Join Cafs and play a leading role in strengthening family capacity, improving child safety and supporting lasting outcomes for vulnerable children and families.
- Employment type: Part Time (0.8 EFT), Fixed Term to 27 March 2027
- Classification: Social Worker Level 6 (SW6)
- Salary: $115,497 to $120,595 plus superannuation
- Salary packaging: Up to $15,900 plus meals and entertainment
- Location: Ballarat, VIC
- Above-award entitlements: Including 3 days paid Christmas leave
Cafs is seeking an experienced and highly skilled Advanced Practitioner to join our Strengthening & Restoring Families team.
This senior practice role provides an exciting opportunity to work with vulnerable children, young people and families, delivering advanced family support interventions while providing practice leadership, guidance and mentoring to practitioners across the program. You will play a critical role in supporting family preservation, reunification and improved outcomes for children through evidence-informed, child-centred and family-led practice.
The Cafs Strengthening & Restoring Families Program supports vulnerable children, young people and families from pre-birth to 17 years through two streams of intervention based on assessed need.
The Strengthening stream provides earlier intervention and family support aimed at improving child and family wellbeing, while the Restoring stream delivers intensive support to prevent children entering care, support reunification and promote family stability. Guided by the Best Interests Case Practice Model and Family Preservation and Reunification Framework, the program places families at the centre of planning and decision-making.
As the Advanced Practitioner Strengthening & Restoring Families, you will:
- Manage complex Strengthening and Restoring Families cases with a high degree of professional autonomy.
- Deliver intensive in-home family support and case management services.
- Undertake comprehensive psychosocial assessments and therapeutic interventions.
- Develop Family Action Plans that promote shared goals and family participation.
- Strengthen parental capacity, family functioning and child safety outcomes.
- Maintain strong working relationships with Child Protection and key stakeholders.
- Lead first home visits and joint visits with practitioners.
- Provide practice guidance, support and live supervision to Level 4 and 5 practitioners.
- Lead care teams, professionals' meetings and family support leadership meetings.
- Support program quality improvement, audits and service development initiatives.
- Participate in allocation and demand management processes.
- Fulfil Acting Team Leader responsibilities when required.
You will bring:
- Tertiary qualifications (Diploma and above) in Social Work, Welfare Studies, Family Therapy, Psychology or a related discipline.
- Minimum five years' experience working with vulnerable children and families.
- Advanced knowledge of child development, attachment, trauma-informed practice and family systems approaches.
- Strong understanding of the Best Interests Case Practice Model and family preservation principles.
- Demonstrated experience managing complex family support and child wellbeing cases.
- Experience providing practice leadership, mentoring and support to practitioners.
- Highly developed stakeholder engagement and collaboration skills.
- Strong assessment, case planning and report writing capabilities.
- Commitment to culturally safe and inclusive practice.
- Current Victorian Driver Licence.
- An opportunity to influence practice excellence across a vital family support program.
- Ongoing professional supervision and development.
- A supportive and collaborative team environment.
- Meaningful work that strengthens families and improves outcomes for children and young people.
- Opportunities to provide leadership and contribute to service innovation and continuous improvement.
- A values-driven organisation committed to inclusion, child safety and eliminating family violence.
If you are a passionate and experienced family services professional seeking an opportunity to combine direct practice with leadership and mentoring, we'd love to hear from you.
APPLY NOW!
To find out more about this opportunity, please refer to the attached Position Description when applying or contact the Strengthening & Restoring Families Team or Jen Allen, Talent Acquisition Partner, on 03 5337 3333.
Applications close 17 August 2026. Please note that applications may be reviewed as they are received and applicants may be contacted for interview prior to the closing date.
All applicants must be eligible to work in Australia and employment will be subject to satisfactory Police and Victorian Working with Children Checks.
Inclusion and diversity are at the heart of everything we do at Cafs. We welcome applications from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, people with disability, members of the LGBTIQA+ community and people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.
To work with people to enable healing, hope and meaningful impact across all generations.
