Senior Social Worker - Sustaining NSW Families
The role will provide an opportunity to work directly with families and to support other Allied Health and Nursing colleagues
Employment Type: Permanent Part Time roles available
Remuneration: $2,081.22 - $2,148.66 per week
Hours Per Week: 38
Requisition ID: REQ535986
Who we are: We are a health service that touches thousands of lives across the Northern Sydney Local Health District, together as a team of like-minded people. We are passionate, driven and have the skills and knowledge to care for our patients whilst creating the best services possible. Our teams have meaningful, interesting and rewarding work everyday. We challenge and nurture each other, sharing our knowledge and experience so that we can deliver better care for everyone There’s a real sense of belonging here because we value and respect our patients, employees, and teams’ voices. You’ll feel a real privilege being a trusted caregiver in our patients, their families, their carers, and our communities’ lives.
NSLHD is proud of our diverse and inclusive workplaces, a place where health care professionals can thrive and feel they belong. We are committed to ensure that all our people feel respected and participate safely within a work environment without aggression, sexual harassment, discrimination and racism.
Where you'll be working
NSLHD Child, Youth and Family Sustaining NSW Families Program (across various sites), Macquarie Hospital as the Main Hub.
What you'll be doing
The Senior Social Worker (SW) works collaboratively as a senior member of the interdisciplinary Sustaining NSW Families (SNF) Team who provide antenatal and postnatal support and intervention to vulnerable families in a home and community settings, in-keeping with the NSW Health Supporting Families Early, Maternal and Child Health Home Visiting Policy. Eligible families are primarily identified in the antenatal period and intervention continues until children reach 2 years old. This Child and Family Health (CFH) nurse-led SNF team offers families, who are experiencing psychosocial stressors ongoing nurse home-visiting and structured nurse-led interventions from mid-pregnancy until their child is two years old. SNF aims to support healthy parent-child relationship development and support new parents' capacity to optimise their infant's health, well-being, physical, emotional, cognitive, communication, and social development in the first 2000 days of life - to give children the best possible start to life, and before they start school.
The SNF SW holds specialist expertise and advanced practice skills in parent-child attachment, infant development, family work and counselling. They offer high-level SW clinical consultancy, clinical advice and guidance to allied health and nursing colleagues on the team to enhance care for families. The SW actively contributes to team case reviews and family case conferences and provide clinical supervision for social work students and some nurses The role works collaboratively with the SNF nursing team to engage families, to conduct assessments and offer psychosocial support for families with complex needs. They provide counselling and therapeutic interventions to assist family/carers to develop healthy and secure relationships within families and to enhance whole family functioning. Interventions include individual and parent counselling, psychoeducation, brief family therapy, solution-focused case work, case management, referral facilitation and parent group work.
SNF is part of the Northern Sydney Local Health District (NSLHD) Child, Youth and Family (CYF) Community Health Service and collectively our philosophy of care revolves around providing child-centred, safe, culturally sensitive, trauma and evidence-informed, neurodiversity affirming and integrated care that optimises outcomes for children and families.
People of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander background are encouraged to apply.
Candidates will need to meet the following criteria:
- Degree in Social Work from an accredited course providing eligibility for membership of the Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW) (overseas qualifications must supply the AASW Overseas Assessment number) and an eligible NSW Driver Licence and willingness to travel for work. A demonstrated understanding of the current AASW Practice Standards as they relate to the position and a commitment to updating professional skill and knowledge.
- Demonstrated extensive experience and advanced skills in working in therapeutic partnership with families who have multiple psychosocial stressors and understanding of how psycho-social issues, including trauma, impact pregnancy, child development, parent-child relationships, and parenting capacity. Knowledge of and experience undertaking therapeutic interventions with, including individual, family and relationship counselling, solution-focused interventions, care coordination and casework skills.
- Demonstrated experience and advanced level skills and ability to independently undertake comprehensive psychosocial family assessments, with ability to exercise high-level professional judgement and critical thinking in all aspects of clinical practice.
- Demonstrated high level, effective interpersonal and verbal communication skills including the ability to adapt communication style to suit different audiences and the ability to negotiate and interact collaboratively as a member of an interdisciplinary team, and various stakeholders throughout all organisational levels, including non-government organisations to coordinate integrated care. Demonstrated clinical supervision experience and leadership skills with ability to contribute to/facilitate case reviews, provide education and consultation to other professionals in the context of providing trauma informed, child and family-oriented care in a community-based care service setting - to support capacity to promote optimal parent-child attachment and healthy child development.
Need more information?
1) Click here for the Position Description
2) Find out more about applying for this position
For role related queries or questions contact Julie Draper on Julie.Draper@health.nsw.gov.au
This is a NSW Health Category A position which requires immunisation and screening for certain diseases. The full list of requirements are outlined in the NSW Health OASV Policy . You will be required to complete the OASV Undertaking/ Declaration Form and TB Assessment Tool during the recruitment process. Please upload this with your application along with any other vaccination evidence that you may have.
NSW Health is committed to implementing the Child Safe Standards.
Applications Close: 6 December 2024
Tentative start date for interviews: 10 December 2024
