Position Information

NOTE: This position may be being filled at the Trainee or Full Performance level.

This is a re-opening to expand the pool of qualified candidates for a bilingual candidate. If you have already applied for this position, there is no need to re-apply unless you wish to update your application.

The Child and Family Services Division of the Department of Human Services (DHS) is hiring a Human Services Clinician to provide Child Protective Services (CPS). The work involves investigations, assessments, and the provision of short term intervention to ensure child safety and well-being as well as to stabilize and support families. This employee will be part of a multi-disciplinary treatment team planning, organizing, and coordinating service delivery. The CPS Human Services Clinician serves a culturally and ethnically diverse population.

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Duties include:

• Performs comprehensive assessments of children and their families, including home visits, to determine risk and safety;
• Provides emergency crisis intervention to maintain safety and to provide services in the best interest of the youth;
• Designs and implements treatment plans with children and families to reduce risk and enhance safety;
• Participates in court reviews and testifies in court;
• Searches for and initiates contact with family members and/or additional supportive adults;
• Coordinates and facilitates family engagement activities including Family Partnership meetings; and
• Documents assessments, treatment plans, critical incident reports, detailed case contacts, progress notes, and service plans for court review.

Arlington County DHS is committed to delivering client services in an effective, equitable, respectful, and trauma-informed manner. Our staff is dedicated to ensuring our clients are approached, engaged and cared for in ways that demonstrate competency, sensitivity and awareness of factors which impact the client experience including but not limited to: cultural identity, gender, racial, and ethnic diversity, religious/spiritual ascription, physical capability, cognitive and literacy levels, sexual orientation, and linguistic needs.

Selection Criteria

MINIMUMS:

• Full Performance:
  • A Master's degree in Social Work, Counseling, Psychology, or other directly related clinical discipline;
  • A clinical practicum in a child welfare setting (foster care, adoption, child protective services, family preservation, permanency planning, or domestic violence) prior to graduation;
  • Two years of post-Master's degree experience providing professional clinical social work services, one year of which should include experience in a child welfare setting; and
  • Bilingual: English/Spanish.
• Trainee*:
  • A Master's degree in Social Work, Counseling, Psychology, or other directly related clinical discipline;
  • A clinical practicum in a child welfare setting (foster care, adoption, child protective services, family preservation, permanency planning, or domestic violence) prior to graduation; and
  • Bilingual: English/Spanish.

*Depending upon qualifications, a training period will be established to last no longer than the equivalent of 24 months. At the end of the training period, the employee must meet experience, training, proficiency and certification requirements for the journey level position. Once the candidate qualifies, the one-year probationary period will begin.

SUBSTITUTION: A directly related higher level clinical degree may substitute for the Master's degree education requirement and one year of child welfare work experience. In the case of the substitution, the remainder of the qualifying work experience must have been gained after the higher level degree was awarded and must be in child welfare.

DESIRABLES: Preference may be given to candidates with experience in one or more of the following:

• Performing child protective investigations;
• Foster care and/or family preservation;
• Working within the court system;
• Family group facilitation; and/or
• Virginia licensed or license-eligible as a clinical social worker.

Special Requirements

Additional Information

Work Hours: 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. After hours and weekend on-call coverage for approximately three-four days per month and as needed with flexibility.

An online application is required.

The employee is required to travel daily within Arlington to conduct home visits in the client's homes, to schools, and other collateral sites based on case/client needs and to court to testify on specific cases. Regular travel is also required within and outside the Washington metropolitan area to foster homes and residential treatment sessions.

Full performance salary range: $57,387.20 - $87,630.40
Trainee salary range: $53,393.60 - $81,598.40

Your responses to the supplemental questionnaire are considered part of the application process and are required for this position. Please do not give "see resume" as a response to the questions. Incomplete applications will not be considered.