Head of Department for Child Welfare Duty and Reception

Do you want to lead a strong professional environment with an important societal mission for children, young people and families in acute and demanding life situations?
Child Welfare Duty and Reception consists of two departments that collaborate closely and which together are responsible for the child welfare emergency preparedness outside ordinary opening hours in Bergen municipality and more surrounding municipalities. The departments also have central tasks related to reception, clarification and follow-up of concerns for children and young people, and shall contribute to good processes before and after a report is made to the child welfare service.

The position is currently linked to Child Welfare Duty and Reception 1, where the main focus of the tasks is related to the child welfare emergency preparedness. The department operates in a three-shift rota / shift schedule on weekdays and a two-shift rota / shift schedule at weekends. Together with Child Welfare Duty and Reception 2, the departments constitute a unique professional environment with high competence in emergency work, reception work, advice and guidance, legal protection and interaction with children, families and partners.

We are looking for a confident, clear and collaborative leader who is able to combine daily operations, professional development and personnel management. In the role you will have particular responsibility for the child welfare emergency work while also seeing the importance of holistic services across the two departments and other services.

A central part of the leadership role will be to collaborate closely with the head of department for Child Welfare Duty and Reception 2, so that the departments develop as a single service area with a common direction and good resource utilisation - while the departments' different areas of expertise are maintained.

In the leadership role you shall create trust, contribute to mastery and motivation among employees and lead the work of developing a good working environment and high professional quality in the services.

Responsibilities

As head of department you will be responsible for professional matters, personnel, finances and daily operations in your own department. Key duties will include:

• Lead and further develop the department, with particular responsibility for emergency preparedness and acute professional work
• Ensure safe operations, staffing and prioritisation within applicable frameworks
• Prepare, follow up and further develop the rota / shift schedule in accordance with the service's needs, legislation and agreements
• Personnel responsibility, including follow-up, guidance, development and care of employees
• Contribute to recruitment, training and competence development in the department
• Ensure professional quality, internal control, documentation and management by objectives
• Contribute to good cooperation with the safety representative and elected representatives
• Actively contribute to close and binding cooperation between Child Welfare Duty and Reception 1 and 2
• Contribute to joint professional development, standardisation and collaboration across the departments
• Ensure good interaction with other partners, including the child welfare services in the urban areas, the child welfare services in the host municipality cooperation, politiet and Bufetat
• Contribute to development work, improvement work and internal/external collaboration forums
• Participate in the unit's management group and contribute to the holistic development of the service area
• Perform other delegated tasks from the unit manager

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in child welfare, social work or other relevant health and social sciences education
  
• Experience from municipal child welfare service, child welfare duty or other relevant work with children and families in crisis
  
• Leadership experience, preferably with personnel responsibility
  
• Further education and/or a master's degree in child welfare, social studies, management, family therapy or other relevant field is desirable
  
• Experience with emergency work in the child welfare service is desirable
  
• Good written and oral communication skills
  
• Good role understanding and understanding of the exercise of authority, documentation requirements and children's right to participation
  
• class B driving licence
  
• police certificate must be presented at start date
  
• Experience with rota / shift schedule, staffing planning and operation of services with round-the-clock or on-call functions is desirable

Personal characteristics

• Is confident, clear and relationally strong in the leadership role
• Has high professional awareness and commitment to the child welfare field
• Is able to create trust, motivation and direction in a competent professional environment
• Works structured, goal-oriented and systematic
• Can tolerate high pace, time pressure and complex assessments
• Has good judgement and ability to prioritise in demanding situations
• Communicates clearly and respectfully with employees, users and partners
• Is collaborative and sees the value of holistic services across departments
• Actively contributes to a good working environment and a culture characterised by openness, learning and improvement
• Is able to balance professional ambitions, operational considerations and available resources
  

Personal suitability will be given great weight

We offer

• An exciting and meaningful leadership position in an important societal mission
• Close collaboration with an experienced leader colleague for the other department
• Active cooperation with the management team in the unit
• Opportunity to lead, influence and further develop a strong professional environment within the child welfare emergency preparedness
• Varied, demanding and professionally interesting tasks in a service with a high pace and great importance for children, young people and families
• A working environment with high competence and great commitment
• Good pension and insurance schemes
• Salary according to agreement

Bergen municipality is an inclusive workplace. We seek motivated employees who are competent, open, reliable and socially engaged. Quality in the services is created through a good working environment and diversity among employees.

We note that information about applicants may be made public even if the applicant requests to be excluded from the public applicant list, cf. the Freedom of Information Act § 25 second paragraph. The applicant will in such case be notified of this.

Contact information

Joachim Bjerkvik, Unit manager, 41 42 96 88, joachim.bjerkvik@bergen.kommune.no

Workplace

Strømgaten 10
5008 Bergen

Key information:

Employer: Bergen municipality

Reference no.: 5183988020
position percentage: 100%
Permanent
application deadline: 13.10.2026