1.5 Roles and Responsibilities of the Children's Service Worker
The Children’s Service Worker shall:
- Adhere to all Children’s Division mandates, policies, and procedures as they relate to providing services to families;
- Respond to reports of child abuse and neglect;
- Provide and explain the Know Your Rights Brochure (CS-132) and the Service Delivery Grievance form (CS-131) during their initial contact with a family when providing Family-Centered Services, Family-Centered Out-of-Home Services, Intensive In-Home Services, Family Reunion Services, Independent Living Services, or Adoption and Guardianship Services and when initiating a Child Abuse/Neglect Investigation and Family Assessment.
- Provide and explain the Handbook for Parents of Children in Foster Care (CS-304) during their initial contact when providing Family-Centered-Out-of-Home-Care Services.
- Initiate and continue efforts to secure appropriate interpretative or language translation services to communicate with special needs families.
- Initiate and continue involvement with the family until the child is safe from abuse or neglect and the risk of future abuse or neglect has been sufficiently reduced;
- Conduct a comprehensive assessment of the family, keeping child safety and risk as the primary focus;
- Determine if abuse or neglect has occurred (or is occurring), and intervene to protect the child;
- Assess the parents’ ability and willingness to protect the child;
- Engage the child and family in identifying needs, strengths, and resources to improve child safety and well-being;
- Inform a child(ren) and parents of their rights regarding public performance and media involvement;
- Help develop and carry out a case plan with the family that leads to an adequate level of care for the child;
- Initiate protective action (without the cooperation of the parents, if necessary) to legally remove the child from the parents and to obtain adequate out-of-home care when necessary;
- Maintain the parent/child relationship, as appropriate, if the child is removed from the home;
- Upon the notification of a court hearing, the Children’s Service Worker shall mail a notice of this hearing to the foster/adoptive parent. This notice should be mailed no later than (14) days prior to the hearing. Once the notice has been mailed, the Children’s Service Worker will follow-up with the foster, adoptive, relative parent reminding him/her of the hearing. The notice should be copied and placed in the legal section of the child’s case record along with documentation of the follow-up call in the narrative.
- Assist the parent(s) in preparing for visits by discussing the follow:
- What the parent expects to accomplish during the visit;
- How to assure safety during visits;
- How the parent feels about the visit;
- Possible feelings the child(ren) may have about the visit;
- Activities to occur or avoid during the visit;
- The impact on the child when visits do or do not occur; and
- What could cause a visit to end.
- Provide support and assistance to the placement provider to meet the child’s educational needs.
- Maintain a comprehensive child protective services record on the family;
- End services to the family when they are no longer necessary or appropriate;
- Terminate services and/or interventions provided to families that negatively impact the emotional or physical well being of the family, is unacceptable by best practice standards, and is ineffective or detrimental to meeting the treatment plan goals and objectives.
- Develop and sustain collaborative relationships with other members of the community to promote and support a community-based response to the protection of children; and
- Model best practice, problem-solving techniques, and effective child protection intervention strategies for the Children’s Service Worker and other professionals involved with the family.