Child Safety Officer (Specialist Health Liaison)

Child Safety Officer (Specialist Health Liaison) roles work collaboratively with hospital and health staff in both the public and private health systems to support early and effective intervention and case management of children and families who come into contact with Child Safety. The role complements the Queensland Health Child Protection Liaison Officer role and provides system interface support between Child Safety and the health system.Child Safety Officer (Specialist Health Liaison) takes a lead in meeting a child’s safety and well-being needs:

• Where a child in the health system meets criteria for Child Safety intervention.
• Where a child in the child protection system is being discharged from a hospital or health service and requires support and case coordination prior to discharge.

Refer to role description for more information.The Child Safety Officer (Specialist Health Liaison) key responsibilities are:

• Lead care coordination in health assessments and service delivery for children and young people in care, ensuring that children have access to health assessments in line with the ‘National Clinical Assessment Framework (NCAF) for children and young people in care.
• Build and sustain strong collaborative partnerships with key stakeholders, including connections with Indigenous Health Services, that promote and support the integration and coordination of services and referral pathways to better meet the health needs of children and young people in contact with the child protection system.
• Demonstrate high level communication and interpersonal skills and the ability to identify gaps in service delivery to ensure children have access to health supports that meet their needs. This includes initiating health-related projects to meet regional need and priorities.
• Contribute to the implementation of departmental health-related policies, procedures and practices in a regional service delivery environment.
• Facilitate the delivery of relevant education and training for departmental staff and draw on relevant child protection practice experience to provide coaching and mentoring to less experienced Child Safety Officers, to support them to navigate the health care system and build their health literacy. They also provide education and / or training to Queensland Health Child Protection Unit staff to assist them to develop knowledge of child protection legislation, policies, procedures and framework for practice.
• Work as part of a multi-disciplinary team to mentor, develop and build the capacity of Child Safety staff to identify and address the health needs of children and families through the delivery of high quality, integrated, strengths-based child protection and health services.
• Participate and contribute to a culture of continuous learning, training and professional development to ensure practice knowledge and skills are contemporary and evidenced-based.
• Participate in multi-disciplinary case discussions to assist the coordination of support services for health-related matters or when a child is in hospital, such as safety planning, discharge planning and coordination meetings. This also includes participation in case discussions relating to investigation and assessment processes and in practice panels where children have complex needs.

DelegationsThis role is an authorised officer under the Child Protection Act 1999 and has a range of statutory delegations (where applicable).Occupational group Community Engagement and Education

Information :

• Company : Queensland Government
• Position : Child Safety Officer (Specialist Health Liaison)
• Location : Cairns
• Country : AU