Foster Care Supervisor

Child Welfare Supervisor

Responsible for delivering and managing services provided by Child Welfare programs to residents in Weld County. Responsible for the direct supervision and development of professional Human Services staff and ensures that performance standards are met as identified by County, State or Federal Government guidelines. Primary office location is in Greeley, but employee may perform work at one of the other satellite offices when required. This position is in-person and has limited telework opportunities. Reliable and predictable attendance within designated scheduled hours. Work may involve time away from a standard office environment, which may consist of driving to and from home visits and in transporting children. After hours and on call work situations may occur on occasion in order to provide oversight or supervision to afterhours workers and to facilitate appropriate placements for children taken into the custody of the County. Work may occur in situations in client's homes, which could be considered a hostile or unsanitary environment. Some of the home visits may require police support.

Ideal candidate traits:

• Guides, mentors, and empowers staff while creating a safe, trusting team environment.
• Communicates clearly, listens actively, and handles tough conversations with respect.
• Makes balanced, timely decisions in complex or high stress situations.
• Keeps child safety, permanency, and well being at the center of all guidance and decisions.
• Demonstrates empathy, stays steady under pressure, and models healthy boundaries.

Supervision - 55%

• Directly supervise a team of Foster Care Coordinators (FCC) and the Foster Care Recruiter.
• Direct coordinator work activities ensuring a high level of performance and compliance with County, State and Federal rules and regulations for all foster and kinship homes.
• Monitor and evaluate workflow using knowledge of business functions, program requirements and mandated performance standards.
• Assign and schedule work functions within the team using employee's performance and level of skill to assure coverage and efficiency in caseload handling while meeting program goals accurately and timely.
• Use data to identify trends in workload volume and adjust workloads accordingly.
• Provide leadership, guidance and support to staff by meeting regularly to discuss individual foster and kinship homes and placement situations.
• Assist FCC in objectively evaluating placements and child or youth case progress and offer additional resources and insight when possible, providing the right service at the right time and moving toward permanency.
• Enforce standards for quality and quantity of work performed by assigned staff using professional standards set primarily through state rules, statutes and regulations.
• Ensure random reviews are performed for compliance with established standards.
• Regularly appraise employee performance using information gained through TRAILS, client feedback and observation.
• Meet monthly with each employee to discuss areas of performance strength and address any performance concerns.
• With employee, create work opportunities to develop professional growth and activities that develop or improve skills strengthening employee satisfaction and value.
• Address employee concerns and resolve problems in collaboration with Department administration and County Human Resources.
• Assist in developing educational and professional development opportunities for staff.
• Prepare Home Study Review Team for studies to be reviewed. Direct the review process, focusing on reviewing collateral information, evaluating the appropriateness of matching families to children, determining if additional evaluations or drug testing should be conducted, or additional training is required.
• Document review team discussion and confirm all aspects of the study are thoroughly reviewed.
• Oversee timely follow-up with prospective foster parents from inquiry to licensure.
• Review and monitor recruitment metrics, conversion rates and timelines in order to adjust strategies as needed.
• Supervise, coach and support contracted SAFE home study writers, including onboarding, training and ongoing skill development.
• Review and approve SAFE home studies for quality, accuracy and compliance with state regulations and agency policies.
• Manage performance expectations of contracted SAFE home study writers, including timeliness benchmarks and quality assurance indicators.
• Provide structured feedback to writers to improve clarity, assessment skills, cultural responsiveness and documentation standards.

Program Oversight - 35%

• Ensure consistent messaging, branding and compliance across all recruitment materials and interactions.
• Ensure alignment between the recruiter's activities and goals with the foster care team.
• Lead quality improvement efforts to enhance foster and kinship parent experience.
• With the foster care recruiter, develop and implement recruitment strategies based on agency needs, data trends and community demographics. Ensure Diligent Recruitment Plan is completed as required and is accurate reflection of the program goals.
• Ensure that foster and kinship homes are evaluated for safety and appropriateness using State and County guidelines.
• Ensure that licensed foster and kinship homes continue to meet guidelines and that they are actively participating in providing opportunities for children and youth in their care to develop necessary age-appropriate skills in addition to independent living skills for youth.
• May assist in finding afterhours placements when necessary.
• Work closely with Intake Caseworkers and Coordinators to ensure the best placement possible.
• Attend Family Engagement Meetings, Team Decision Meetings, Roundtables, and other meetings as needed.
• Assist in making decisions on scope and direction of treatment plans that include the family in addition to the child or youth and be actively engaged in seeking permanency for all children and youth involved in the child welfare system.
• Actively participate in program evaluation and planning with other Child Welfare Supervisors and Management Team.
• Develop and maintain a through understanding of Structured Analysis Family Evaluation (SAFE) study practice and Volume 7 as it pertains to Home Studies.
• Review, assess, and evaluate current home study contractors and meet regularly with them at various stages during the process to assure compliance with the SAFE program policies and state certification requirements.
• Provide training and guidance to new potential home study contractors.
• Use critical thinking and assessment skills when reviewing home studies and provide awareness of potentially serious problems and recommend the course of action to mitigate the issues.
• Proactively and positively prepare for program changes, changes in funding projections and improved operational efficiencies by learning and understanding recommendations and "best practices".
• Assist in creating and implementing policies and procedures for the Child Welfare division.
• Along with the Kinship Supervisor, coordinate the annual ARD Certified Foster/Kinship audit. Ensure the FCC team is prepared for the audit and meet with the auditors throughout the audit to review ARD findings on each provider file.

Collaboration - 10%

• Identify available services for Families, Children and Youth and collaborate with other units in Department to discuss shared clients' issues and concerns. Discuss ways to resolve or eliminate obstacles that prevent clients from receiving benefits or services. Identify gaps in services or service delivery and make recommendations for improved methods of delivery of services.
• Seek out and actively participate in committees, workgroups and community organizations that are pertinent to current topics or events. Use participation to gain an understanding of community issues and identify additional resources available for clients.
• Promote a positive, personal public presence in all meetings and work to develop a more positive public opinion of Child Protection and Youth and Family Services through education and active community participation.
• Oversee outreach activities, events and partnerships with community organizations, faith based groups and local agencies.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree from a higher education institution with course work related to the job responsibilities of a child welfare social caseworker. Course examples can include and are not limited to, the development of human behavior, child development, family intervention techniques, diagnostics measures, or therapeutic techniques and 3 years full-time professional casework experience,
• or
• Master's Degree in social work or human behavioral sciences field and 2 years professional casework experience.

Preferred Experience

• Experience working in child welfare and specifically foster care.
• Experience working with community resources and service providers.
• Two years' experience completing SAFE home studies or supervising employees who have completed home studies.
• Two years full time work experience supervising and managing employees that includes directing work activities and evaluating employees.

Skills and Abilities

• Must possess ability to keyboard at 40 words per minute.
• Candidate must possess the ability to enter data into several different computer programs.
• Candidate must possess the ability to learn and apply new computer skills on a regular basis.
• Candidate must have knowledge of computer programs such as Microsoft Windows and Word, Excel, and Outlook.
• Candidate must possess the ability to read and comprehend instructions, correspondence and department policies and procedures.
• Candidate must possess the ability to write correspondence.
• Candidate must possess