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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Championing the Role of Child Welfare Professionals

Capacity Building Center for States, 2020

Child welfare professionals have a deep and often quiet impact on children’s lives—working to connect families with resources, determining appropriate placements, and responding around the clock to address emergencies.

Positive Parenting: For Parents/Caregivers and Social Service Workers

Miracle Foundation, 2020

This toolkit is designed for parents/caregivers and the social service workforce guiding them. It provides practical tips that can be implemented quickly and mini lessons on topics of importance to anyone raising or supporting a child.

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Re-Imagining Child and Youth Care Practice with African Canadian Youth

Beverly-Jean Daniel and Johanne Jean-Pierre - International Journal of Child, Youth and Family Studies, 2020

This article explores how we can re-imagine child and youth care practice with African Canadian youth.

Strategies to strengthen the Social Service Workforce for Child Protection

UNICEF, 2020

In 2019, UNICEF issued its first ever global Guidelines to Strengthen the Social Service Workforce for Child Protection. This two-module course is aligned to the Guidelines and aims to equip the learner with key strategies to strengthen social service workforce.

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Supporting Local Civil Society Organizations: Capacity building for child rights defenders in Kosovo

Save the Children, 2020

This document includes a summary of Save the Children's work to strengthen civil society organizations in Kosovo, with a particular focus on banning corporal punishment in all settings.

Psychosocial Support: For the Social Service Workforce

Miracle Foundation, 2020

This toolkit is designed for the social service workforce in need of basic counseling skills. It includes mini lessons that teach fundamental counseling skills and activities and worksheets to provide opportunity to practice the skills.

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Impacts of transformational leadership on turnover intention of child welfare workers

Taekyung Park & Barbara Pierce - Children and Youth Services Review, 30 Nov 2019

This study aimed to examine how organizational factors, particularly leadership, affect child welfare worker turnover intentions in order to help child welfare agencies establish a practice model that prevents the turnover of qualified workers.

Increasing child protection workforce retention through promoting a relational-reflective framework for resilience

Erica Russ, Bob Lonne, Deborah Lynch - Child Abuse & Neglect, 26 Nov 2019

This Australian longitudinal, qualitative study explored child protection worker perceptions and experiences of resilience to inform understandings of worker resilience, and implications for worker functioning and workforce retention.

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Increasing child protection workforce retention through promoting a relational-reflective framework for resilience

Erica Russ, Bob Lonne, Deborah Lynch - Child Abuse & Neglect, 26 Nov 2019

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Key variations in organizational culture and leadership influence: A comparison between three children’s mental health and child welfare agencies

Rosemary Vito - Children and Youth Services Review, 22 Nov 2019

The purpose of this article is to present qualitative research results from a multiple case study on variations in organizational culture and leadership influence between three children’s mental health and child welfare agencies in Ontario, Canada.