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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Capacity Building Strategy for Social Welfare Services Workforce

Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, UNICEF, 01 Sep 2020

Based on social welfare workforce assessment, a long-term capacity building strategy was developed to assist the Government of Ghana - specifically the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection (MoGCSP) and the Office of the Head of Local Government Service (OHLGS) - to strengthen its social welfare workforce in order to respond appropriately to the needs of vulnerable and marginalized children and other populations in the country.

Racial disparities in child welfare in Ontario (Canada) and training on ethnocultural diversity: An innovative mixed-methods study

Jude Mary Cénat, Pari-Gole Noorishad, Konrad Czechowski, Sara-Emilie McIntee, Joana N. Mukunzi - Child Abuse & Neglect, 26 Aug 2020

This study aimed to explore questions relating to caseworker’s training on ethnocultural diversity in connection with racial disparities and overrepresentation of Black children in child welfare services.

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"Oh, this is actually okay": Understanding how one state child welfare training system adapted to the COVID-19 pandemic

Laura M. Schwab-Reese, Ida Drury, Heather Allan, and Kasey Matz - Child Abuse & Neglect, 19 Aug 2020

The purpose of this project was to determine if there were differences in learning outcomes between learners who completed child protection training in the usual delivery methods (Pre-COVID) and the fully virtual delivery methods (Post-COVID).

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Strategies used by child and youth care workers to develop belonging and foster healthy attachments with young people in care in child and youth care centers in Tshwane, South Africa

Mizeck Chimange & Sue Bond - Children and Youth Services Review, 19 Aug 2020

This qualitative study, conducted in four child and youth care centres in the Tshwane region of South Africa, presents some techniques used by child and youth care workers to develop belonging.

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Vicarious traumatization among child welfare and child protection professionals: A systematic review

Beth E. Molnar, Samantha A. Meeker, Katherine Manners, Lisa Tieszen, Karen Kalergis, Janet E. Fine, Sean Hallinan, Jessica D. Wolfe, Muriel K. Wells - Child Abuse & Neglect, 18 Aug 2020

For this study, a review of research literature on the epidemiology of vicarious traumatization among child welfare professionals was conducted.

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Vicarious traumatization among child welfare and child protection professionals: A systematic review

Beth E. Molnar, Samantha A. Meeker, Katherine Manners, Lisa Tieszen, Karen Kalergis, Janet E. Fine, Sean Hallinan, Jessica D. Wolfe, Muriel K. Wells - Child Abuse & Neglect, 18 Aug 2020

For this study, a review of research literature on the epidemiology of vicarious traumatization among child welfare professionals was conducted.

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CYC-Online: August 2020

International Child and Youth Care Network (CYC-Net), 01 Aug 2020

This issue of the e-journal CYC-Online includes articles on the impact of COVID-19 on children in alternative care in South Asia, residential care centers during COVID-19, child welfare experience among child and youth care practitioners, and more.

Child welfare workers’ resilience and coping styles in Ankara, Turkey

Burcu Genç & Sema Buz - International Social Work, 31 Jul 2020

This study aims to elucidate child welfare workers’ resilience and coping styles.

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Not What I Expected: Training Social Worker Students in Community-Based Child Prevention of Child Maltreatment

Carmit Katz, Jill D. McLeigh & Asher Ben-Arieh - International Journal on Child Maltreatment: Research, Policy and Practice, 28 Jul 2020

This article describes the local training model developed to implement Strong Communities for Children, a community-based child maltreatment prevention initiative in Israel, and presents a qualitative analysis of field journals maintained by three waves of students.

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Envisioning a reflective, relationship-based approach to termination in child welfare: The importance of thinking, feeling, and doing

Ashley Curry - Children and Youth Services Review, 29 Jun 2020

Using in-depth interviews and participant observation over a two-year period, this study explores workers’ experiences of and strategies for ending relationships with youth in an independent living program.

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