Would you like to work for a great employer? Enable Ireland is an organisation that makes a real difference to the lives of children and adults with disabilities in Ireland, and is named as one of Ireland's Irish Independent 150 Best Employers 2023.
Enable Ireland, as an equal opportunities employer, proudly maintains a Bronze Award in Diversity from the Irish Centre for Diversity. We vigorously advocate for fairness, respect, equality, diversity, inclusion, and engagement, and are dedicated to ongoing enhancement in these areas.

We are currently seeking a highly-motivated Social Worker (Professionally Qualified) to join our team in Children’s Network Disability Services Kilkenny.

Contract Type: Permanent
Contract Hours: 35 Hours
Salary Scale: €49,581 to €65,674 pro rata per annum. Salary scales are subject to LSI’s (Long Service Increments)
Annual Leave Entitlement: 32 days

Overview of the Post:
To work as a member of the interdisciplinary team providing services to children aged 0-18 years and families within the region. The post holder will be responsible for the provision of a Social Work service to include assessment diagnostics and intervention and ongoing service delivery to children with a range of disabilities. The post holder will be required to work across a variety of settings including the clinic, schools, preschools and special schools, children’s homes and community settings.

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Provide direct Social Work services to a defined caseload with Children’s Disability Network services in Kilkenny, both individually and in groups.

• Work effectively within an interdisciplinary team structure within the PDS framework.

• Develop and collate professional reports as required in accordance with high professional standards.

• To consult in family meetings, strategy meetings and case reviews as required. To ensure effective maintenance of client records in line with Freedom of Information Act, Data Protection Act, Enable Ireland national and local policy guidelines and best practice, thus ensuring Duty of Care responsibilities are met.

• Timely updating of statistical records, including use of electronic databases.

• Promote and foster an understanding of the role and contribution of Social Work by providing professional consultation, education, guidance and support to others as appropriate.

• To participate in the development and delivery of appropriate training and group work opportunities for service users, families, staff and external groups. Such as Sibshop Workshops, parent support groups etc.

• Ensure ongoing personal professional development including participation in Lead agency in-service training / Personal Development Plan and PDS training in agreement with Social Work Team Leader and CDNM.

• Actively participate in ongoing clinical supervision.

• Engage in Professional Development and Performance Review.

• Support of graduate Social Work placements as requested and delegated to do so.

• Maintain a disciplined and professional level of performance under sustained or situational pressure.

• Participate in or undertake research as required and agreed with Social Work team leader and CDNM. To maintain the person’s and family’s right to a relationship of mutual trust, privacy, confidentiality and responsible use of information.

• Demonstrate the ability to build capacity of individuals and families to navigate health and welfare systems and access information.

• Work with the policy and procedural guidelines of Lead agency ensuring that you remain up to date with changing policy directives.

• Direct their own personal professional development by ensuring that they maintain and develop their professional skill and knowledge.

• To promote the work of social workers to ensure that staff are aware of the supports available from the social work department.

Planning and Organising of Activities and Resources

• Plans and organises activities and necessary resources efficiently and effectively.

• Understands the importance of time management for themselves and in particular how this translates to organising their assigned caseload.

• Demonstrates the ability to arrange and schedule activities.

• Deals with unexpected scenarios with persistence and flexibility to ensure the achievement of goals.

• Maintains a disciplined and professional level of performance under sustained or situational pressure.

Professional Development and Standards in the Service

• To promote and deliver supports within the ethos and philosophy of Enable Ireland and within the principles of Progressing Disability Services for Children and Young People. This includes working as a member of an interdisciplinary team providing family centred services in line with agreed national and legislative policies.

• Demonstrates sufficient clinical skills in assessment, intervention and diagnostics to meet the specific needs of the relevant caseload.

• Is adequately aware of policy, legislative and professional requirements to ensure appropriate standards in their area of responsibility.

• Contribute to the ongoing development and implementation of Enable Ireland quality assurance initiatives.

• Ensure that service user’s records, progress reports and staff records are kept up to date in line with agreed Children’s Disability Network Team policy.

• Ensures strict compliance with health and safety standards and adheres to operational guidelines ensuring equipment is checked and working correctly in accordance with safety standards.

Judgement & Evaluation

• Holds an appropriate and effective set of professional values and beliefs and behaves in line with professional standards as set down by Enable Ireland and relevant professional bodies.

• Makes decisions in a well-judged and timely manner bringing all relevant information to bear.

• Uses logical analysis to break complex problems into their component parts.

• Promotes and consistently supports the demonstration and development of evidence based service delivery.

Service Delivery & Initiative

• Has the functional and technical knowledge and skills to make a credible contribution to the service.

• Collaborates with the service user while working in partnership with the service user’s parent/family/carer and all other relevant stakeholders to identify and achieve goals.

• Strives to achieve quality results at all levels of the service in line with the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) as set by Enable Ireland.

• Takes initiatives to move the service forward and shows a willingness to try out new ideas under supervision that add service delivery value.

• Is committed to achieving evidence based goals and the continuous improvement of the service.

• Shows enthusiasm and a high level of motivation in completing projects.

Building and Maintaining Working Relationships

• Forms strong positive working relationships across all areas of the service, builds on a common understanding.

• Demonstrates a supportive and reciprocating work style including strong empathy with service users.

• Communicates effectively with parents of children attending the service to provide a children and family centred service.

• Works appropriately with all stakeholders.

Team Working

• Attend and participate in relevant meetings including Individual Family Support Planning and case conference meetings and team meetings as required.

• Works in collaboration with the other members of the interdisciplinary team in the planning and delivery of services for children, including the development and implementation of the Individual Family Support Plan.

• Participate in training and developmental opportunities as identified and agreed.

• Support and contribute to research initiatives as required.

• Understands the concept of interdisciplinary team working and complexity of working in teams.

This description is not restrictive and the post holder may be required to carry out other duties as requested by their Manager.

To minimise exposure to breaches of GDPR, strict compliance is required In the course of carrying out the duties of this job and working with others. This will include but is not limited to compliance with Enable Ireland’s suite of GDPR Policies & Procedures, attending all GDPR Training sessions and ensuring personal responsibility for implementing safeguards and measures as directed.

The successful candidate will have:

Essential Criteria:

• A recognised validated University Degree, Diploma, or an equivalent qualification in Social Work.

• Be registered in the Social Work Register maintained by the Social Work Registration Board maintained at CORU.

• Maintain live annual registration on the Social Workers Register maintained by the Social Workers Registration Board at CORU

• Must have the requisite knowledge and ability (including a high standard of suitability and professional ability) for the proper discharge of the duties of the office.

Desirable Criteria:

• Experience of working with children with disabilities.

• Broad knowledge of Enable Ireland Services.

• Have developed ethical awareness for best practice

• Be able to work effectively as a team member to work without daily supervision and be self- motivating.

If you believe you would fit the role then please submit your application today.

Benefits
As a staff member of Enable Ireland, you will have access to a wide range of benefits, including:-

• Excellent internal and external training opportunities

• Generous annual leave entitlements

• Flexible Working

• Long service reward scheme

• Pay adjusted Maternity Leave

• Pay adjusted Adoptive Leave

• Pay adjusted Paternity Leave

• Wellbeing benefits

• Pension

For a full list of our benefits & conditions, please click here:

What now?
To apply, please download the Job Description and Person Specification for your information and complete the online application form. CVs will not be accepted.

Closing date for applications: Friday 29th November 2024

A panel may be formed from this vacancy for any similar vacancies, which may arise during the next 12 months.

• The post will be subject to reference checks and may be subject to Garda vetting/police clearance, as relevant.

• Due to the large volume of applications, we are not in the position to provide individual feedback to applicants who are not shortlisted for interview.

• Applications are invited from suitably qualified applicants from all sections of the community.

• The above information serves only as a guide to the advertised position. Enable Ireland, at its discretion, reserves the right to change this prior to appointment.

• Please review Enable Ireland’s Rezoomo Privacy Policy here: https://enableireland.ie/resources/publications/rezoomo-privacy-policy

• Please review the Enable Ireland’s External Data Protection Notice available at https://www.enableireland.ie/privacy-policy for details on how Enable Ireland processes applicant’s personal information. Please note if you are invited for interview, we will share your personal data with:

1) Any virtual service provider we use to host the interview; and
2) the interview panel (if applicable). Your information will be stored for this purpose in line with our retention policy