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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Personal and professional impacts of work-related stress alleviation strategies among child welfare workers in child advocacy center settings

Oliver W. J. Beer, Rebecca Phillips, Megan M. Letson, Kathryn G. Wolf - Children and Youth Services Review, 29 Dec 2020

This study analyzed three open-ended responses from a national online survey examining compassion fatigue in Children’s Advocacy Centers (CACs) to understand the impact of work-related stress on child welfare workers (CWWs).

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Impacts of policy changes on Care-Leaving Workers in a time of coronavirus: Comparative analysis of discretion and constraints

Mary Elizabeth Collins & Astraea Augsberger - Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis: Research and Practice , 27 Dec 2020

This policy analysis examines the impact of COVID-19 policy guidance on the role of workers who provide outreach to transition-age care leavers.

Secondary traumatic stress, burnout and compassion satisfaction among Flemish foster care workers during the COVID-19 lockdown

Camille Verheyden, Frank Van Holen, Delphine West, and Johan Vanderfaeillie - Developmental Child Welfare, 20 Dec 2020

This study examines secondary traumatic stress (STS), burnout and compassion satisfaction (CS) in Flemish foster care workers (FCW) during the COVID-19 lockdown.

Shared Traumatic Stress and the Impact of COVID-19 on Public Child Welfare Workers

Deirdre S. Williams - Shared Trauma, Shared Resilience During a Pandemic, 13 Dec 2020

This article explores the risk of significant shared traumatic stress among public child welfare (PCW) workers.

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Training Materials Virtual Training Program on Social Service Delivery During COVID-19 and Other Emergencies

Uganda Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development , 11 Dec 2020

The overall aim of the training programme is t

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Child welfare workers’ experiences of client-perpetrated violence: Implications for worker mental health

Erin A. King - Children and Youth Services Review, 30 Nov 2020

The objectives of this study include exploring the prevalence of three types of client-perpetrated violence (CPV) and the influence of each type of CPV on mental health outcomes of workers.

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Child Welfare: Preparing Social Workers for Practice in the Field

Kathryn Krase, Tobi DeLong Hamilton, 24 Nov 2020

Child Welfare: Preparing Social Workers for Practice in the Field is a comprehensive text for child welfare courses taught from a social work perspective. This textbook provides a single source for all material necessary for a contextual child welfare course.

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Towards recognising practitioners working in out-of-home care as experts in everyday life: A conceptual critique

Claire Cameron - International Journal of Social Pedagogy, 16 Nov 2020

This article examines the case for greater recognition of the children’s workforce in out-of-home care (OHC), and situates the concept of ‘expertise’ in the rise of recognition of children’s status as competent social actors, as well as in professionalisation debates.

Residential childcare workers in child welfare and moral distress

Denise Michelle Brend - Children and Youth Services Review, 09 Nov 2020

For this study, an exploratory theoretical thematic analysis of the narratives of residential childcare workers in child welfare (RCWs) was performed to further understanding about the nature of the psychological distress reported by RCWs.

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The Role of Para Social Workers in Rural Communities in Uganda: Strengthening Community Resilience for the Protection of Children

Jennifer J. Driscoll - Child Abuse Review, 06 Nov 2020

This article considers the potential efficacy of the para social workers (PSW) model in strengthening child protection at community level in Uganda.