About the Organisation

Barnardos Australia is one of Australia’s leading children’s social care agencies, focused on building relationships between children, young people, their families and the community. Over the next 5 years, Barnardos commits to supporting more vulnerable children to thrive through effective evidence-informed and research-based programs.

About the Role

Barnardos are looking for a full-time permanent Case Manager for the Kinship Care Team based at the Barnardos Centre in Bruce, ACT.

Reporting to the Manager, the Case Manager will be responsible for;

• Developing and maintaining relationships with all involved in a child’s life
• Support the implementation of children’s therapeutic care plans
• Mediate and negotiate with children and young people and their birth families, ensuring a sense of identity is developed consistently over time
• Assessing the needs of the kinship carer and the child/young person in their care
• Devise care plans and coordinate with all parties involved
• Meet with children in care separately to their kinship carers regularly in accordance with program procedures
• Ensure casework is based on understanding of key theoretical frameworks that inform practice (trauma, grief and loss, childhood development, attachment)
• Lead assessments of prospective kinship carers and present to carer panels
• Undertake Permanency Assessments for children proceeding towards permanency
• Walk alongside kinship carers always with empathy and compassion while ensuring the needs of the child/young person remain central

About You

To be successful in the Case Manager role, you will ideally have;

• A tertiary qualification in Social Work, Community Welfare, Psychology or related discipline
• Two years previous experience in the child welfare field
• Experience engaging with and working with families and communities
• Demonstrated knowledge and skills in working with families and promoting family-centred strength-based practices
• Demonstrated case management experience including a complex/competing caseload
• Demonstrated understanding of Aboriginal Culture and history and the impacts of this for children, carers and staff in OOHC
• Demonstrated understanding of CALD and the impacts of this for children, carers and staff in OOHC
• Ability to liaise with families, kinship carers and professionals and to advocate for children and carers whilst maintaining strong working relationships
• Ability to prepare complex assessment reports and intervention skills
• A current driver’s license and the ability to work in a flexible manner, including after hours, when required

Applicants from an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander background are strongly encouraged to apply. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff are further supported by the Aboriginal Cultural Unit (ACU) and Barnardos Indigenous Group (BIG) to meet their cultural needs within the organisation. For more information on how Barnardos support Aboriginal staff wanting to work for Barnardos please get in touch.

Benefits of Working for Barnardos

At Barnardos, we provide opportunities for development through individual and group mentoring, secondments, acting up and project work. Our benefits include flexible working arrangements, cultural leave, a day off during NAIDOC week, additional annual leave during Christmas/New Year break, volunteer opportunities at community events and many more.

Salary: Base $61,545 to $77,981 plus leave loading plus superannuation. Packaging available to receive $15,860 of your salary tax free. Motor vehicle packaging available on selected roles.

To be considered for roles with Barnardos you will need to have (or be willing to have conducted) a National Police Clearance and current Working with Children check Clearance (or APP number) and for the ACT a Drivers History Check, Working with Vulnerable People Card and CYPS Check.

How to apply

To register your interest hit Apply Now and submit your resume. Please note adverts will expire once we receive enough suitable applications.

For a confidential discussion please call Gemma Haworth on 02 9218 2354.