What is the Role of a Child Protection Social Worker?
There are numerous responsibilities associated with child protection social work. Some of them include the counseling of children, their rehabilitation and also includes placement related work. The child protection social worker therefore is expected to be extremely responsible, equipped with good an educational qualification and a good background of clinical experience as he/she will be dealing with children and families who are often in dire straits. It is a very challenging profession but taking up the challenge or risk does not go in vain. People soon find out that this type of work is very fulfilling.
Responsibilities of a child protection social worker
Child protection social workers are required to carry out various tasks. They need to regularly receive and evaluate the reports and findings of cases such as child abuse. If the child life is at risk, they need to take immediate actions to help him/her followed by rehabilitation. They need to work with the child so that the healing can take place and the child easily copes with the trauma of maltreatment. If the child cannot be sent back to his previous home then these social workers must refer them to other services that offer support. Looking for adoptive homes or foster parents is also a child protection social worker’s responsibility.
Role of a child protection social worker
The goal of the child protection social worker is to reform a strong bond between children and parents with the help of intensive counseling. Complete focus of the social worker needs to be on the children, along with their parents or guardians. They need to make strict decisions and some very powerful judgments which should be purely professional on the basis of parameters of healthy questioning and well-mannered queries. They need to work with children and their families and try to bring in to their lives lots of positivity and positive changes. The main priority in their profession is to ensure the welfare of children.
It is not just a contract based job. It is much more than that. There can be responsibilities beyond the contracted duration and a social worker needs to be ready to fulfill them. Child protection social work is about helping children and making them feel safe and secure, irrespective of whether they are living with their family of origin, with their adopted family or in any other place.
Skills required
Child protection social work is a task that involves coming up with solutions that can solve a crisis. It is an ethical duty. These social workers are required to intervene with the family. They teach them how to keep a child safe, bring positivity in to their lives and yet not make them feel that an intervention was caused. Therefore, they need to be equipped with skills which will help them to make decisions which will be ethical and at the same time cautious and intelligent. They must be equipped with proper rationalizing and fact-finding skills.
The child protection social workers need to make accurate investigations and develop instinctive thoughts. Each and every case that they come across demands their complete attention and focus as each one of them is equally important. They need to be emotionally touchy and flexible. They need to be skillful and have a healthy relationship with children, their parents, guardians and all the other professionals and organizations who work for child protection and care.
If you are considering a job in child protection work, please feel free to contact one of our advisers today.