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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Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking Refugee Children’s Forced Repatriation: Social Workers’ and Police Officers’ Health and Job Characteristics

Johanna Sundqvist, Jonas Hansson, Mehdi Ghazinour, Kenneth Ögren & Mojgan Padyab - Global Journal of Health Science, 16 Apr 2015

This study aimed to bridge the gap in knowledge of the relationship between general mental health and working with unaccompanied asylum-seeking refugee children who are due for forced repatriation for social workers and police officers in Sweden.

Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking Refugee Children’s Forced Repatriation: Social Workers' and Police Officers’ Health and Job Characteristics | Sundqvist | Global Journal of Health Science

From Volunteering to Voluntourism: Challenges for the Responsible Development of a Growing Travel Trend

ECPAT Germany, Tourism Watch, Bread for the World, Working Group - Tourism & Development (akte) , 01 Mar 2015

This publication serves as a guide for responsible voluntourism, both for volunteers and volunteer tour operators.

Manual del Estudiante, Módulo Número 1 Enfocado en: Valores, conocimientos y habilidades interpersonales para la Protección de Niñez y Adolescencia

Jini Roby, Semillas de Esperanza Guatemala de Buckner Internacional y la Escuela de Estudios Judiciales, del Organismo Judicial de Guatemala, 04 Feb 2015

Este taller está diseñado para entrenar los expertos técnicos en los valores y principios básicos involucrados en la labor del trabajo de Protección de Niñez y Adolescencia.

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A Social Worker’s Tool Kit for Working With Immigrant Families: Healing the Damage: Trauma and Immigrant Families in the Child Welfare System

The Center on Immigration and Child Welfare, 01 Feb 2015

This toolkit, originally published in September 2010 and updated in February 2015, serves as a resource for social workers in the US who are working with immigrant families within the child welfare system.

Can a Munro-Inspired Approach Transform the Lives of Looked after Children in England?

Martyn Higgins, Annabel Goodyer & Andrew Whittaker - Social Work Education: The International Journal , 01 Feb 2015

This paper discusses and examines the lessons learned from the Munro Review relevant for looked after children. The Munro Review provides an analysis of the current state of the child protection system, challenging bureaucratised practice and arguing for a reclaiming of professional social work identity, knowledge and understanding.

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The Role of Social Service Workforce Development in Care Reform

Better Care Network and the Global Social Service Workforce Alliance, 2015

This working paper, produced by the Better Care Network and the Global Social Service Workforce Alliance, explores the topic of social service workforce strengthening as it relates to child care reform.

Training Toolkit on the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child

The African Child Policy Forum & the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, with financial support from Save the Children, 2015

This toolkit is designed to increase knowledge of the rights and duties provided in the ACRWC and ACERWC, educate government officials on the obligations of State Parties and inform civil society actors on the contents of the Charter as well as the mechanisms for engaging with the ACERWC.

Practice Recommendations for Mental Health Professionals: Perspectives from Grandparents and their Adolescent Grandchildren

Kendra A. O'Hora and Megan L. Dolbin-Mac - GrandFamilies: The Contemporary Journal of Research, Practice and Policy , 2015

To gain insight into how practitioners can best meet the needs of grandfamilies, 40 custodial grandmothers and their adolescent grandchildren were interviewed in this study.

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Critical Self-Reflection Questions for Professionals Who Work with Grandfamilies

Megan L. Dolbin-MacNab - GrandFamilies: The Contemporary Journal of Research, Practice and Policy , 2015

This practice brief provides an overview of critical self-reflection questions that can be used, in a variety of ways, for training purposes for professionals in the US who work with grandparents raising grandchildren.

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Comprehensive Assessment Model of Practice

Ramsey County Community Human Services, 2015

In the fall of 2007, Ramsey County Community Human Services (RCCHSD) was one of five sites chosen as recipients of a grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Children’s Bureau (USDHHS) for the“Using Comprehensive Family Assessments to Improve Child Welfare Outcomes” project, to develop a model of comprehensive family assessment to be used in child welfare.

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