Social Worker

About the school

Role purpose

Student welfare and safeguarding

• Assess and manage student welfare referrals; meet students and families; develop and review support plans; and escalate matters requiring specialist intervention.
• Contribute to safeguarding case discussion, risk assessment, information sharing, follow-up, and immediate reporting through school procedures.
• Support the safeguarding lead and school leaders with welfare casework, family liaison, and external referrals.
• Maintain accurate, secure, confidential records and contribute to safeguarding awareness and prevention. The role is not automatically the Designated Safeguarding Lead.

Families, agencies, and school collaboration

• Build respectful, culturally sensitive relationships with parents and carers and help families understand school processes and available services.
• Coordinate social-care, community, government, and specialist referrals; participate in multi-agency meetings; and maintain local referral networks.
• Work with pastoral, inclusion, and academic colleagues on attendance, behaviour, engagement, and participation barriers.
• Contribute to admissions and transitions, coordinate boundaries with a future school counsellor, and advise staff on social-care matters within role scope.

Prevention and professional practice

• Contribute to student wellbeing, safeguarding, prevention, parent education, service, and community initiatives.
• Use anonymised casework trends to identify emerging needs and recommend preventative actions.
• Maintain timely case records and comply with school policy, confidentiality, ADEK, DCD, safeguarding, and data-protection requirements.
• Maintain required professional licences and continuing development; participate in supervision, training, audits, inspections, and quality assurance.

Essential qualifications and experience

• Pathway 1: QFE 7 bachelor's degree in Social Work or Social Service and 2 years of youth-related social work experience.
• Pathway 2: QFE 7 bachelor's degree in Psychology, Counselling, Youth Development, Sociology, or a related subject and 4 years of youth-related social work experience.
• Meet an applicable ADEK pathway and hold, or be eligible to obtain, the DCD professional licence and other approvals required before starting.
• Have youth-related social work and demonstrable casework experience with children, young people, and/or families, subject to the stated UAE National exemption.

Essential capabilities

• Understand child protection, safeguarding, professional boundaries, confidentiality, and referral and escalation procedures.
• Assess needs, manage cases, document interventions, coordinate referrals, and follow actions through to resolution and review.
• Have excellent written and spoken English and communicate sensitively with children, families, staff, and external professionals.
• Work within regulated school and social-care frameworks and demonstrate cultural sensitivity in the UAE context.
• Demonstrate empathy, sound judgement, discretion, resilience, calmness under pressure, strong boundaries, integrity, and a student-first mindset.

Desirable qualifications and experience

• Existing DCD licence or prior approval to practise in Abu Dhabi is desirable.
• School-based or comparable child/youth-setting experience is strongly preferred; UAE school experience is also desirable.
• Safeguarding-team or multi-agency student-protection experience and school attendance, behaviour, family-support, or welfare casework are desirable.
• Arabic language skills and knowledge of ADEK requirements, DCD processes, or Abu Dhabi community services are desirable.
• Experience in a start-up, founding-school, or rapidly evolving environment is desirable.