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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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.

Evidence based interventions to improve fostering relationships

Icheku, V and Paris, C - London South Bank University, 10 May 2018

The recommended interventions in this book is the result of a systematic review of literature conducted through a combination of hand and electronic database searches to select, appraise, extract, synthesis and analyse primary articles to find interventions that work.

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Call to Action: Strengthening the Social Service Workforce to Better Protect Children and Achieve the SDGs

Global Social Service Workforce Alliance & partners, 08 May 2018

This Call to Action makes recommendations at the country and global level for governments to initiate, lead and engage in dialogue with partners in order to strengthen the social service workforce and better protect children.

5th Annual Global Social Service Workforce Alliance Symposium - Event Recording

Global Social Service Workforce Alliance, 08 May 2018

The Global Social Service Workforce Alliance hosted its 5th Annual Social Service Workforce Symposium on Wednesday, May 8, 2018, from 9:00 a.m.-4:30 ET at the FHI 360 Conference Center in Washington, DC.

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A changing child welfare workforce: What worker characteristics are valued in child welfare?

Kristen Lwin, Barbara Fallon, Nico Trocmé, John Fluke, & Faye Mishna - Child Abuse & Neglect, 07 May 2018

This study examined data from five cycles over twenty years of Ontario Incidence Studies (-1993, -1998, -2003, -2008, -2013) to provide a profile of child welfare workers.

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Violence Against Children Survey in Lao PDR: Full Report

National Commission for Mothers and Children, Lao Statistics Bureau and UNICEF Lao PDR, 01 May 2018

This report provides estimates of the prevalence of physical, emotional and sexual violence against children and information about the circumstances in which violence occurs in Lao PDR, based on findings from the national Violence against Children Survey.

Communication patterns between foster parents and case managers

Melissa Denlinger & Cassandra Dorius - Children and Youth Services Review, 23 Apr 2018

The current study examined how to best facilitate a healthier professional relationship between case managers and foster families with the goal of identifying concrete ways to improve the relationship and drive foster parent retention.

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Serving clients and the community better: A mixed‐methods analysis of benefits experienced when organizations collaborate in child welfare

Marianna L. Colvin & Shari E. Miller - Child & Family Social Work, 16 Apr 2018

Data from extensive qualitative interviews (n = 67) and a survey instrument (n = 80) are used in this study to examine the perceived benefits experienced when organizations interact in community‐wide child welfare practice.

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Focused training of child and youth-care workers for promoting social and educational inclusion of youth at risk

Liat Yakhnich, Emmanuel Grupper & Shlomo Romi - Child & Youth Services, 16 Apr 2018

This opinion note aims at opening a discussion about a new, inclusion-focused perspective on higher professional education of CYC workers.

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