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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Overview of current frameworks for systems strengthening: Initial Observations

PTA & TRG, 2011

This presentation provides an overview of approaches and frameworks utilized to strengthen child protection systems in Africa.

Family engagement: Bulletin for professionals

Child Welfare Information Gateway, 01 Jun 2010

Family engagement is the foundation of good casework practice that promotes the safety, permanency, and well-being of children and families in the US child welfare system. This brief offers information to help State child welfare managers improve family engagement across program areas.

The Practical Guide of the Professional Supervision Mechanism in Social Assistance (Moldova)

Ministry of Social Protection, Family and Child (Moldova) and OPM/EveryChild Moldova, 01 Dec 2009

The Practical Guide of the Professional Supervision Mechanism in Social Assistance was developed in cooperation with the Ministry of Social Protection, Family and Child (Moldova), with the technical support of the "Support in the Delivery of Effic

Children and young people in care: Discover your rights!

Council of Europe, 01 Nov 2009

This booklet is designed for children and young people in care to explain how alternative care works, what their rights are as young people in care and whether these rights are being respected.

The Social Work Curriculum Development Advocacy Paper

UNICEF Afghanistan, 01 Feb 2009

This paper outlines a vision for the network of services, policies, and programmes necessary to protect children at risk and enable them to reach their full potential, free from violence, exploitation, and abuse.

Developmental Social Work Education in Southern and East Africa

Tessa Hochfeld | Lisa Selipsky | Rodreck Mupedziswa | Christopher Chitereka - Centre for Social Development in Africa, 01 Feb 2009

This research project aimed to contribute to knowledge development in understanding how the social development approach is actually being used by individual schools of social work in Southern and East Africa, and how this approach is impacting social work training, through primary empirical research.

Human Capacity within Child Welfare Systems: The Social Work Workforce in Africa

Rebecca Davis for USAID , 2009

This document informs stakeholders about the opportunities for and constraints on building the social work workforce within the child welfare sector in Africa.

Support Supervision Guide for Orphans and Other Vulnerable Children (OVC) Service Delivery

Uganda Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development, 2009

This guide aims to facilitate provision of supervision, technical support and quality assurance for OVC services and interventions by different stakeholders in Uganda.

The Mechanism of Professional Supervision in Social Assistance (Moldova)

Minister of Social Protection, Family and Child (Moldova), 31 Dec 2008

This document, entitled "The Mechanism of Professional Supervision in Social Assistance", was approved by Order of the Minister of Social Protection, Family and Child (Moldova) on 31 December 2008.

Social Work Education and the Practice Environment in Europe & Eurasia

United States Agency for International Development, 30 Nov 2008

The purpose of this study is to inform stakeholders about the current status of social work in the region, describe the practice environment, identify gaps between what is expected of social workers and the reality, provide examples of best practices, and make recommendations for furthering the development of social work in the region.