International Consultant- Capacity Building of Local Professionals in Abkhazia on the Provision of Psycho-Social Support to Children and their Parents

Consultant Programme & Policy

Overview

Support capacity building of professionals providing psycho-social support to children.

You have:

• Advanced university degree in psychology, counselling, psychotherapy, psychiatry or a related field.
• At least 10 years’ experience of work in the field of the provision of psychological aid to children; at least 3 years’ experience working as professional supervisor.
• Proven experience in providing training in the above field.
• Understanding of UNICEF approaches and recommendations in the relevant field; experience of work with UN will be an asset.
• Understanding of child protection systems and services.
• Exceptional communication skills
• Working knowledge of English; Russian is an asset.

Contract

This is a Consultancy contract. More about Consultancy contracts.

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

And we never give up.

For every child, Education

Purpose of Activity/Assignment:

Since 2015, UNICEF has been working to strengthen and develop sustainable social services for children in Abkhazia. An informal Community-Based Child Protection Mechanism (CBCPM) has been developed in 41 target communities by building the capacity of the community-based social service providers including para-social workers who collected evidence on child well-being issues, provided support to vulnerable children and their families and empowered local communities to address the social service needs of children. Also, Child Development Centers (CDCs) were supported to address the needs of boys and girls with disabilities. At the same time, a professional social work programme was launched in all districts of Abkhazia and assistance has been provided to thousands of vulnerable children and families from the region.

The development of the UNICEF supported social work practice in Abkhazia revealed a number of concrete deficiencies and gaps in the field of child protection. Thus, underdeveloped psychological services is one of the issues constantly being raised by the local social workers and other stakeholders. The number of professional psychologists is very limited in Abkhazia, and in some of the districts psychological services are largely absent. Furthermore, only a few local psychologists received solid training. The training and qualifications of most of the psychologists are inconsistent: they received little education and learned by doing.

Earlier various short trainings on separate topics were organized by UNICEF for psychologists in Abkhazia. However, there is a need for a more comprehensive capacity building of psychologists, which would equip local professionals with specific knowledge, skills and resources to deal with complex cases of children requiring psychological support.

In view of the above in 2022 UNICEF launched a number of targeted activities to strengthen the psychological service for children and their families in Abkhazia. First, a group of local psychologists receive training and enhanced their competencies in the specific areas, such as rehabilitation of child victims of violence, work with children with challenging behavior, etc. Following that, external supervision as well as operational support was provided through a local NGO Panorama to ensure the effective functioning of the psychological service in at least three districts of Abkhazia. UNICEF also continued to support social workers dealing with cases of violence against children and other complex child protection cases in Abkhazia, providing professional supervision on various aspects of work, including on the provision of psychological aid. At the same time, UNICEF in partnership with the NGO Sukhum Youth House has been implementing educational programme for parents in target communities of Abkhazia.

All of the mentioned areas of work require further technical support to improve local capacities and ensure the quality of the provided services for children and their families.

Scope of Work:

UNICEF seeks to engage an international consultant or a group of international consultants to support further capacity building of professionals involved in the provision of psycho-social support to children, review and assess their ongoing activities and provide external supervision.

Interested individual experts should apply for the whole scope of the consultancy indicating the fee in the Cover Letter.

In case of groups of experts, each group member should apply individually referencing all other members of the group in the application and specifying which components of the TOR each of the members of the group will be covering (with estimated number of days), so that together they cover the entire scope of the TOR. Daily fee and the lump sum for relevant components (including travel costs) should be indicated.

Tasks/Milestone:

Deliverables/Outputs:

Timeline:

Carry out the review of work of psychologists in the framework of the psychological service for children supported by UNICEF in partnership with a local NGO Panorama

Current partnership with NGO Panorama ends in June 2023, and there is a need to review and assess the results of the first phase of piloting of the psychological service for children to inform further potential programming and, in case of continuation, improve the outcomes.

A structured review of casework (one full working day or two half-days with each of the three district groups of psychologists) will be conducted during the consultancy period and should aim at the monitoring of the work carried out by psychologists in cooperation with the social workers as well as assessing the quality of work. It should include a structured review of all aspects of the provision of psychological aid to children, in particular:

• Analyzing to what extent psychologist use in their practice knowledge and skills gained in the course of the previously organized UNICEF training, i.e. what approaches, methods, tools they use and if they are in compliance with the methodologies proposed within the training.

• Checking that UNICEF child protection best practices, principle of the best interests of the child, gender sensitive approaches and ethical principles of the provision of psychological aid are respected and followed;

• Analyzing trends in the caseload (in general, per district group and per psychologist) to inform programming;

• Providing overall analysis of the supervision/management of the service, i.e. assessment of how the manager of the NGO and the local supervisor ensure support to the district-based specialists, and if it is regular and sufficient (including visits to the districts, supervision sessions facilitated by the local supervisor, monitoring);

• Identifying capacity building needs of psychologists as well as areas for further improvements;

• Case file monitoring - ensuring that work of psychologists on specific cases is recorded with the use of agreed upon forms;

Technical advice on the specific aspects of casework should be provided to psychologists and their local supervisor and manager during review. Conclusions and recommendations for improvements in relation to issues identified in the course of monitoring should be developed and shared with UNICEF upon completion of the review.

• Quality casework review; report with detailed conclusions and recommendations

(12 days, including preparation, review and follow-up work on conclusions and recommendations)

1 May 2023 – 30 June 2023

Provide coaching and external supervision to the local psychologists working with children in Abkhazia

The consultant(s) will conduct group and individual supervision sessions for the local psychologists which will include discussion of the progress and difficulties encountered in the course of their work and serve as a platform for experience exchange and peer-to-peer learning. This might include the review of concrete cases of children supported by local psychologists. In addition, external supervision should support the psychologists’ mental wellbeing. Also, coaching sessions will be conducted on topics where one or several psychologists require more specific knowledge and skills.

• 80 hours of quality on-demand supervision sessions for psychologists

(10 working days)

1 May 2023 – 15 November 2023

Provide external supervision to the social workers working with children in Abkhazia

The consultant(s) will conduct on-demand supervision sessions for individual social workers or for a group of social workers in cases of an urgent need to consult on questions related to psychological/mental health problems of children supported by the social service. This might cover the discussion of concrete cases and include suggestions on how to elaborate, change or adjust the individual work plans with children and families. In addition, individual supervision should support the social workers’ psychological wellbeing and prevention of professional burnout. Furthermore, it can be used to support building of new social workers, in case of staff turnover during the consultancy period.

• 128 hours of quality on-demand supervision sessions for social workers

(16 working days)

1 May 2021 – 15 November 2022

Review materials and conduct refresher training for local good parenting trainers

The consultant(s) will review educational materials used by UNICEF partner organization SYH for parental study circles (6 educational sessions for parents of children of pre-school age and 6 sessions for parents of adolescents) as well as propose changes and additions as necessary.

A refresher training (up to 4 days) will be conducted for local trainers based on the revised materials and identified gaps.

Besides trainers engaged in the good parenting programme, other interested professionals might join the group of trainees.

• Revised materials for parental study circles; follow-up refresher training

(10 days, including 6 days to prepare and 4 days to conduct)

1 May 2023 – 15 June 2023

Duration: From 1/05/2023 to 15/11/2023 (48 days)

Travel: Most of the tasks under the consultancy will be implemented remotely. Trips to Abkhazia might be considered depending on the situation with entry procedures and operational context. In case of travel, details will be coordinated with the consultants and amendments to the contract will be made accordingly.

Location: Home-based

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

• Advanced university degree in psychology, counselling, psychotherapy, psychiatry or a related field;

• At least 10 years’ experience of work in the field of the provision of psychological aid to children; at least 3 years’ experience working as professional supervisor;

• Proven experience in providing training in the above field;

• Understanding of UNICEF approaches and recommendations in the relevant field; experience of work with UN will be an asset;

• Understanding of child protection systems and services;

• Exceptional communication skills;

• Working knowledge of English; Russian is an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, and Sustainability (CRITAS).

To view our competency framework, please visit here.

UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.

UNICEF offers reasonable accommodation for consultants/individual contractors with disabilities. This may include, for example, accessible software, travel assistance for missions or personal attendants. We encourage you to disclose your disability during your application in case you need reasonable accommodation during the selection process and afterwards in your assignment.

UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.

Remarks:

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.

Individuals engaged under a consultancy or individual contract will not be considered “staff members” under the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations and UNICEF’s policies and procedures, and will not be entitled to benefits provided therein (such as leave entitlements and medical insurance coverage). Their conditions of service will be governed by their contract and the General Conditions of Contracts for the Services of Consultants and Individual Contractors. Consultants and individual contractors are responsible for determining their tax liabilities and for the payment of any taxes and/or duties, in accordance with local or other applicable laws.

The selected candidate is solely responsible to ensure that the visa (applicable) and health insurance required to perform the duties of the contract are valid for the entire period of the contract. Selected candidates are subject to confirmation of fully-vaccinated status against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) with a World Health Organization (WHO)-endorsed vaccine, which must be met prior to taking up the assignment. It does not apply to consultants who will work remotely and are not expected to work on or visit UNICEF premises, programme delivery locations or directly interact with communities UNICEF works with, nor to travel to perform functions for UNICEF for the duration of their consultancy contracts.

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Potential interview questions

Added 3 years ago - Updated 1 year ago - Source: unicef.org