Team Lead (Various Sub-Departments)

The Children's Authority of Trinidad and Tobago is a specialized agency with the responsibility for the care and protection of children, especially those who are at risk or have been victims of abuse or neglect.

The Children's Authority of Trinidad and Tobago is seeking to recruit for the role of Team Lead, on contract.

The Team Lead will be a part of the Authority’s core departments; Child Welfare Services and Child & Family Reintegration Services.  He/ she will work closely with various other key positions as it relates to the management of cases of vulnerable children coming under the purview of the Authority. 

The incumbent will be assigned on a rotational basis to sub-departments such as, Contact Centre, Regional Case Management, Child Justice Support, Assessment, Reception Centre, Foster Care, or Adoption, and will lead the administration and execution of child welfare and protection activities and initiatives.  This will be inclusive of providing social services support to improve the social and psychological well-being of children who are at risk and in need of care and protection.

The role of the Team Lead will be critical in the undertaking of comprehensive assessments and interventions involving children, parents, and families, to determine their needs and develop plans to address those needs ensuring the safety, rehabilitation and wellbeing of the child.  All these services will be delivered in keeping with best practice, while respecting and promoting the rights of the child..

Minimum Qualifications:

• Master’s Degree in Social Work, Psychology, Counselling or related field.
• Bachelor’s Degree in Social Work, Psychology, Counselling or related field
• Training in CPR and First Aid.
• A minimum of six (6) years’ experience working in the social services field
• At least three (3) years’ experience at the supervisory level.

Principal Accountabilities/ Key Functions (compilation of duties for various sub-departments):

• Assist families through the adoption process to include informational meetings, counseling, screening, home studies, placement and post-placement follow-up.
• Provide life-affirming counsel to women and birth families facing unplanned pregnancy to include options such as counselling, decision-making support, parenting preparedness, adoptive parent selection, case management, and resource connection.
• Assists individuals and families in crisis in a way that promotes positive change, growth, development and safety for all families.
• Attends court hearings, prepares and files all court documents within required timeframes.
• Conducts visits with children and prospective adoptive families that include the ongoing assessment of child safety, permanency and well-being.
• Engage and assess families from a strengths-based perspective and continually assesses risk of abuse, neglect and threatened harm by gathering appropriate information.
• Serve as a conduit of information between all parties to the case and identified stakeholders including medical, educational and mental health providers.
• Ensure children are registered on the adoption exchange within 10 days.
• Ensure that post placement is completed within one week of the child being placed in the identified prospective adoptive family’s home.
• Facilitate placement and delivery services in collaboration with biological, foster and adoptive families.
• Refer hard-to-place children to recruitment partners, if necessary.
• Prepare and up keep a spreadsheet of active adopt-only families and a spreadsheet that includes all available children.
• Supervise the effective and efficient delivery of services in accordance with relevant policies, guidelines, framework and programmes.  Ensure that activities comply with all relevant legislation and ethical and industry standards. Maintain a high level of awareness and adherence to ethical and legal standards in social work practice.
• Assess and monitor team service delivery performance proactively, looking for opportunities to improve the operations.
• Lead and manage a social work team including support staff, by providing an environment within which service delivery excellence can be achieved.
• Ensure that Key Performance Indicators, casework and quality indicators and standards are managed and met.
• Promote and maintain effective relationships with partner agencies, non-governmental organisations, community groups and contracted service providers as they relate to casework.
• Identify and manage internal and external service delivery risks and ensure intervention and escalation as appropriate.
• Investigate matters where it is alleged that a child is at risk of significant harm. Determine the family's need for services.  Refer children and families to services that assist in providing the ongoing safety and wellbeing of children.
• Make applications to the Family Court if the child's safety cannot be ensured within the family. Administer protection orders granted by the Children's Court. Prepare Court reports.
• Continues ongoing investigation after removal of a child.  Determine if the child can be safely returned to his/her home.
• Arrange case conferences for complex cases and ensure children receive multidisciplinary support.
• Regularly follow up to ensure all services and action points listed in the case plan are carried out within agreed time frames. Ensure that progress is regularly reviewed.
• Delegating and assigning social work cases to staff.
• Reviewing and approving treatment plans
• Identify and manage internal and external service delivery risks and ensure intervention and escalation as appropriate.
• Review investigation reports from Case Management Officer and approve recommended action with respect to the legitimacy of the report made.
• Review information entered into the Investigation Module of the Child Protection Information Management ystem for accuracy and completeness.
• Provides assessment, conducts home visits and supervised visitation, provides counseling and case management services to children, individuals, and families for court-ordered and voluntary cases related to child protection, child welfare, delinquency, and status offenses under the supervision of a certified social worker.
• Provide children’s Family Court intake services for the purpose of screening children/youth taken into custody.
• Conduct intake inquiry interviews with children, youth and families.
• Make decisions/recommendations regarding law enforcement and non-law enforcement intake referrals including case closure, informal disposition, deferred prosecution or court petitioning under the supervision of a certified social worker.
• Determine the range of services needed by individuals and families through interviews, home visits, etc.
• Monitors compliance with court orders. Attends court hearings and provides written reports and testimony
• Provides evening and weekend on-call services including assessment, provides crisis intervention, takes and transports children subject to temporary physical custody orders, makes custody decisions and referrals.
• Completes case-related documents including correspondence, case decisions, and general documentation.
• Arranges evaluation services to assist with family assessment decisions.
• Prepares families for court hearings by explaining the process and by sharing recommendations.
• Participates in section and department meetings, work-related committees and trainings
• Assists in development, coordination and participate in the multi-discipline coordination teams; including the Child Death Review Team
• Acts as the child abuse and neglect electronic data base “Super-User” for Children and Families Section
• Provides informational presentations to other staff, professionals, and community groups related to department programs and policies.
• Obtain and assess relevant information regarding child's development, i.e., social, familial, medical and vocational strengths.
• Consult with other professionals in the field and in related fields to increase individual knowledge and understanding of various disciplines, changes and developments in the field of Child Care and Protection Services.
• Make recommendations for policies and social programmes in Rehabilitation centres.
• Develop a treatment plan in conjunction, consultation and cooperation with the child's family and all others involved in the child's life in accordance with statutory guidelines. The treatment plan would outline the services to be provided by the Authority and contracted agencies and it will set reasonable goals and timelines.  Refer to and coordinate the various services to implement the treatment plan.
• Provide daily case management services (e.g., including child and family intakes, counseling, monitor and facilitate child-family and child-attorney contacts, child’s access to telephone calls and correspondence, coordination of family and attorney visits, related crisis support, referrals to services, discharge planning, re-entry support), within a juvenile detention facility, to youth pending court proceedings and/or sentencing for either felony or misdemeanor offenses.
• Review preliminary intake information, including interview reports, assessments, observation reports, incident reports, behavior management reports and confers with other professionals involved in the case, where appropriate.
• Obtain and assess relevant information regarding child's development, i.e., social, familial, medical and vocational strengths.
• Conduct family and individual risk and needs assessments as well as continually assess the safety of child on the caseload.
• Review and revise permanency plan as necessary and provide crisis services including emergency custody and changes of placement.
• Produce accurate and timely documentation and reports including but not limited to assessments, treatments plans, progress reports and court reports to ensure compliance with state requirements.
• Maintain collaborative relationships with stakeholders mutually responsible for the permanency and well-being of children in need of care and protection.  Schedule and facilitate their access to remanded youth and actively participate in the development of safety plans, care plans, placement, permanency and transition plans.
• Supervise the assessment of the child's strengths, needs and individual and family resources. Provide the Family Court with recommendations regarding services, treatment and disposition.
• Monitor the child's compliance with the established court order.  Attends court hearings and provides written reports and testimony. 
• Maintain contact with the Family Court.
• Provide ongoing evaluation of service delivery and collaborative development of new services as needed and gaps are identified.  Explore and develop new options if service delivery that position the Authority un the community to meet the need of children, families and stakeholders.
• Supervise the screening of all incoming referrals according to a prescribed Risk Assessment tool and secure specialist services to assist with the initial assessment of the children to ensure their immediate and long-term safety and wellbeing.
• Investigate referrals for the areas of adoption, family and children’s treatment, foster care and child protective services.
• Implement the delivery of assessment, counselling and medical services with internal and external service providers ensuring that maintenance of and compliance with all operating protocols, standards and procedures.
• Effective implementation of plans, programmes and protocols by collaborating with current stakeholders to optimize service delivery.
• Support the protective parents in the formal, legal process by collaborating internally with the Legal department and the external court system for the successful placement of the child.
• Conduct case review meetings with team members, clients and stakeholders to review assessment, care and placement decisions.
• Coordinate services for families by arranging services from specialists and community agencies.
• Monitor and evaluate the performance of the Assessment Centres staff provide opportunities for learning and take corrective action where needed.
• Supervise the admission, orientation and discharge processes of all children placed at the Child support Centres, ensuring the maintenance of and compliance with all operating protocols, standards and procedure as well as the child’s immediate and short-term safety protection and well-being.
• Provide direction and guidance on the delivery of assessment, educational, psychosocial, therapeutic, recreational and medical service with internal and external service providers to ensure that children’s immediate and short-term safety, protection and well-being.
• Support the children placed at the Reception Centres in the formal legal process by collaborating internally with the legal department and Case Management Offices in other units for the successful placement of the children.
• Prepare roster for Child Support Officers.
• Participate in public education programmes to increase public awareness and advocacy on issues affecting children.
• Determine the priority to be placed on a report and assign same for immediate action by the Emergency response Team or other lower priority to go through the regular process of triaging and assignment.
• Review reports entered into CPIMS+ to rectify any gaps in information and make follow up calls regarding cases requiring further information.
• Anticipate escalation and take over calls when needed. Debrief staff, especially after difficult calls or walk-ins.
• Ensure that all cases related to a particular child identified for intervention are recorded on CPIMS+.
• Manage all Cases and case logs. 
• Manage and update additional logs and documents – daily reporting log of calls; walk-ins, emails, faxes, sexual abuse listing, beyond control/counselling request listing, Tobago Cases, Emergency Response Team case list.
• Actively recruit volunteers for the Foster Care programme. Review intake information and determine suitability and acceptance.
• Coordinate placement plans within foster care, school, community and juvenile court and develops a permanent placement plan for children who cannot return home (e.g. parenting time, foster home visits, visits with youth and birth parents).
• Assist in the establishment of systems and procedures for review and approval of Foster Care Homes.
• Establish, arrange and facilitates a plan for parent/child/sibling visitations.
• Oversee case responsibilities and provide guidance in case-planning to Case Management Officers. 
• Review all written documents generated by staff. Ensure that the required documents are in the case files.
• Work with staff to ensure permanency for children. Ensure that children are placed in certified and properly trained foster homes.
• Conduct periodic inspections of local foster homes, client records and ensure compliance with the Foster Care Program policies and procedures.
• Maintain a cooperative working relationship with community agencies.
• Participate in continuing education opportunities, professional seminars, workshops, and conferences.
• Represent the Authority at booths/speaking events as well as internal meetings as requested by the relevant Manager.
• Promote a culture which addresses the needs of child offenders with emphasis on re-integration into families and society and rehabilitation.
• Provide monthly and adhoc reports and updates to relevant Manager on cases under review.
• Maintain a high level of awareness and adherence to ethical and legal standards in social work practices. Participate in continuing educational opportunities, professional seminars, workshops and conferences.
• Represent the Authority as and when required by the relevant Manager.
• Display supervisory abilities that promote effective staff performance.
• Perform other related duties as assigned by the relevant Manager.

 The Authority would like to thank all applicants for their interests, however, only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

Deadline: October 30, 2023