Summary This Social Worker is assigned to the Community and Residential Care Services (CRCS) at VA Puget Sound Health Care System located in Tacoma, Washington with responsibility to provide direct services for Veterans, their families, and caregivers. VA Puget Sound Health Care System (VAPSHCS) is a Complexity Level 1a Facility and provides extensive primary, secondary, tertiary, and quaternary care in outpatient, inpatient, residential, and community settings. Responsibilities Social Worker (Program Manager) duties to include but not limited to: Responsible for developing, planning, clarifying, administering, and managing CRCS and Mental Health Service Line priorities and objectives and ensuring the supervision and evaluation of all subordinate staff. Coordinate strategic planning for CRCS, including establishment of long and short-range goals, development of policies and procedures to ensure goal attainment, management of administrative and programmatic resources, and outcomes monitoring using data-driven quality assurance processes. Ensures the staff supervised are aware of and adhere to all current directives of VHA and meet relevant accreditation standards. Conducts ongoing reviews and appraisals to ensure the accomplishment of objectives and adherence to standards set by governing bodies. Consults with Chief of Social Work Service Line, Chief of Psychiatry, and Chief of Psychology on issues pertaining to discipline specific clinical practice and administrative issues. Develop, enhance, and track new initiatives, monitor staff effectiveness, and modify as needed to meet the program needs. Serves as a liaison to other services or care lines, other facilities, VISN offices and/or the VHA Central Office Homeless Program Office and provides consultation to facility leadership, managers, and other staff on issues related to ambulatory mental health care including best. Performs the administrative and personnel management functions relative to staff supervised including the development of improvement plans, as needed. Assigns work, establishes guidelines and performance expectations for staff, and communicates with them through the formal employee performance management system. Works with administrative and clinical staff to manage consults and outreach efforts across the Puget Sound region. Resolves informal complaints and grievances and develop processes and procedures for handling complaints in all areas of Puget Sound. Provides advice and counsel to workers related to work and administrative matters. Effects disciplinary measures as appropriate to the authority delegated in this area. Reviews and approves or disapproves leave requests. Works with program supervisors to ensure that screenings for all Veterans referred to the Community and Residential Care Services (CRCS) are consistent with Joint Commission and, if needed, CARF standards. Actively participates in program planning and development, advising facility, VISN, and VACO leadership of shifting trends and identifying the need for and making recommendations on program operations or policy changes based on work experiences. - Provides clinical supervision to unlicensed social workers working towards licensure. Total Rewards of a Allied Health Professional Work Schedule: 8AM - 4:30PM, Monday - Friday Compressed/Flexible: Available (Requires prior approval) Recruitment Incentive (Sign-on Bonus): Not Authorized Pay: Competitive salary and regular salary increases When setting pay, a higher step rate of the appropriate grade may be determined after consideration of higher or unique qualifications or special needs of the VA (Above Minimum Rate of the Grade). Paid Time Off: 37-50 days of annual paid time offer per year (13-26 days of annual leave, 13 days of sick leave, 11 paid Federal holidays per year) Selected applicants may qualify for credit toward annual leave accrual, based on prior [work experience] or military service experience. Parental Leave: After 12 months of employment, up to 12 weeks of paid parental leave in connection with the birth, adoption, or foster care placement of a child. Child Care Subsidy: After 60 days of employment, full time employees with a total family income below $144,000 may be eligible for a childcare subsidy up to 25% of total eligible childcare costs for eligible children up to the monthly maximum of $416.66. Retirement: Traditional federal pension (5 years vesting) and federal 401K with up to 5% in contributions by VA Insurance: Federal health/vision/dental/term life/long-term care (many federal insurance programs can be carried into retirement) Telework: Ad-hoc Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Functional Statement #: 00000 Requirements Conditions of Employment You must be a U.S. Citizen to apply for this job. Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959. Must be proficient in written and spoken English. You may be required to serve a trial period. Subject to background/security investigation. Selected applicants will be required to complete an online onboarding process. Acceptable form(s) of identification will be required to complete pre-employment requirements (https://www.uscis.gov/i-9-central/form-i-9-acceptable-documents). Effective May 7, 2025, driver's licenses or state-issued dentification cards that are not REAL ID compliant cannot be utilized as an acceptable form of identification for employment. Participation in the seasonal influenza vaccination program is a requirement for all Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care Personnel (HCP). Qualifications To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements within 30 days of the closing date of this announcement. Basic Requirements: Citizenship. Be a citizen of the United States. (Non-citizens may be appointed when it is not possible to recruit qualified citizens in accordance with chapter 3, section A, paragraph 3g this part). Education. Have a master's degree in social work from a school of social work fully accredited by the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE). Graduates of schools of social work that are in candidacy status do not meet this requirement until the School of Social Work is fully accredited. A doctoral degree in social work may not be substituted for the master's degree in social work. Verification of the degree can be made by going to http://www.cswe.org/Accreditation to verify that the social work degree meets the accreditation standards for a masters of social work. (COPY OF TRANSCRIPT WITH CONFERRED DATE REQUIRED) Licensure/Certification. Senior social workers must be licensed or certified by a state at the advanced practice level which included an advanced generalist or clinical examination, unless they are grandfathered by the state in which they are licensed to practice at the advanced practice level (except for licenses issued in California, which administers its own clinical examination for advanced practice) and they must be able to provide supervision for licensure. (COPY OF LICENSE REQUIRED FOR GS-14) Grade Determinations: Social Worker (Program Manager), GS-14 Experience and Education. One year of experience equivalent to the GS- 13 grade level. Experience must demonstrate possession of advanced practice skills and judgment, demonstrating progressively more professional competency. Individual may have certification or other post-master's degree training from a nationally recognized professional organization or university that includes a defined curriculum/course of study and internship, or equivalent supervised professional experience. Licensure/Certification. Individuals assigned as social worker program manager must be licensed or certified at the advanced practice level, and must be able to provide supervision for licensure. Demonstrated Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities. In addition to the experience above, the candidate must demonstrate all the following KSAs: (a) Skill in large scale program coordination and administration across multiple sites, which includes consultation, negotiation, and monitoring. (b) Ability to translate management goals and objectives into well-coordinated and controlled work operations. (c) Ability to analyze organizational and operational problems and to develop and implement solutions that result in sound operation of the program. (d) Ability to collaborate with internal and external partners to further program goals and enhance patient centered care. (e) Ability to provide the full range of supervisory duties which would include responsibility for assignment of work to be performed; performance evaluations; selection of staff, training, and recommendation of awards, advancements, and when appropriate, disciplinary action. (f) Ability to oversee the fiscal matters of the functions supervised (including fund controls, contracts, and equipment expenditures), forecast resource and equipment needs, and administer the allocated budget. (g) Skill in developing policies, procedures, and/or practice guidelines for the program and in participating in national program development. (h) Ability to collaborate with internal VHA partners, locally and on a national level, as well as external community partners to further program goals and enhance patient centered care. Preferred Experience: Leadership experience and experience in evidence-based treatments for mental health. Reference: For more information on this qualification standard, please visit https://www.va.gov/ohrm/QualificationStandards/. The full performance level of this vacancy is GS-14. Physical Requirements: Sitting for long periods of time. Environmental factors include working closely with others and working alone. Education Note: Only education or degrees recognized by the U.S. Department of Education from accredited colleges, universities, schools, or institutions may be used to qualify for Federal employment. You can verify your education here: http://ope.ed.gov/accreditation/. If you are using foreign education to meet qualification requirements, you must send a Certificate of Foreign Equivalency with your transcript in order to receive credit for that education. For further information, visit: https://sites.ed.gov/international/recognition-of-foreign-qualifications/. Additional Information Receiving Service Credit or Earning Annual (Vacation) Leave: Federal Employees earn annual leave at a rate (4, 6 or 8 hours per pay period) which is based on the number of years they have served as a Federal employee. Selected applicants may qualify for credit toward annual leave accrual, based on prior work experience or military service experience. This credited service can be used in determining the rate at which they earn annual leave. Such credit must be requested and approved prior to the appointment date and is not guaranteed. During the application process you may have an option to opt-in to make your resume available to hiring managers in the agency who have similar positions. Opting in does not impact your application for this announcement, nor does it guarantee further consideration for additional positions. This job opportunity announcement may be used to fill additional vacancies. This position is in the Excepted Service and does not confer competitive status. VA encourages persons with disabilities to apply. The health-related positions in VA are covered by Title 38, and are not covered by the Schedule A excepted appointment authority. If you are unable to apply online or need an alternate method to submit documents, please reach out to the Agency Contact listed in this Job Opportunity Announcement. Under the Fair Chance to Compete Act, the Department of Veterans Affairs prohibits requesting an applicant's criminal history prior to accepting a tentative job offer. For more information about the Act and the complaint process, visit Human Resources and Administration/Operations, Security, and Preparedness (HRA/OSP) at The Fair Chance Act.
