Multicultural Child and Family Support (MCFS) Program Caseworker

ABOUT MULTICULTURAL CHILD AND FAMILY SUPPORT (MCFS) PROGRAM

The Multicultural Child and Family Support (MCFS) Program provides a range of services to assist children and young people who have been found to be in need of care and protection to meet their permanent care plan needs – safety, stability and wellbeing through a culturally aware and responsive lens.

The MCFS Program uses a client centred, strengths-based, trauma informed framework to guide its service delivery and facilitate sustainable and practical outcomes for children, young people, families and carers; working in partnership with member agencies and local ethnic and sector partners. Its cultural lens aims to link children and young people with a bilingual worker and/or carer and/or community based matched bilingual support worker.

The MCFS Program has contractual responsibilities with FACS and regulatory responsibilities with the Office of the Children’s Guardian (OCG).

YOUR CONTRIBUTION

The Caseworker provides casework support to children, young people, foster carers and their birth families within the Multicultural Child & Family Support Program, with the aim of achieving permanency care outcomes.

This role works with FACS, other government and non-government organisations to deliver culturally responsive services to children, young people, foster carers a nd their birth families.

Responsibilities

• Undertake child and family case work including assessments, planning, placement support, monitoring and reviews
• Understand current permanency planning principles
• Develop, implement and review children and young people’s case plans
• Match children and young people with foster carers
• Ensure the views and wishes of children and young people are considered
• Provide information, advice and support to foster carers
• Contribute to the cohesion and support of team members and assist with home visits, assessments and the use of your language skills (if applicable)

SELECTION CRITERIA

We are seeking dedicated and highly analytical caseworkers with experience in child protection or OOHC and who have completed or are enrolled in a relevant tertiary degree or diploma. You will be well versed in liaising with culturally and linguistically diverse communities with fluency in languages such as Arabic, Turkish and Vietnamese. You will be skilled in managing negotiations successfully and working under pressure to achieve positive outcomes. We are seeking resilient caseworkers who are not only strong influencers to persuade key stakeholders but are collaborative team players who are able to operate with the highest levels of integrity. Computer literacy with intermediate level MS Office skills (Word & Excel) and excellent written and oral communication skills are a must for this role.

Please respond to the “Selection Criteria” section in your cover letter.

WHAT WE OFFER

We offer the opportunity to engage in meaningful work that makes a real difference to the lives of our clients, their families, carers, and communities. SSI fosters an environment conducive for work/life balance; something we are very passionate about. For this, we offer a fortnightly Accrued Day Off (ADO) for full time staff, flexible working arrangements and generous salary packaging options to increase your take home pay!