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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The views of social workers and special guardians on planning contact for special guardianship children

Nicholas Thompson - Journal of Children's Services, 11 Oct 2019

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the recommending of contact in special guardianship cases is currently working, by holding focus groups with social workers and special guardians.

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The Social Service Workforce in the East Asia and Pacific Region: Multi-Country Review

UNICEF East Asia, Pacific Regional Office, Global Social Service Workforce Alliance, 01 Oct 2019

The first multi-country review of the social service workforce in the East Asia and Pacific region was prepared by the Global Social Service Workforce Alliance (GSSWA) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) East Asia and the Pacific Regional Office (EAPRO) with the support and contribution of many people throughout the region. This report is one of several regional reports being produced by GSSWA and UNICEF to increase the availability of information on the social service workforce, and provide a baseline from which to consider ongoing workforce strengthening initiatives.

Strengthening Social Service Delivery through Workforce Development in the Middle East and North Africa Region

UNICEF, Global Social Service Workforce Alliance, and Maestral International, 29 Sep 2019

This report is a review of the social service workforce in eight countries: Djibouti, Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Sudan and Tunisia.

Country Care Review: Greece

Better Care Network , 19 Sep 2019

This country care review includes the Concluding Observations for the Committee on the Rights of the Child and the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities adopted as part of the Committees' examinations of Greece’s reports, as well as other care-related concluding observations, ratification dates, and links to the Universal Periodic Review and Hague Intercountry Adoption Country Profile.

Reasons to care: Personal motivation as a key factor in the practice of the professional foster carer in Romania

Alexandru Neagoe, Doina Larisa Maria Neag, Daniel Lucheș - PLoS ONE, 18 Sep 2019

This paper explores the benefits, challenges and dilemmas involved in the job of professional (i.e. state-supported) foster carer in Romania–a country where the issue of child protection has drawn a great deal of international attention over the last thirty years.

The Importance of Social Work Supervision and Supervision Training

Better Care Network, 12 Sep 2019

In this video, Leang Lo, from Save the Children Cambodia, shares some of his learning that informed the development of the Social Work Supervision Training Program for the member organisations of Family Care First (a network dedicated to supporting children to live in safe nurturing family-based care).

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Cambodian Practitioner Learning Video Series

Better Care Network, 12 Sep 2019

Comprised of 12 videos and accompanying discussion guides, this video series features the learning from practitioners working across a range of care-related programs and practices in Cambodia.

Programme Brief: Building the Social Service Workforce for Childcare Reform in Rwanda

National Commission for Children, UNICEF, USAID, 01 Aug 2019

This programme brief describes the establishment and development of the social service workforce in Rwanda - as part of the Tubarerere Mu Murayango (TMM - Let’s Raise Children in Families) programme to enable children and young adults to live in families and communities rather than in residential facilities - and draws out lessons learnt from this process.

Collaborative Alliance of Parent and Child Welfare Caseworker

Tyrone C. Cheng, Celia C. Lo - Child Maltreatment, 30 Jul 2019

This secondary analysis of data describing 3,035 parents, drawn from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being II, identified factors fostering the collaborative alliance of parents and caseworkers within the child welfare system.

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Storytelling among child welfare social workers: Constructing professional role and resilience through team talk

Laura L Cook - Qualitative Social Work, 25 Jul 2019

This article focuses on professional storytelling among child welfare social workers. It examines how social workers construct their professional role through team talk and the implications of this for our understanding of professional resilience and defensiveness.

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