Foster And Kinship Care Practitioner (Underwood)

About the role

Mercy Community Services is seeking an experienced and passionate Foster and Kinship Care Practitioner to join the team. This is a Full-Time Fixed-Term Contract until April 2024 (with a high chance of extension) in our Underwood Office.

Use your highly developed case work skills to be part of a care team who support and working closely with Foster and Kinship Carers and the children we support. In this role you will be actively supporting children’s care experience and assisting our carers to get children either back home to their families or working to stabilise their placements.

$82,044 - $88,288 annually (award) plus superannuation plus generous salary packaging available

What you will be doing

• Assessing carers and helping to educate and develop their skills and knowledge regarding the support of children living in out of home care
• You will be the first point of call for Foster & Kinship Carers
• Support and educate carers about the Child Protection system and support them to understand the legislation and what this means for them and the children they care for
• Build effective relationships with young people that are living in foster care and work to support them therapeutically with a range of stakeholders (Department of Child Safety, QLD Health and QLD Education)

About you

As the successful applicant, you will possess:

• Hold a 3- or 4- year tertiary qualification in Social Work, Human Services or related discipline
• Knowledge of the child protection system with experience in the support and mentoring of children and young people in out-of-home care would be desirable
• You will have a genuine desire to help people and willingness to learn and develop your skills
• Be able to provide evidence of current vaccination against whooping cough or willingness to obtain prior to commencement, unless applicable exemption provided
• You will hold a current Queensland Provisional Green (P2) or above Driver’s License
• You must hold a positive notice in the Working with Children Check (Blue Card) and be able to obtain a positive Police Check and any other legislatively required personal history screening as required

Why Mercy Community

Mercy Community is a Catholic not-for-profit, compassionately inspiring and supporting people to live hopeful, connected lives within inclusive communities. We support families and young people, people living with a disability, and older people, and live by our values of Compassion, Integrity, Dignity and Empowerment. We have been providing services and support for over 150 years and our team operates across a network that encompasses urban, rural and remote communities.

Being part of the Mercy Community team, means you have access to some fantastic benefits, such as:

• Increase your take home pay through the use of generous salary packaging - up to $18,550 per annum of your salary is available as a tax-free component
• Pay for your Queensland Blue Card and NDIS Worker Screening Card when you need – saving you up to $144 if you need both cards!
• Provide you and your immediate family free, professional and confidential counselling services including specialised First Nations counsellors

Depending on your role, you may also be eligible:

• For annual influenza and/or other vaccination reimbursements
• To receive pay bonus’ of $500 for successful employee referrals
• To cash out or purchase annual leave and to take advantage of extra leave entitlements

We also ensure all our employees have access to a wide variety of excellent learning and development tools to continue your professional and personal development. This includes making sure you have access to a range of other career pathways and opportunities across Mercy.

APPLY NOW! Please note we may contact applicants prior to closing date so not delay in applying.

Mercy Community Services is a Circle Back Initiative Employer and commit to respond to every applicant.

For any queries, please contact ***************@mercycs.org.au.