stef86 Posted August 18, 2015 Share Posted August 18, 2015 Hi, I was just wondering if anyone would be able to advise me regarding applying for social work jobs in brisbane. I have been qualified and working in a child protection team for 2 years. I am planning to move to the brisbane area within the next few months. I don't know what my best route is to apply, do I apply from home or wait until I move? In regards to visas, does it need to be permanent visa before I would be considered? Thanks in advance Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bungo Posted August 18, 2015 Share Posted August 18, 2015 You mention that you are "moving" to Brisbane? What visa will you be moving on? It can make a big difference to employment opportunities. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peachy Posted August 18, 2015 Share Posted August 18, 2015 With my husband (social worker) he wasn't considered for jobs until we had a move date - they work on someone being in the job within 2-4 weeks. CV needs reformatting to accord with Australian standards. Need to emphasise your understanding of Australian social work and how applicable to your experience. Husband ordered social work text book from Australia! Smart Jobs -Queensland Health is the place to find social work jobs. After A LOT of research husband secured job from UK following telephone interview :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peachy Posted August 18, 2015 Share Posted August 18, 2015 Ps I would be surprised if you could get sponsorship. Most jobs refer to your eligibility for membership of the AASW so you probably need to have your skills assessed by them - essential if you are going to go on a skilled visa. It takes months to get paperwork and assessment done. We started process(gathering docs etc) in September, visa March, job for husband just before we moved in June. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stef86 Posted August 18, 2015 Author Share Posted August 18, 2015 Thank you for taking the time to reply. I am in the process of completing the assessment form for the aasw and was considering visas. I would apply for the skilled migrant visa but at present I only have my 2 years so won't qualify. Is it possible to get a job on a working holiday visa? Even via an agency/temp post? I will order some books to read Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peachy Posted August 19, 2015 Share Posted August 19, 2015 I suppose it depends if you are keen to progress your career over in Australia or if you would be happy to take any job and just get overseas asap. If it were me I would hold out until you have the required experience, get your 189 and then apply for jobs. Although there are a reasonable number of jobs advertised, and social workers are on the skilled migration list, the roles are popular and you may have difficulty getting something that reflects your social work qualification. You may then have difficulty further along the line undertaking the assessment with AASW if you have worked in Australia but still haven't clocked up the social work experience that they require. On a positive note there are some great opportunities here in social work and pay is better than UK :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kmrg Posted August 19, 2015 Share Posted August 19, 2015 Stef86 you say you only have 2 years experience so don't qualify for 189 visa. Is this because you don't have enough points from age and qualifications? Maybe you need to consider taking he IELTS exam to increase your points to the 60 you need to qualify. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stef86 Posted August 19, 2015 Author Share Posted August 19, 2015 Hi kmrg For the skilled migrant visa I need 3 years experience post qualifying which I won't have until next July. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kmrg Posted August 19, 2015 Share Posted August 19, 2015 Hi kmrg For the skilled migrant visa I need 3 years experience post qualifying which I won't have until next July. Hi Stef86, I am also a social worker with just over two years post qualifying experience, I have had my skills (degree only not work experience) positively assessed by AASW and am in the process of applying for subclass 189 (skilled independent) visa. There is no requirement to have 3 years post qualifying experience, as long as you are able to make up 60 points based on age, qualification and English language skill's. e.g I have 25 points age, 15 points degree, and 20 points from taking IELTS and getting score of 8 in each category. It may be good for you to get some advise from a migration agent who will be able to give you all the options open to you. I had a free consultation with Go Matilda and they were very helpful. Hope that helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nickyc88 Posted September 15, 2015 Share Posted September 15, 2015 Hi Stef, I don't know what area of social work you are looking for but the National Disability Insurance Scheme is due to roll out in Queensland between July 2016 and June 2019. It is envisaged to create lots of new jobs. Some will be with the National Disability Insurance Agency and I think you *may* need to be a citizen for those. Many more will be in not for profits delivering services. I bet any UK experience will be well regarded. Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
angelaandsteve Posted September 18, 2015 Share Posted September 18, 2015 G'day ... I have been living in Brisbane for the past 8 years ... I have completed a Post Grad Cert in Child Protection at UQ and recently, July 2015, completed a Masters in Social Work at QUT ... I have a history of private business and management; and community development work ... I am a member of the AASW and the Peak Care Child Protection Practice Group ... and have lots of contacts in Child Protection and Social Work ... I am currently searching for the right position to progress my career ... The market is pretty tough at the moment ... with lots of graduates ... so lots of competition ... I am happy to share my ideas if you think that they will be of any use to you ... Applying from home or waiting ... no advantage or disadvantage !! Visa ... shouldn't matter ... I think that you would be better asking me specific questions as I am not sure were to start ... also ... where are you moving to ??? Hope to hear from you soon Angela Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Smith Clan Posted January 25, 2016 Share Posted January 25, 2016 Hi Angela, Hope no one minds me adding to thread. I am also a social worker looking to emigrate, at the start of process. I have 7 years experience in adults and also LD's, can I ask what books are good to look for to research practice in Australia. I have been looking at Jobs in Adelaide but it appears very quiet, are there certain areas where it is easier to get work, as a social worker? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
angelaandsteve Posted January 26, 2016 Share Posted January 26, 2016 Hi Angela,Hope no one minds me adding to thread. I am also a social worker looking to emigrate, at the start of process. I have 7 years experience in adults and also LD's, can I ask what books are good to look for to research practice in Australia. I have been looking at Jobs in Adelaide but it appears very quiet, are there certain areas where it is easier to get work, as a social worker? Hi there !! Great to hear from you ... Regarding Social Work in Australia ... it is growing in significance and gathering momentum ... I am not sure if there is a particular location that is easier to get work ... but I can try and give you some generic information Firstly ... you should check out the Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW) website ... and make sure that you can register with them ... that will be key ... you will also need to know their Social Work Standards and Code of Ethics ... inside out ... Also important is knowing your Practice Framework ... and a demonstrated understanding of Aboriginal and Torres Straite Islanders ... so try to gain experience as soon as you can ... although I have come across UK social workers gaining employment without ... so it is not an exact science ... A couple of generic authors would be Healy, K. ... Harms, L. ... and Humphreys I can give you more specific info ... if you have a specific issue within family ... counselling ... group work ... etc My area of interest is predominantly Child Protection !! I suggest that you check out Ethical Jobs ... ACOSS and the Governement Jobs ... More questions ... just ask .. Hope that it is of some use to you ... Regards Angela Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murta Posted February 5, 2016 Share Posted February 5, 2016 Hi there !!Great to hear from you ... Regarding Social Work in Australia ... it is growing in significance and gathering momentum ... I am not sure if there is a particular location that is easier to get work ... but I can try and give you some generic information Firstly ... you should check out the Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW) website ... and make sure that you can register with them ... that will be key ... you will also need to know their Social Work Standards and Code of Ethics ... inside out ... Also important is knowing your Practice Framework ... and a demonstrated understanding of Aboriginal and Torres Straite Islanders ... so try to gain experience as soon as you can ... although I have come across UK social workers gaining employment without ... so it is not an exact science ... A couple of generic authors would be Healy, K. ... Harms, L. ... and Humphreys I can give you more specific info ... if you have a specific issue within family ... counselling ... group work ... etc My area of interest is predominantly Child Protection !! I suggest that you check out Ethical Jobs ... ACOSS and the Governement Jobs ... More questions ... just ask .. Hope that it is of some use to you ... Regardsh Angela Hi there, very good information there. I have 16 year child protectiin /children in care/ fostering and am a team leader. I am sifting through the information on the various areas. What kind of hours do you work in child protection . I am picking up that there is a huge shift in the area of social work and a heavy basis on counselling . This is a whole new concept for me. Is there a developed supervision policy? Workload management system in place?.. Practical information wouod be so helpful like the type of prevalent absue does cp assess? Is there a great shared responsibility among professional and school? Foster carers I read are not monitored so well? whats your take on it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johndoe Posted February 6, 2016 Share Posted February 6, 2016 (edited) Hi there, very good information there. I have 16 year child protectiin /children in care/ fostering and am a team leader. I am sifting through the information on the various areas. What kind of hours do you work in child protection . I am picking up that there is a huge shift in the area of social work and a heavy basis on counselling . This is a whole new concept for me. Is there a developed supervision policy? Workload management system in place?.. Practical information wouod be so helpful like the type of prevalent absue does cp assess? Is there a great shared responsibility among professional and school? Foster carers I read are not monitored so well? whats your take on it? As an ex foster carer, I can tell you (in relation to my experience in my area) that they are monitored, but many aspects of their care are ignored. Child protection, (due to politics, workload, lack of good carers) seem to often turn a blind eye to inadequate care as they seem relieved just to have somewhere to place a child out of harms way. I have had children placed with me who have been in care for a number of years who hardly had a stitch to their back. I met many single carers, who, (I'm a cynical person), seemed to be in it purely for the money. Not so much for the carers allowance but for the other benefits they derived from fostering such as rent allowance. I was also disillusioned by the primary focus constantly being placed on re-unification, and had a number of children returned to me after being placed back with their families. This seemed to be a merry-go-round that revolved around case load, whereby if a case load was at bursting point, a child would be returned against the advice of the carer, (who had seen the parents in their "true colours" during visits when the social worker wasn't present), in order to make room for a new case to be added to the social workers load. In my opinion, t all seemed like a bit of a gamble by the decision makers as to whether further abuse would occur in that they chose to prioritise known (current) abuse over whether a child in care returned to their parents, may, or may not be subjected to further abuse, and although I understood, the politics of why that happened, I never could accept it and eventually packed in fostering after 12 yrs of campaigning, canvassing, frustration. and disillusionment. Case officers were also often late for appointments with carers, and sometimes didn't turn up at all. On one occasion I had 3 siblings placed with me who seemed overawed that I had a pool and computer and were as "high as kites" with delight. Three hours later they were removed due to the case worker having pre-empted the magistrates decision as to whether they should be placed in care, whilst during those 3 hours the magistrate denied the order, based on the parent's "cultural sensibilities" (What we would consider abuse, they considered as corporal punishment). Although those kids were only with me for 3 or 4 hours they were distraught and were taken to the Case workers vehicle kicking and screaming :-( The last para is not a criticism of the social worker as they had acted in the kids best interest at that moment. Ideally, the children should have been cared for and occupied with, activities within the child protection building until a decision was reached, but there was simply nobody available to supervise them at that time, such was the case load pressure the workers were under. Edit to add: My experience is based from 6 yrs ago and I believe that there has been much reform since then, although case load pressure seems not to have decreased Edited February 6, 2016 by Johndoe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murta Posted February 6, 2016 Share Posted February 6, 2016 Thanks Johndoe, an honourable job fostering I believe, but requires an attentive foster social worker (link ) as we call it here. Even here Johndoe I strive to balance the child protection requirements for the jobs with the child in care requirements and often when the worker is doing both...legality wins each time. There is a stronger need for direct working with the foster homes and the children who are placed there, the order their placed on needs to be separate. ok the 3hr placement does seem a little premature but the all the while (I say this to my team also) the children must be prepared and informed of all that is happening as these little mites have more resilience than many adults we know and they will cope ...they need to know though! Telling though if kicking and screaming to go home to their parents I feel. It is rare for the Judge to rule against an order now a days as stringent work and analysis occurs pre placement ...yes we have moves in care which is woeful and one I strive to reduce but again those first weeks and months in care or the rollercoatser ones for all involved even the foster carers...so more resource needed at the front end. Johdoe where you reviewed as carers often ...police check and medical updates, your home 'inspected' etc? I see adverts for posts "Kinship social worker" then see case worker...does the one type of social worker visit your home for all the children whom reside there. WOUld you often supervise the accesses... sorry al the questions but I managed social workers of children in long term care and am guided by many statutory obligations. 6 yrs ago here would have been less regulated than now so no doubt Australia is too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johndoe Posted February 7, 2016 Share Posted February 7, 2016 Johdoe where you reviewed as carers often ...police check and medical updates, your home 'inspected' etc? I see adverts for posts "Kinship social worker" then see case worker...does the one type of social worker visit your home for all the children whom reside there. WOUld you often supervise the accesses... sorry al the questions but I managed social workers of children in long term care and am guided by many statutory obligations. 6 yrs ago here would have been less regulated than now so no doubt Australia is too. I have to emphasise that what I state here refers to Queensland and may have changed since I was a carer, but I doubt very much if the quality of carers has, due to shortage and "needs must" of the Department You have to apply for a blue card (safe to work with children) which entails a police check, but the application was lodged by the Department on your behalf, and to the best of my knowledge, was never checked on an ongoing basis, although that could have taken place without my knowledge eg was their any convictions or similar after the card was issued? Recruitment of carers was/is not part of the Departments role but is done by charitable agencies such as the Uniting Church and (I digress) I had the misfortune to meet several carers who were, to all intent and purposes, nice Christian folk when social workers were present, but absolute fanatical "God Botherers" who administered very strong discipline, including the odd slap or two, to put it lightly, when in the presence of other carers, if social workers weren't present. The agencies vet and profile potential carers and recommend them, or not, to the department. Once recruited, the agency assigns a case worker (designated "counsellor") to the carer, and the department assigns a FSO (Family Services Officer). The counsellor represents the carer and the agency, and the FSO represents the department, child, and the child's family. It was expected that the counsellor would/should be the main contact with the FSO if the carer had any matters that needed addressing, but in practice, The counsellors were often less available (and not immediately contactable) than the FSO's due to work load, so I therefore took my concerns direct to the department which often wasn't received in good light. That said, I had an excellent counsellor who would turn out any time of the day, if available, and who was always sympathetic to my concerns, and who attempted to convey them, although diplomatically, very forcibly to the Dep't. This in contrast to the FSO who I would be lucky to see once a month unless there was a major drama, such as danger of placement breakdown, that needed her attention. We had more contact with the counsellor than with the FSO who seemed always to be pre-occupied with family re-unification at any cost, and although I understand and agree with re-unification, I am convinced that often the cost was sadly often accepted as likely, if not more than likely. As an example of the above, we had 3 siblings for close to 6yrs who, in the latter half of care, had no contact with their mother for 3 yrs. The FSO sought her out, found her in prison, and informed the older sibling (who had been the primary carer to the youngers, due to mothers drug addiction) that she would be coming out of prison soon. All this was done without my knowledge, and my first knowledge of it was when the older sibling up and left saying that he had to "go make sure mum doesn't go back on the drugs".....................and yes, you guessed it...............the younger siblings subsequently up and left too. One is now an addict, one is in prison, as is the mother, and the girl later came back into our life, had a wonderful partner and two lovely kids, but eventually deserted them, and us, after, (her words) "I just wanted to try it" becoming addicted to meth. I appreciate the potential for disaster would have always been there, but that FSO, to my mind, should have been held responsible for the initial breakdown due to placing such a heavy burden on the older sibling without our knowledge. You can imagine that after nurturing those kids for nigh on 6yrs, that just about finished my "urge to care" and resulted in, for many months, absolute hatred of the department, and all it stood for. I guess I'm still grieving but now realise, that sometimes all one can do is the best that they can with the skills available to them at that time, and unfortunately for all concerned, that FSO simply didn't have enough skills at that time (she left the department shortly afterwards). Back to your questions <sigh> :-) Other personnel involved were, (I forget their titles, mine would be) Juvenile liason Officers, who took the kids out on their own to skate parks etc and who could (supposedly) relate to the kids "more on their level". These were invariably students, some well tattooed and pierced, which often led to the kid's demands for piercing :-) (dunno whether to laugh or simply sigh with resignation here) Well meaning individuals but with absolutely no idea of how hard it was for carers to keep the kids "on track". Introduced shortly before I left were another "species" (no slur intended, as again, I forget their title) but they were akin to those used by courts in "victim impact" conferences, whereby the kids, supposedly supported by this new species, fronted up to their parents and the parents were supposed to confront how their actions had impacted the kids. You can imagine, although it seems the department never did, how this impacted on the placement. The kids would come back from these meetings and do the utmost to break down the placement for many weeks thereafter. I don't know if this was a trial programme and/or whether it is still in use. Forgive the long post...........this has been rather cathartic, having been raised in care myself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murta Posted February 7, 2016 Share Posted February 7, 2016 Goodness john joe it is a fire fighting experience Being in care , those examples anyhow , I shudder to think how a little child copes with a plether of faces , piercing or not , thrown at them, the fact you don't recall their titles (being the anchor of their world) is telling - guess how the child felt! Experience experience experience is key!! Was therevmuch collaboration between fso and counsellor? Here both attend all child in care reviews along with age appropriate children as well as caters and parents school gp and other services. Listen have a minority of concerns against carers but tightly scrutinised. Anyhow I hope to make a contribution to the device when I come and see for myself ... Hope it doesn't get me mad!!! Well done for the time you gave to kids. No doubt you made an impact ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johndoe Posted February 7, 2016 Share Posted February 7, 2016 Was therevmuch collaboration between fso and counsellor? Here both attend all child in care reviews along with age appropriate children as well as caters and parents school gp and other services. Listen have a minority of concerns against carers but tightly scrutinised. Yes, I never attended a case meeting where the counsellor wasn't there to put my concerns to the FSO. If he was busy, then he asked the department to re-schedule to make sure that he could be there................he was a gem. The schools were good too. Although they were never invited, or expected to attend departmental meetings, I personally, had regular meetings with the school staff themselves to ensure that the kids were on track and to try and implement IEP (Individual Education Plans). On reaching senior school, I ensured that all the kids went private (all but one at own expense), not so much for the academic side of it, but for the excellent pastoral care afforded them. The department would only fund private, ($800 a term girls school), for the girl because she had been subjected to sexual abuse and was somewhat precocious (not to put too fine a word on it). Again, the counsellor was excellent and forceful at putting our case for this expense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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