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Family Safety Practitioner III - Protection and Preservation Services (PPS) Sexual Abuse Unit

Fairfax County Government
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Job Announcement

 

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

 


Do you want to be part of a team that makes a difference in the lives of children and families? Children at risk of harm need quick action from courageous, compassionate individuals dedicated to ensuring their safety. The Division of Children, Youth, and Families (CYF) of the Department of Family Services (DFS) is seeking a Family Safety Practitioner III (FSP III) to provide clinical casework services to stabilize and support children and their families who have experienced child sexual abuse. This demanding and challenging career could be your opportunity to help these children be safe and help their families thrive. Learn more about the culture of DFS, meet our director and some of our employees, watch videos about our programs, and check out the great health benefits offered by Fairfax County.

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 by clicking here and visit the One Fairfax webpage here.

The Department of Family Services (DFS) is committed to strengthening the well-being of its diverse community by protecting and improving the lives of all children, adults, and families through assistance, partnership, advocacy, outreach, and quality services. To learn more about DFS and its Mission, Vision, and Values, please click here.

 

Duties and responsibilities:

  • As a member of the Protection and Preservation Services (PPS) Sexual Abuse Unit, 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
  • Attends court hearings and provides professional and legal testimony
  • Develops partnerships with community agencies to provide a holistic approach to service delivery, guaranteeing collaboration and coordination of services offered to children and their families
  • Collaborates with various multi-disciplinary professionals and facilitates family engagement activities
  • Coordinates and attends intra-agency and inter-agency meetings
  • Mentors and trains staff and provides supervision in the absence of the unit supervisor
  • Performs other duties as assigned to ensure child safety and improve outcomes in families

     

Work hours are Monday-Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; however, evening and/or weekend work as well as being part of an on-call rotation for CPS are required.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, AND ABILITIES:

  • Knowledge of child protection laws, rules, and regulations
  • Knowledge of conducting child protective services assessment and investigation
  • Knowledge of foster care and adoption laws, rules, and regulations
  • Ability to interview, assess needs, counsel, and refer clients to other resource as needed
  • Knowledge in conducting child protective services assessments
  • 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.

     

Note: All Fairfax County Government employees are expected to adhere to the Standards of Conduct. In maintaining a drug free workplace, employees are prohibited from manufacturing, distributing, possessing, using or being under the influence of alcohol or illegal drugs while at work or on county premises.

 

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).

Contributes to the development of protocols, policies, procedures, grants and contracts for a social services program, department, and other entities;
Manages service contracts and provide and directs other contract-related functions;
Assists the supervisor in planning and carrying out training for new staff, providing guidance to staff;
Serves as a policy and practice expert in mandated services that supports the protection and wellbeing of vulnerable populations, governed by state and federal laws, administrative code, state-level policies and procedures, accreditation standards, and/or court orders for compliance with public welfare or other court-mandated services;
Coordinates or oversees the daily activities of a program or project to include staff supervision, oversight of administrative functions/requirements associated with the program or project, evaluation of the program or project for its impact/effectiveness and making recommendations for changes or improvements;
Uses case management, documentation management technology, and hard copy files to maintain and update case data, notes, documents, records, contacts, and summaries of information in accordance with applicable federal, state, and local laws and policies;
Manages and maintains program data and outcomes;
Conducts initial and ongoing, comprehensive clinical and social assessments of the family system;
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);
Provides family, individual, and group counseling and conducts mediation services to families in conflict;
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;
Performs risk and safety assessments to determine if people at risk of harm should be separated from their current living situation including, emergency separations of children from their homes when required; 
Addresses, and if necessary, diffuses initial and ongoing crises with clients, assesses safety issues and refers clients to emergency services as needed (e.g., mental health services, child protective services, foster care, adult protective services, emergency shelter, homeless shelter);
Prepares written reports and required documentation supporting decisions related to immediate and ongoing safety needs;
Provides crisis intervention on a timely basis to clients or families whose wellbeing are seriously and imminently threatened;
Assists clients with identifying and utilizing available personal and community resources and refers clients to other public and private agencies and services.

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 current social service problems and methods/approaches to address issues;
Knowledge or skill with crisis intervention or conflict resolution techniques;
Knowledge of regulations and guidelines relating to the assigned area of social service specialization;
Ability to analyze case information to reach sound decisions based on such information; 
Ability to demonstrate advanced critical thinking and judgment by understanding and applying governing policy and statutes alongside best practices and unique case factors;
Ability to engage with persons effectively and empathically from different cultures who may be experiencing stressful family situations;
Ability to maintain a high level of sensitivity and confidentiality while performing client related tasks;
Ability to communicate clearly and concisely, both orally and in writing;
Ability to use case management and documentation 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;
Ability to engage children, adults, and/or families under safety-sensitive, time-limited, and difficult circumstances, to gather information and make informed decisions that are inclusive of their language, race, and culture;
Ability to engage and work with community partners and organizations; 
Ability to collaborate as a team member to create and support safety planning and monitoring;
Ability to engage with juridical systems and processes to support the safety needs of clients as needed or when required by statute;
Ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with a variety of individuals;
Ability to schedule and manage workloads sufficiently to meet deadlines;
Ability to provide guidance, direction, supervision and coaching to less experienced staff;
Ability to provide management and oversight of a program or project;
Ability to develop and present training programs and other presentations;
Ability to set boundaries and participate in self-reflective practice and working knowledge of the National Association of Social Workers' Code of Professional Ethical Standards;
Skill in defining and explaining complex rules and guidelines in a variety of settings and providing sound guidance and direction to staff;
Skill in writing and reviewing reports that are behaviorally specific, factually correct, include conclusions and recommended action.

Employment Standards

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS:
Graduation from an accredited four-year college or university with a bachelor's degree in social work, psychology, sociology, or a *related field, plus four years of experience in social work, psychology, sociology, or a *related experience. A master's degree in a related field may be substituted for one year of the required experience.

*A related field/experience is based solely on the position description.

CERTIFICATES AND LICENSES REQUIRED:
Valid driver's license.
Positions within this class are required to complete the state mandated training in the functional area within a specified time period.

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).

Requires being part of an on-call rotation that includes evening, overnight, weekend, and holiday hours which may require immediate response into the field.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:

  • Master's degree in social work (MSW) or a related human services degree
  • Minimum of two (2) years of case management experience in child protective services, foster care and/or family preservation
  • Minimum of two (2) years of experience working with sexual abuse victims
  • 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)
  • One year of leadership experience in a child welfare


PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS:
Sufficiently mobile to attend home visits, court, and 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.

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.