Social Worker in Family Strengthening Program

Mission of the position:

Under the leadership of the Family Strengthening Coordinator, the social worker supports programme development in the field of family strengthening in line with the “Vision, Mission, Values”, the brand and approved strategies, policies, guidelines of the organisation and national legislation. Social worker is responsible to support children who are at risk of losing the care of their biological family which includes direct work with the children, caregivers and communities, based on the professional social work practice, ethic, values to achieve the sustainable development of the families and integration in the community. He/she is also responsible to ensure the timely completion of the case management procedures at all stages based on the individual approach and on the active participation of children, parents/caregivers. He/she is a member of the multidisciplinary team in the programme and coordinates multidisciplinary team work within the case he/she is responsible for.

SOS Children’s Villages has zero-tolerance policy towards sexual exploitation, harassment, abuse, fraud, and corruption, among other safeguarding aspects. We also provide equal employment opportunities to all employees and qualified applicants without discrimination based on race, color, religion, gender, age, disability, or marital status. SOS Children’s Villages complies with all applicable laws related to non-discrimination in employment.

Key performance areas and main responsibilities:

Programme Development

• Supports FS Programme Coordinator in the development of services in the frame of FSP.
• Supports identification of cases of children who are at risk of losing care from their families of origin through different resources (referral, outreach, self-referral etc.).
• Conducts comprehensive assessment of children and families in strong cooperation with the multidisciplinary team using different resources and social work techniques/methods to identify family needs and strengths and define the required services.
• Prepares family development plans, with the strong participation of caregivers, children and the multidisciplinary team.

• Arranges, provides and coordinates  the delivery of services to children and families in strong partnership with other service providers and in line with the family development plan.
• Keeps regular contacts with child and family during the implementation of family development plan through phone calls, home visits and meetings in programme premises.
• Documents appropriately all activities conducted during the case management stages in the child/family case file by applying methods and tools for gathering information, as well as forms/templates, based on the requirements of national legislation and/or regional guidelines. 
• Participates in annual planning process of FS programme.

Monitoring and Evaluation

• Reassesses periodically the child/family needs and progress in meeting the objectives defined in Family Development Plan and make decisions on the case closure, in cooperation with family members and the multidisciplinary team.
• Enters data regularly in FS Database module, ensures quality of data and uses regularly the reports and data stored in the database to track individual progress of children and families. Provides information for new requirements to FS Programme Coordinator.
• Upon the request of FSP Coordinator and in accordance with the national legislation, informs regularly the child protection authorities on the case progress.
• Supports FSP Coordinator in the self-evaluation and/or external evaluation processes of FSP.
• Collects regularly information about different indicators as defined in the M&E plan of the programme unit and reports to FS Programme Coordinator.

Human Resource development

• Participates regularly in intervision sessions, individual or group external supervision.
• Maintains personal and professional development to meet the changing demands of the job, participates in appropriate training activities and keeps up with organisational procedures, legislation and developments in the professional practice.

Partnership building and advocacy

• Keeps regular contacts with service providers to ensure that services are provided according to objectives and actions agreed in Family Development Plan.
• Advocates for the individual child and his/her family to have access to social entitlements or obtain needed services.
• Contributes in community development undertaken by the Family Strengthening Programme, i.e. organise/participate in awareness raising activities, community mobilisation events and capacity building of the community partners.

Knowledge Management

• Supports Family Strengthening Programme Coordinator in documenting good practises, human touch stories.
• Keeps regular track of latest developments in social work area as well as changes in national legislation, policies and practises related to children in the target group.

Child & Adult, Funds & Asset Safeguarding

• Comply with the Code of Conduct, Child and Youth Safeguarding Regulation and Policy, Misconduct Incident Management Regulation; The Sexual Misconduct regulation (Prevention and protection against sexual harassment, exploitation and abuse, PSHEA), Anti-Corruption Regulation and follows all reporting and responding procedures.
• Responsible within own area of work to raise awareness of the child & adult principles and to prevent and protect children from all forms of abuse, abandonment, exploitation, violence and discrimination,
• Responsible within own area of work to raise awareness of the funds and assets safeguarding to maintain the highest standards of integrity, ethical conduct and professionalism.
• Supports programmes/projects in preventing and mitigating child & adult safeguarding risks for children & adults and in planning and providing rehabilitation support in child & adult abuse incidents.
• Supports programmes/project in preventing and mitigation risks of corruption.
• Reports immediately any child & adult, funds & asset safeguarding suspicion, concern, allegation or incident following Misconduct Incident Management Regulation.
• Take steps to identify and effectively mitigate against SEA in all programme activities

This position involves working with an NGO committed to children and human rights and is subject to strict safer recruitment checks. The successful candidate will be required to complete safer recruitment checks including criminal record and reference checks to help verify their suitability to work for SOS Children’s Villages. In addition to assessing candidates' ability to perform the duties of the post, in  the selection process will be also explored the motivation and approach of the candidate to safeguarding.

Working hours: 8:00 AM till 4:30 PM (Monday to Friday)