm to juvenile/adult, in order to determine whether protective services should be provided or the complaint filed as a petition.
• Responsible for following the procedures and guidelines as provided by the State of NC and the legal system.

Family Recruitment Trainer
• Responsible for the recruitment, training and retention of families interested in providing foster or adoptive homes for Guilford County children /adults needing temporary or permanent homes.  Primary responsibilities include community education, training families in the foster and adoptive processes, licensing homes, and development of recruitment strategies.

RECRUITMENT STANDARDS
Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities 

• Thorough knowledge of social work principles, techniques, and practices and their application to complex casework, group work, and community problems.
• Considerable knowledge of family and group dynamics and a range of intervention
       techniques.
• General knowledge of the methods and principles of casework supervision and training.
• Ability to supervise, train or instruct lower-level social workers, students, or interns.
• Ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with members of case load
       and their families, as well as civic, legal, medical, social and religious organizations.
• Ability to express ideas clearly and concisely and to plan and execute work effectively.MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

• BSW from an accredited school of social work 
• Bachelors degree in a human services field from an accredited college/university and one year related experience
• Bachelors degree from an accredited college/university and two years related experience
• Must have possession of an appropriate driver's license issued by the State of North Carolina.
• A motor vehicle record (MVR), background check, and drug screening will be conducted on candidates considered for positions

Driving is Essential 
Driving is an essential requirement of this position whether driving a County owned or personal vehicle to conduct county business.  Motor Vehicle Reports may be verified for valid driver's license and that the driving record is compatible with the county's driving criteria.
If a personal vehicle is operated for county business proper insurance is maintained as per Guilford County's vehicle use policy.


Special Note

This generic class description gives an overview of the job class, its essential job functions, and recommended job requirements.  However, for each individual position assigned to this class, there is available a completed job description with a physical abilities check list which can give further details about that one specific position.  Those documents should be reviewed before initiating a selection process.  They can provide additional detailed information on which to base various personnel actions and can assist management in making legal defensible personnel decisions. 

 

Salary : $52,735 - $61,963