Social Service Workforce Strengthening

A strong social service workforce is critical to meeting the needs of children without adequate family care. From government policy-makers, local administrators, researchers and social workers, to educators, community workers and care providers, social service actors play a key role in protecting girls and boys and promoting their care.

The development of a skilled and well-supported social service workforce is particularly important as countries move toward reforming their care systems and work to reduce reliance on residential care, strengthen families, prevent separation and promote family and community-based alternative care options. This is a challenging undertaking that requires social service actors from national to community level who are competent and willing to make changes to the way they deliver care, and are able to establish and manage a new range of preventive and responsive care services to children and families.

Strengthening the social service workforce in any country is complex. It involves creating supportive legislation and policies; developing recruitment, selection, employment, supervision, support and registration procedures; establishing education and training programmes; improving working conditions, ensuring licensing and practice standards; recognizing the status of care professionals; and raising awareness to change mindsets on care.

All of this requires working with a wide range of actors involved in supporting children and families. Substantial allocation (or redirection) of financial resources is also required, to ensure that sufficient numbers of skilled social service workers are available to work directly with children and their families at the community level, as well as at a higher administrative level to oversee care services and regulations.

This section contains documentation of social service workforce development within the context of national care reform and child protection system strengthening, including guidance, lessons learned and training tools.

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Prepare for Leaving Care Training in Spain: Young people as co-trainers

SOS Children's Villages, 22 May 2020

In this video, care professionals and care leavers describe their experiences of participating in the Prepare for Leaving Care Training, co-developed and co-delivered by young people with care experience.

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Professional quality of life and intent to leave the workforce: Gender disparities in child welfare

Stephanie Grace Prost & Jennifer S. Middleton - Child Abuse & Neglect, 22 May 2020

The current study aimed to describe the relative contributions of measures of professional quality of life (ProQOL) to intent on leaving the workforce among child welfare professionals.

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Webinar Recording: Social Service Workforce Safety and Wellbeing during the COVID-19 Response

Global Social Service Workforce Alliance, the Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action, UNICEF and the International Federation of Social Workers, 14 May 2020

This webinar focused on the newly released technical note on Social Service Workforce Safety and Wellbeing during the COVID-19 Response.

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COVID-19: Wellbeing and Self Care Resources for Carers and Practitioners

Ian Thomas & Dr Justin Rogers - The Martin James Foundation, 01 May 2020

This  briefing explores the importance of self-care for parents and carers, whilst outlining some ‘top-tips’ and helpful resources that can be accessed online. 

Compassion Fatigue and Resilience among Child Protection Service Workers in South Africa

Emma Janet Campbell & Leon Holtzhausen - Southern African Journal of Social Work and Social Development, 08 Apr 2020

The aim of this quantitative, inferential research was to investigate how working with vulnerable and abused children and families has an impact on child protection service workers in South Africa.

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‘Do I read it? No’. Knowledge utilisation in child welfare decisions.

Paul McCafferty - Child Care in Practice, 03 Apr 2020

This article presents findings from an exploratory in-depth qualitative research project with the objective of exploring the knowledge that social workers use to make decisions regarding permanency arrangements for Looked after Children.

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A new paradigm: Bringing a historical and sociopolitical trauma lens to the training for welfare practitioners working with Aboriginal families

Karen Menzies - Children & Society, 30 Mar 2020

This article argues that child protection agencies must provide mandatory training about the Aboriginal experience within the welfare state and the resultant trauma that exists in Australian Indigenous communities.

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What Protects Youth Residential Caregivers from Burning Out? A Longitudinal Analysis of Individual Resilience

Nina Kind, David Bürgin, Jörg M. Fegert, and Marc Schmid - International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 25 Mar 2020

This study investigated the association between resilience and burnout in a Swiss population of professional caregivers working in youth residential care.

Cultivating emotional intelligence in child welfare professionals: A systematic scoping review

Marlo A. Perry, Kristine Creavey, Erin Arthur, Jessica Chance Humer, P. J. Lundgren, Isabella Rivera - Child Abuse & Neglect, 10 Mar 2020

The present study had two goals: 1) To conduct a systematic scoping review of the literature on interventions purporting to develop and/or enhance emotional intelligence (EI)-related competencies in child welfare professionals, whether those interventions be at the caseworker, supervisor, or organizational level; 2) To consider future directions for the teaching and enhancement of EI competencies for child welfare professionals.

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The Better Future International’s family care model in Tanzania: Creating social capital as a means to empowerment in social work practice

Barbara Kail, Manoj Pardasani, Robert Chazin - International Social Work, 19 Feb 2020

This article describes the impact on social services of an innovative model of family care in Moshi, Tanzania, aimed at orphaned children and youth who are affected by HIV/AIDS and their caregivers.

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