The main Role of Child Protective Services caseworkers is to investigate allegations of child abuse and neglect for their county or state CPS agency. They typically work with law enforcement officers during the course of their investigations.
A caseworker's main focus is to determine whether a child is safe and whether there is a risk of future maltreatment. Caseworkers also offer services to aid children who have been abused or neglected as well as to their families. Abuse may be physical, sexual, or emotional. Neglect is the failure to provide food, clothing, shelter, medical care, education, or supervision.
Caseworkers may get burned out on their work because they encounter many people with difficult problems and they may feel they aren't able to make a difference. Some caseworkers are able to continue in the job for a long period of time by taking heart in the small victories they achieve and by focusing on the help they provide.
This field requires a specific and diverse skill set in order to best protect and help children. To start, future and current professionals in this field must be able to handle stress well, empathize, communicate well both verbally and through writing, and have the ability to multi-task. Another important quality to have in order to most effectively work within this field is to be able to balance working with difficult situations and not carry that over into life outside of work.
Social workers in child welfare and protection positions must be able to manage, supervise, organize, and compile information as well as work well within teams and one-on-one with individuals. To prepare for the types of situations that a social worker will face in this area, the minimum education requirement is typically a bachelor's degree in social work, sociology, criminal justice, or psychology.
In cases where abuse, neglect, or endangerment is substantiated, a protective services worker will petition a judge in order to issue the order of removal. Many times, this requires a social worker in this specialization to testify and submit reports for various court proceedings.
In other cases, a decision to remove may not be made directly after a referral. Often, though, enough evidence of some lack of parenting or other circumstance could alert a case worker in protective services to possible need for additional resources. This might include parenting classes, anger management class, family counseling, financial assistance, or other types of intervention. A children's protective services worker will work with families in these instances in order to find the community and state resources needed.
