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 Impact of Organizational Structure and Funding Sources on the Work and Health of Employed Caregivers in Children’s Homes in Ghana

Ernest Darkwah, Marguerite Daniel, Maxwell Asumeng - Occupational Health Science, 25 Jul 2018

This study explored how organizational structure (dormitory vs family unit) and funding sources (government vs private) influence the work and health of individuals employed as caregivers in children’s homes in Ghana.

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What does empathy sound like in social work communication? A mixed‐methods study of empathy in child protection social work practice

Amy Lynch, Fiona Newlands, Donald Forrester - Child & Family Social Work, 12 Jul 2018

This study contributes to the development of understanding of empathy as a social work skill through a mixed‐methods analysis of 110 audio recordings of meetings in a child protection service between workers and parents, applying a coding framework for analysis.

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Conceptualisations of Family and Social Work Family Practice in Chile, Mexico and Norway

Ingunn Studsrød, Ingunn T. Ellingsen, Carolina Muñoz Guzmán and Sandra E. Mancinas Espinoza - Social Policy and Society, 06 Jul 2018

This article presents findings from a cross-national study exploring how social workers in child welfare conceptualise ‘family’, and how they relate to ‘family’ in their practice.

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Decision‐making under uncertainty in child protection: Creating a just and learning culture

Eileen Munro - Child & Family Social Work, 04 Jul 2018

In this article, the argument is made for having a positive error culture in child protection to improve decision‐making and risk management.

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Compassion fatigue, compassion satisfaction and work engagement in residential child care

Dr Kerry Audin, Dr Jolanta Burke, Dr Itai Ivtzan - Scottish Journal of Residential Child Care, 01 Jul 2018

This quantitative study investigated the relationship between compassion fatigue, compassion satisfaction and work engagement in staff working in independent residential childcare organisations in England, Scotland and Wales.

Advancing Partners & Communities: Organizational Capacity Assessment Tool

Advancing Partners & Communities (APC), USAID, fhi360, JSI, 01 Jul 2018

Advancing Partners & Communities (APC) is a five-year cooperative agreement funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development beginning October 1, 2012. The project focuses on advancing and supporting community programs that seek to improve the overall health of communities and achieve other health-related impacts, especially in relationship to family planning. APC provides global leadership for community-based programming, executes and manages small- and medium-sized sub-awards, supports procurement reform by preparing awards for execution by USAID, and builds technical capacity of organizations to implement effective programs.

Family Care for Children with Disabilities: Practical Guidance for Frontline Workers in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

Elayn M. Sammon and Gwen Burchell - World Learning, Partnerships for Every Child, USAID, 14 Jun 2018

Family Care for Children with Disabilities: Practical Guidance for Frontline Workers in Low- and Middle-Income Countries was developed to help front-line personnel (social service workers and others) in low- and middle-income countries to work effectively with children with disabilities and their families.

Child Welfare and Social Work: The Legal, Political and Social Contexts of Malaysia

Habibie Bte Hj Ibrahim, Norhamidah Jarimal - Malaysian Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, 01 Jun 2018

This paper is based on literature review on the legal, political and social context of Malaysia regarding child welfare and social work.

Expanding the Basics: Mapping the Gaps between Expert, Decision-Maker and Public Understandings of Early Childhood Development in Kenya

Eric Lindland, Teresa Mwoma, George Evans Owino, Mariah Ngutu, Lynette Okeng’o, Damaris Nelima - FrameWorks Institute , 01 Jun 2018

This report considers a set of key overlaps and gaps in understanding of children’s early development and perception among experts, the Kenyan public, and people who work and make decisions in the early childhood development (ECD) sector in Kenya.

Ending violence against children in Lao PDR: A multi-sectoral response to the national Violence against Children Survey Priority actions 2018

National Commission for Mothers and Children, Lao Statistics Bureau and UNICEF Lao PDR, 18 May 2018

This document outlines the priority actions to which the Government of Lao PDR is committed to pursuing in order to tackle violence against children in the country.