Managing Social Worker (Manager Specialist Practitioners)

About us:

Allied Justice is a for-purpose organisation providing free legal assistance, integrated services and community legal education.

We have invested significantly in the development of our new Strategy 2025-2027 to ensure our organisation is providing contemporary integrated services to respond the shared and unique needs of the people we support across 11 local government areas in Western Victoria.

Our commitment is to change life stories through better access to justice, and we achieve this by applying our values – respect, courage, empowerment & kindness – to the people of the communities we serve, our stakeholders and our colleagues. By providing legal services, community legal education, law reform and integrated services through client centered, trauma informed and culturally safe practice, we will improve the safety and wellbeing of families and individuals. 

Summary:

The Manager Specialist Practitioners leads Allied Justice’s multidisciplinary specialist practice team, strengthening integrated, trauma-informed and culturally safe responses for clients experiencing complex legal, social, health and family wellbeing issues.

In addition to management and leadership responsibilities the Manager Specialist Practitioner will be a qualified social worker providing direct client support to clients within our Health Justice Partnership programs. The role will also require developing best practice obligations for a range of disciplines including financial counselling and youth work.

The role provides supervision, practice leadership and service coordination across specialist practitioners, supporting high-quality casework, strong partnerships and effective referral pathways. It works closely with legal, health, community and family service partners to improve safety, wellbeing and access to justice for individuals and families across the Grampians Region.

Responsibilities:

• Work closely with the Director of Integrated Services and Engagement to ensure a consistent and collaborative management approach is applied across the legal team.
• Collaborate with the program managers in the planning and development of the Service’s programs, projects and partnerships.
• Provide professional supervision, mentoring, and practice guidance to multidisciplinary team members
• Maintain a caseload of clients, providing brief, intermediate and complex social work case management within the Health Justice Partnership and integrated service context.
• Lead, supervise and support a multidisciplinary team of specialist practitioners, including social work, financial counselling, youth work and other integrated service roles
• Oversee team caseloads, service delivery priorities and client risk, ensuring work is allocated appropriately and delivered within capacity, funding targets and quality frameworks

Key Selection Criteria

1. Demonstrated experience leading, supervising or supporting multidisciplinary practitioners in community, legal, health or family services settings.
2. Strong understanding of trauma-informed, culturally safe, person-centred and family violence-informed practice.
3. Ability to coordinate integrated service responses and build effective partnerships across sectors.
4. Sound judgement in risk assessment, reflective practice, service quality and continuous improvement.
5. Excellent communication, organisation and stakeholder engagement skills.

Qualifications:

• Tertiary qualification in Social Work recognised by the Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW), or eligibility for AASW membership.
• Current Victorian Driver’s Licence.
• Satisfactory National Police Record Check.
• Valid employee Working with Children Check.
• Current right to work in Australia.
• Physical ability to safely undertake all aspects of the position.