Office of Child and Family Services Caseworker

The OCFS caseworker may perform any or all of the tasks involved in ensuring safety, permanency and well being for children by receiving reports of child abuse and neglect, assessing families to determine the existence and severity of harm, providing services to families to build on strengths and prevent removal and providing services to children in state custody including family reunification, adoption and the development of life skills.

Intake: receives and documents reports of child abuse and neglect, forwards appropriate reports to the District Office for assignment and disposes of other calls in accordance with applicable protocols.

Safety Assessment: determines the presence, absence, frequency and severity of child abuse and neglect both prior to and following intervention, the impact of child abuse/neglect on the children, the presence of safety factors and the presence or absence of parental protective capacities.

Child and Family Assessment (CFA): determines why child abuse and neglect occurred by identifying the contributing factors, underlying causes and the strengths and challenges in a parent’s protective capacities and develops family plan.

Family Team Meetings: prepares for and facilitates this strengths based practice approach designed to bring together family supports and empower families to identify their own strengths and needs.

Treatment and Service Provision: obtains/provides services/resources to improve/enhance the clients’ functioning.

Review/Reassessment: pulls together and analyzes information gathered to date and continues with planning, services, activities and decision making related to child safety, permanency and well-being.

Monitoring and Evaluation of Family Plans: determines continued need for/modification/termination of child protective/support services.

Children’s Emergency Services/After Hours/Holiday Coverage: provides after hours coverage weekends/holidays per office/district protocol, responding to calls from Adult and Children’s Emergency Services.

Court/Legal Activities: initiates and follows through with legal action for the safety, permanency and well being of children.

Experiential Learning: plans and conducts adventure based trips for selected youth following submission of a proposal and approval of the Independent Living program Manager as specified in policy.

Short Term Emergency Services: provides short-term emergency services to a child in need of such services.

Placement: places child in stable living arrangements/adoption.
Financial Services: ensures the child and caretakers receive benefits.

Foster/Adoptive Parenting Orientation: informs and prepares selected people for foster/adoptive parenting.

Independent Living Plan: either individually or in collaboration with the Children’s Services Caseworker completes strengths and needs assessment through personal contacts and develops an independent living plan with the youth based on this assessment.

Education/Employment: actively works with youth to support and assist with educational and employment pursuits including high school or equivalency, college, vocational training or the military, career planning, financial aid, job placement.

Basic Life Skills: teaches and/or provides learning opportunities for youth in basic living skills, such as money and household management, consumer skills, family planning and parenting, health care, accessing community resources, utilizing transportation services, housing options/location and tenants rights.

Review/Reassessment: pulls together and analyzes information to date and continues with planning, services, activities and decision making to reach the permanency goal of adoption.

Documentation: frequently and accurately enters all necessary information into Maine Automated Child welfare Information System.

Administrative Responsibilities: performs direct service administrative duties to enhance and improve service delivery, program monitoring and accountability.

Public Education: participates in public awareness/educational/collaboration activities to promote an accurate understanding of the Bureau mission and increase the quality of public private partnerships, formal and informal.

Actively pursues professional development.

Performs tasks of any other caseworker position as circumstances and operational needs require.

Home | Recruitment | Screening | Supervisor Support | Professional Development
Agency Support | Evaluation | Resources