Child Social Worker Job Description, Key Duties and Responsibilities

By | October 12, 2023
Child Social Worker Job Description
Child Social Workers ensure the well-being and welfare of children.

This post provides detailed information on the job description of a child social worker, to help you learn the tasks, duties, and responsibilities they typically perform.

What Does a Child Social Worker Do?

Child social workers labor to ensure the well-being and welfare of children, as well as their families.

In the United States, the Bureau of Labor Statistics categorizes child social worker under the child and family social workers” class.

The child social worker job description involves protecting children from neglect, situations of abuse, and other forms of maltreatment.

It also entails making sure that the welfare of their clients is well taken care of.

They do this by visiting homes in order to investigate allegations of neglect or abuse, providing assessments as a way to determine whether a guardian or parent is fit to provide care for such children, evaluating whether a child should be permanently or temporarily removed from his/her living situation and placing children with adoptive families or foster care.

Working as a child welfare social worker presents a number of challenges, nonetheless, it can help you make a significant and meaningful difference in the lives of your clients.

Child social workers are usually expected to have a minimum of a bachelor’s degree in social work, though sometimes, they may have related undergraduate degrees in fields like sociology and psychology.

Several of them have master’s degrees in social work, and a very few of them have doctoral degrees, even though they all work in supervisory functions.

Depending on the requirements of the hiring agency, child welfare workers are most of the times not required to hold license.

Most social workers who work with children work for government agencies and bodies that focus on child welfare.

The name of these agencies varies depending on the state and location. Many child social workers also work for non-profit community organizations, child advocacy agencies, foster care and adoption agencies.

Child Social Worker Job Description Example/Sample/Template

Given below is a sample job description for the post of child social worker.

It shows typical duties, tasks, and responsibilities that make up the daily activities of someone holding the position.

  • Address legal issues such as discipline and child abuse
  • Assist with hearings and provide testimony in case of custody arrangements
  • Find, arrange or provide for support services, such as homemaker service, prenatal care, child care, substance abuse treatment, counseling, parenting classes or job training to prevent more serious problems from developing
  • Arrange for psychiatric, medical and other tests as necessary
  • Work in adolescent and child residential institutions
  • Administer welfare programs
  • Evaluate home conditions and personal characteristics of adoption applicants and foster home
  • Serve as liaisons between schools, family services, students, homes, child guidance clinics, courts, protective services, doctors and other contacts, to help children who face challenges such as poverty, disabilities or abuse
  • Place children in institutions, adoptive or foster homes or medical treatment centers
  • Supervise other social workers
  • Recommend temporary foster care
  • Advise adoptive or foster parents.
  • Determine adopter’s eligibility for financial assistance
  • Conduct social research
  • Establish and lead counseling sessions which provide support in such areas as stress, grief or chemical dependency.

Child Social Worker Requirements: Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities for Career Success

Here are vital skills and abilities child social workers are required to possess to excel on the job:

  • Patience and resilience
  • Ability to remain calm in crisis
  • Flexibility
  • Initiative
  • Strong observation, listening and analytical skills
  • Capacity to absorb procedural/legal information
  • The ability to mediate/interpret/negotiate on behalf of service users
  • Good organizational skills
  • Must be able to plan meetings for a caseload of clients.