A social work career with us

When you work for Child, Youth and Family, no two days are ever the same.  As a social worker, you’ll be responsible for responding to ‘reports of concern’ in your area. These reports of concern are generated from our 24 hour call centre and are graded according to their urgency or risk to a child or young person.

When investigating reports of concern you will be involved in interviewing families and children, and members of the wider community, discussing cases with other social workers in briefing sessions, writing reports, documenting cases, working with families and other organisations and providing advice and support to the community. You’ll face new challenges and situations everyday and you’ll be making a real difference in the lives of vulnerable children and young people.

You’ll also learn valuable skills from day one, plus you’ll have the opportunity to meet and work with a wide range of different people and organisations and have loads of career opportunities. What’s more, you’ll continually get the chance to make a real difference to the lives of others.

If that sounds like something you’d be interested in, then joining Child, Youth and Family could be the career move you’ve been looking for.

To be a social worker you need to have a recognised social work qualification, be a model citizen, legally entitled to work in New Zealand, community minded, have a full drivers licence and able to pass a range of assessments and the interview process.

Excellent communication skills are essential as a social worker, as are commitment, integrity, empathy and resilience. Your role can influence and change the lives of many people, so being able to make difficult judgement calls and establish strong personal relationships, community networks and work as part of a team is vital.

A diverse and exciting career

Working for Child, Youth and Family is both challenging and rewarding. Of course, you won’t spend every minute of your time working with children, young people and families. While you have to complete important paperwork relating to the cases you are involved with, you won’t have to spend all day every day sitting behind a computer screen either. You’ll carry out your duties in a whole range of environments from the site office to the wider community.

Supportive team environment

As part of Child, Youth and Family, you’ll enjoy working in a close-knit team at your site, where your colleagues look out for you and you for them. You’ll form bonds and friendships that will last for life with other social workers who share your passion for helping others and vulnerable children and young people, and families in need.

The chance to make a difference

You’ll be responsible for helping families with their problems to become better parents and provide a loving, safe and nurturing environment for their children. You’ll help advocate for children and young people who can’t always speak for themselves, give them hope and make them smile again.

Be part of world-leading social work

Our social work practice is world-leading, with other countries adopting our model of working with families and whānau. We aim to lead the way in innovative social work and international best practice. Visit our Practice Centre for some insight into how we work.

Give something back to the community

We’ve introduced a new way of working, which links us up with other community groups to give families the right support, at the right time. Child, Youth and Family work closely with many different partner agencies to help support families in need. You’ll know that you are giving something back, and that your hard work really does make a difference to people’s lives in your community.

Working with family and whānau

We were the first country in the world to introduce the family group conference, which is the cornerstone of our social work practice. It means we always involve family and whānau in making decisions about the care of their children. This innovative approach has now been adopted in the United Kingdom, Canada and in the US and Australia.

Ongoing support on the job

We want our staff to stay on with Child, Youth and Family and to make a difference to the lives of the children, young people and families we work with everyday. Our internal Staying On programme encourages our staff to think about their career, their future and how they can continue to contribute.