Description:
About Us
Court Services Victoria provides corporate services and facilities to support the performance of the judicial, quasi-judicial and administrative functions of Victoria's courts and tribunal, Judicial College and Judicial Commission.
Collectively, Victoria's Supreme, County, Magistrates', Children's, and Coroners courts, the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT), the Judicial College of Victoria, the Judicial Commission of Victoria, and Court Services Victoria (CSV) are referred to as the ‘Courts Group'.
Our people enable the Courts Group to deliver on each jurisdictions own strategic priorities while also pursuing strategic opportunities that are interconnected and deliver benefits more broadly.
Children's Court of Victoria (ChCV)
The ChCV has jurisdiction under the Act to hear cases involving children and young people up to the age of 18 years, and in some cases up to 19 years.
The Children's Court Clinic (Clinic) is an independent, state-wide service. It conducts assessments and provides reports on children and their families at the request of ChCV magistrates across Victoria. The Clinic also has a small treatment function in selected cases and is a teaching facility.
The Clinic has a large clinical team of highly qualified and experienced professionals comprising clinical and forensic psychologists, neuropsychologists, developmental and educational psychologists and consultant psychiatrists, who all have specialist knowledge in the areas of Child Protection and juvenile offending.
The Family Division of the ChCV has the power to hear a range of applications and to make a variety of orders upon finding that a child is in need of protection, or that there are irreconcilable differences between a child and his or her parents. The court also has jurisdiction to hear applications relating to intervention orders where the "affected family member" (family violence matters) or "affected person" (personal safety matters), or the respondent is a child.
The Criminal Division of the ChCV has jurisdiction to hear and determine summarily all offences (other than murder, attempted murder, manslaughter, child homicide, defensive homicide, culpable driving causing death and arson causing death) where the alleged offender was under the age of 18 but of or above the age of 10 years at the time the offence was committed and under the age of 19 when proceedings were commenced in the court.
The Children's Koori Court (Criminal Division) has jurisdiction to hear matters relating to criminal offending by Koori children and young persons, other than sexual offences.
About the role
There are two part time roles and each involves the provision of independent and comprehensive clinical and/or assessment for magistrates predominantly in Family Division matters in the ChCV. Assessments typically involve interviewing children, adolescents and parents presenting with a range of clinical and/or forensic issues, in addition to risk assessments of young people facing criminal charges, or families whereby safety concerns pertaining to vulnerable children have been raised. In addition to individual interviews, family functioning is also considered as well as issues erlating to parenting knowledge and parenting capacity. There is also court-ordered treatment in a small number of cases, as required.
You may be required to provide court ordered short-term clinical treatment for persons and/or families, appear as an expert witness and/or provide primary supervision to post graduate psychology students on placement, as directed.
About You
Given the wide ranging clinical presentations and forensic issues referred to the clinic, it is not expected that you will possess skills in every domain. However, you are required to have:
- a postgraduate qualification and at least five years of professional experience.
- experience in conducting clinical and/or forensic assessments with young people and families.
- skills in evaluating risks and family dynamics, especially for cases involving criminal charges or child safety concerns.
- expertise in clinical assessments for infants, children, or adolescents, and/or adult mental health.
You will ideally possess knowledge of Child Protection, Family Violence, or Youth Justice in Victoria and have experience with relevant legislation pertaining to the Children's Court Clinic's function.
How to apply
Click the ‘Apply Now' button, ensuring you include the following in your application:
- resume
- a short cover letter
Other information
CSV is the employer of staff at Courts Group. CSV has a firm commitment through its Koori Employment Plan to increase participation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people across our workforce.
We value the unique backgrounds, experiences, and contributions that each person brings to our community and encourage and celebrate diversity. Those from the LGBTQIA+ community, women, people of all ages, with disabilities, culturally and linguistically diverse people, and those who are neurodiverse, are encouraged to apply.
We aim to create a workforce that reflects the community in which we live.
If you require adjustments to the recruitment and selection process or require an alternative format to any of the application material, please don't hesitate to email the contact person listed in the advertisement.