Short consultancy | Social worker

Access to physical rehabilitation services for persons with disabilities in the West Bank

Planned Date: November 2010, ASAP
1-Project background:
HI has been operating in Palestine since 1996 and has developed relationship with several disability stakeholders. According to general estimations by WHO, between 7-10% of a given population would have some kind of disability; in the Palestinian Territories, this implies that the figure would be around 270 000 – 390 000 people. Regular assessments were done in order to identify needs of PWDs in OPT.

The findings of the last assessment are described below:

-Lack of information of PWDs on services available and how to access it
-Lack of quality and appropriate assistive devices
-Low quality of rehabilitation services not addressing the users' needs
-Limited accessibility to rehabilitation services for PWDs
-Increased number of PWDs and deterioration of the socio-economical situation in the OPT

Project Specific Objective: Persons with disabilities can access to holistic physical rehabilitation services in the West Bank
-Expected result 1:The physical rehabilitation centres operating in the West Bank deliver holistic services.
-Expected result 2:PWDs are able to obtain a diverse range of adapted to their specific needs and affordable assistive devices (AD's)
-Expected result 3:Accessible transportation options facilitate PWDs' access to rehabilitation services
-Expected result 4:PWDs, their families and all relevant stakeholders have information about the existing rehabilitation services

2-Scope of work

“Social work profession promotes problem solving in human relationships, social change, empowerment and liberation of people, and enhancement of the society.  Utilizing theories of human behavior and social systems, social works intervenes at the points where people interact with their environments.  Principles of human rights and social justice are fundamental to social work
Social workers are considered as one pillar in the rehabilitation process in almost all rehabilitation centers in the West Bank.  The problem identification process in the current project revealed that social workers field suffers several weaknesses both on the technical and approach levels. Several signs starting from ability to deliver services efficiently to the PWDs until unclear roles and responsibilities in the rehabilitation team have been noticed. As a result the level of service provision in general for PWDs has been impacted.

The consultant will, therefore, organize a need assessment activity to shed more light on and determine the priority technical training needs for the social workers working in the field of the physical rehabilitation for PWDs in the WB. In coordination with HI technical advisor, the consultant will recommend special topics for the training and design a training curriculum reflecting the general objective of the current project as well as HI capacity building strategy.

3.-Specific objectives of the consultancy

Objective 1: Assess the training needs for the social workers in several rehabilitation centers in the WB. 
The need assessment will be implemented involving Social Workers from the targeted rehabilitation centers who are able with the support of the consultant to identify their needs in the framework of the physical rehabilitation process within their centers.

Objective 2: Report findings
The consultant will share the results report with the participants from the Social Workers and HI technical advisor so that a space of discussion is allowed to agree on the needs and help assign specific training curriculum accordingly. 

Objective 3: Designing the training curriculum
In close coordination with HI team, the consultant will build the training curriculum following the agreed needs identified before and agreed upon from HI technical advisor, consultant as well as partner centers insuring that the overall objective of the training is well planned and that the project objective is well reflected.

3-Activities
-Draft action plan with associated cost for the whole operation until end of consultancy period.
-In cooperation with HI technical advisor, organize the needs/demand assessment.
-Coordinate with social workers association in the WB.
-Reporting on results of agreed training needs.
-Build the main components of the training curriculum.
-Advice on identification of possible trainers specific to each subject.

4-Profile of the consultant
-PhD or Master Degree in Social Work field or closely related field combined with experience in teaching in academic setting.
-Five years working experience in the Social Work in the field of physical rehabilitation and disability issues.
-Has strong links within the field of social work in the West Bank.
-Excellent communication skills, able to maintain confidentiality of information
-Excellent English language skills (reading writing and speaking).
-Excellent reporting skills

5-Relation with the HI project team
The consultant will work in close collaboration with HI technical advisor, and report to HI Project Manager.
 
6-Main Expected Deliverables
6.1-Work plan for a 10 days consultancy based on understanding of project scope and intervention context.
6.2-Need assessment report for training needs of social workers being identified and shared jointly with SW association, SWs, Service providers and HI Technical advisor.
6.3-Drafting the training curriculum covering satisfactorily the aspects of the training identified in the needs assessment.

7-Time frame
-10 working days.
-Deadline for end of consultancy: 30th of November 2010

8-Suggested work plan:
Day Activities:

Day 1
-Meeting with HI Project Manager, project and methodology briefing.
-Review of project documents, log frame, problem tree, etc…

Day 2
-Technical meeting with HI Technical advisor to discuss expected outputs and exact definition of SW roles and responsibilities in the rehabilitation centers, opportunities of optimizing efficiency
-Planning for the 7days assuming the needs assessment process and sharing with HI Technical Advisor and Project Manager

Day 3
-Building the need assessment tools, methodology and SW list
-Seeking advice of HI TA upon need!

Day 4
-Needs assessment with SW from HI partner centers

Day 5
-Needs assessment with SW from HI partner centers

Day 6
-Discussion on willingness of SW and suggested content of the training curriculum

Day 7
-Drafting the training curriculum
-Involvement of stakeholders on final agreement on training topics

Day 8
-Drafting training curriculum

Day 9
-Finalizing training curriculum

Day 10
-Final reporting to HI on consultancy results

Interested candidates may please send their resume with cover letter before the 2nd of November 2010 to: [email protected]