Leading Social Worker

The child welfare services of the Kanta-Häme wellbeing services county (Oma Häme) are looking for a Leading Social Worker for the Kanerva Foster Care Unit! If you are interested in helping children and young people living in child welfare foster care by supporting their foster carers, read on! The Kanerva Foster Care Unit recruits, trains, and supports all child welfare foster carers in the wellbeing services county, as well as support families under both the Child Welfare Act and the Social Welfare Act. In addition to the leading social worker, the unit includes a social worker and 7 social guides. You will lead a highly professional and development-oriented team that works in foster carer support with great heart and expertise. The unit specializes in group-based support for foster carers and children and young people placed in foster care, and its development is a continuous process. We are pioneers in this field! We aim to strengthen foster care as the primary service for substitute care, so you will have the opportunity to lead this success on the front line. The duties of the leading social worker include the overall management of child welfare foster care; responsibility for the development of child welfare foster care, administration and management of training and support work according to the Foster Care Act, management of the unit's personnel and finances, and enabling the priority of foster care in child welfare substitute care in cooperation with other child welfare management. Evidence of conducting Pride training is required. The selected person must have the qualification of a licensed social worker and work experience in foster care. Additionally, the applicant must have experience working in substitute care and conducting Pride training. Experience in result-oriented management is also valued. You will become part of the team of leading social workers for substitute and aftercare and foster care, and you will receive close support from your own supervisor, the Service Manager of Substitute and Aftercare. You will also be part of the extended child welfare management team, which meets regularly and supports the overall development of foster care. Legal services and child welfare's own family therapists also support child welfare. The common thread of our child welfare is a systemic approach, which is also implemented in Kanerva with the support of a family therapist. Remote work is possible, but most of our leading social workers in child welfare work locally, leading their team's client work at the site. Occasionally, the work requires evening and weekend work, as some of the foster carer support is implemented as training or groups in the evenings or on Saturdays, and the leading social worker participates in some of these events. Those selected for a position working with children must present a criminal record extract as referred to in Section 6.2 of the Criminal Records Act (770/1993) in accordance with Section 3 of the Act on the Disclosure of Criminal Background (504/2002) before starting work. Additionally, the selected person must present an acceptable health certificate within a specified time after receiving the selection decision. Interviews will be held in Hämeenlinna on August 24, 2026. Oma Häme offers extensive employment benefits: - Lunch benefit - Commuting benefit - Epassi Flex culture, wellbeing, and sports benefit - Occupational health services at Terveystalo - Up to 38 days of leave per year based on work experience - Diverse training opportunities for all staff The position-specific salary is €5,039.99/month. In addition to the position-specific salary, we pay an experience-based supplement, which can range from 0% to 8%. The accumulation of vacation days is also determined based on length of service. Applications must be submitted through the Kuntarekry system by the end of the application period. Remuneration and other terms of employment are determined according to the SOTE agreement. The probationary period is six months. Immediate patient and client work requires vaccination protection as required by Section 48 of the Communicable Diseases Act and a respiratory tuberculosis clearance as per Section 55. At Oma Häme, we want to support scientific research by granting paid leave for, for example, writing a doctoral thesis, a final project for a higher university degree, or other scientific research. In accordance with our strategy, we promote the diversity and equality of our staff. Oma Häme is a smoke-free organization.