Social casework 003-17072600

Services Australia has a zero tolerance approach to child abuse.

A staff member must act when they see or hear behaviour which raises concern about a child or young person’s safety. Follow the agency's Risk Identification and Reporting model when identifying and responding to child safety concerns.

Social casework involves social workers working intensively with priority customer groups over a period of time to achieve sustainable outcomes in the relevant areas of concern.

There are 4 common focus areas:

• safety and wellbeing
• financial support
• education and employment
• strengthening community connections

The Social Work Practice Standards defines the focus for social work practice. The Resources page contains a link to the document.

Social casework is targeted towards customers who need more intensive assistance to support their participation in education or employment and promote greater self-sufficiency.

Unsupported vulnerable young people who have participation and compliance requirements are priority customers for social casework. Social casework assists customers towards self-reliance through connection to education, training and employment pathways.

The primary target groups for social casework are:

• Young people without adequate support aged under 25. For unsupported customers under 16, Services Australia has a responsibility under the Youth Protective Assessment to immediately refer them to a social worker
• People affected by family and domestic violence (FDV). Before offering SCW, social workers should consider if the equivalent support is already available through external services
• People who are thinking about suicide and/or self-harm
• People referred due to difficult or challenging behaviours
• People impacted by disasters and emergencies

Before referring customers who are affected by FDV or thinking about suicide and/or self-harm, the referring social worker must undertake a safety assessment. They must ensure that appropriate support and referrals have been made for customers in immediate danger.

The above groups may change as the social casework service offer evolves in response to government and agency requirements.

The correct social work referral process.

Generally, social casework is undertaken for 6-8 weeks. Social casework extending beyond this timeframe requires a review with the Social Work Support Manager.

A case plan is a record of the customer's goals and objectives. The case plan should reflect the agreed goals and needs identified from the assessment. The case plan is intended to support the customer to achieve their goals by identifying personal resources, existing supports and action steps.

The case plan should reflect the customer's goals within the relevant focus areas. The case plan should include:

• strategies and agreed actions to be undertaken by the customer and/or social worker
• outcomes

The case plan is a 'living document' and is progressively updated.

Social Work Information System (SWIS)

All social casework referrals, contact and activities must be recorded in SWIS. SWIS should reflect all relevant contacts with the customer and any associated third parties.

A case plan must be stored in SWIS case notes. The plan can be created in the Social Work Recording Application (SWRA) in Process Direct or in SWIS in Customer First.

SharePoint Social Casework Online Reporting tool

This tool is used to register cases commenced.