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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Transforming Missouri's Child Welfare System

National Child Welfare Workforce Institute, 2017

This video from the National Child Welfare Workforce Institute explains how the state of Missouri in the US reformed its child welfare system by strengthening the social service workforce.

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Foster and kinship carer recruitment and retention: Encouraging and sustaining quality care to improve outcomes for children and young people in care.

Giovanna Richmond & Morag McArthur - Institute of Child Protection Studies, 2017

The subject of this report is to present the findings of stage two of a project aimed to address the anticipated risk to the foster care workforce by identifying and disseminating the most effective strategies to attract, support and retain foster caring families across all states and territories in Australia.

Undertaking a connected person/family and friends assessment

Paul Adams - CoramBAAF, 2017

Undertaking a connected person / family and friends assessment is designed to help social workers to manage and complete a comprehensive and evidence-based assessment of connected people / family and friends who wish to foster or be special guardians to a known child or children.

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Professional social work and the defence of children’s and their families’ rights in a period of austerity: A case study

Jane Tunstill, Carolyne Willow - Social Work and Social Sciences Review, 2017

This article explores the implications of austerity for professional child and family social workers in the UK.

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Safety and risk assessment tools for the South African child protection services : theory and practice

Gloudien Spies, Rina Delport and Liana (M.P.) le Roux - Acta Criminologica: Southern African Journal of Criminology, 2017

This article provides a discussion of the theoretical basis underpinning safety and risk assessment in child protection, and further describes the empirical research process involved in the development of safety and risk assessment tools and training materials for social workers in the South African child protection field.

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Case Management and Supervision Package

Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action, 2017

This package is a compilation of resources and new evidence for case management and supervision of humanitarian workers in responding to child protection situations.

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A Relational Approach to Practice: An Ethical Alternative to Working With Parents in Out-of-Home Care Processes

Elizabeth Claire Reimer - Journal of Social Work Values and Ethics, 2017

This qualitative study explored a relational practice approach with parents whose children have been removed into out-of-home care in Australia.

Capacity building of community based child care workers: A National Training Manual for Para Social Workers (2nd Edition)

Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development - Uganda, 2017

This manual is intended to train Para-social workers who are a non-formal “workforce” that constitute the largest but yet undefined group of caregivers who provide support and services to vulnerable children and families, particularly in low and middle income countries (GSSA, 2016).

National Case Management System for the Welfare and Protection of Children in Zimbabwe

Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare, Zimbabwe, 2017

The purpose of this document is to provide a framework for implementation of the National Case Management System (NCMS) for the care, protection and welfare of children in Zimbabwe.

European Recommendations on the Implementation of a Child Rights-Based Approach for Care Professionals Working with and for Children

SOS Children’s Villages International, 01 Nov 2016

The European Recommendations on the implementation of a child rights-based approach for care professionals working with and for children highlights the steps to be undertaken to develop a child care service workforce capable of applying a child rights-based approach to their work.