Social and Human Service Assistants

Job purpose

To assist social workers and other human service providers in delivering client services — assessing need, implementing care plans and helping individuals and families obtain the benefits and community services available to them — so that clients receive practical, coordinated support at the point of contact.

Skills

• Working knowledge of human behaviour and individual difference, of counselling and rehabilitation methods sufficient to support interventions designed by professional staff, of the community provision clients can be referred to, and of the agency's record systems. A bachelor's degree is the most common qualification held, with a substantial proportion holding an associate's degree or some college study, alongside several years of related experience and on-the-job training.
• Deals directly with clients and families in their homes and at group meetings, explaining services and procedures and advising on food assistance, childcare, money management and housekeeping. Interviews individuals and relatives to compile social, educational, criminal, institutional and drug histories, which requires trust to be established quickly. Handles complaints and disputes, and speaks to assembled groups.
• Assesses cognitive ability and physical and emotional need to identify the appropriate intervention, matches circumstances against eligibility requirements and available provision, and refers people to public or private agencies where need cannot be met directly. Problems are largely procedural, with agency policy and established referral routes available; the non-routine is reviewed with a superior before action.
• Carries a caseload of home visits, group meetings and appointments, setting day-to-day priorities within the plan agreed with professional staff, under pressure from clients' circumstances and reporting deadlines. Develops and implements behavioural management and care plans, and oversees the day-to-day group activities of residents in institutional settings.
• Work is carried out at a desk on computer records and in clients' homes and community venues, with driving to accompany clients to appointments.

Responsibilities

• No line management. Works under the direction of social workers and other professional staff, consulting a supervisor and referring problems upward, but coordinates others contributing to a client's support and instructs clients in daily living skills.
• No budget holding and no authority to commit agency funds. Helps clients obtain the benefits they are entitled to, advises on money management and food budgeting, and assists with forms such as tax or rent returns.
• Ordinary care of a workstation, the agency's client record systems and a vehicle where clients are transported. Explains rules set by the owner or management on sanitation, maintenance and parking.
• Keeps records of client visits and prepares reports for the owner or management, compiling the case histories gathered at interview. The material is confidential and personal, and professional staff rely on its accuracy in deciding what a client needs; the agency sets its content and format.

Effort required

• Sustained accuracy in recording and reporting, combined with observing need and detecting change in a client's circumstances, while switching between home visits, group work, telephone contact and administration.
• Regular direct contact with people in hardship or crisis, in their own homes and at close physical proximity. Conflict situations arise routinely and clients or relatives may be angry, uncooperative or discourteous, so composure must be maintained and distress absorbed without treating it as personally directed. Cases and problems are reviewed with a superior.
• Predominantly seated work when recording and reporting, with movement between homes, community venues and the office. No lifting or exertion is recorded.

Working conditions

• Mainly indoors in environmentally controlled premises, with regular time in clients' homes and at group meetings, in surroundings that can be distractingly noisy. Close working contact brings some exposure to disease and infection. The principal exposure is psychosocial: conflict, and dealings with unpleasant, angry or discourteous people at close quarters.
• The large majority of incumbents work a regular established schedule, and a week of forty hours or less is usual; a minority work irregular patterns or longer weeks. Within agency procedure there is real freedom to set tasks and priorities day to day, decisions are frequent and affect colleagues and results, and the work is done under time pressure and a high volume of client and colleague contact.