COAG recommends national registration of social workers
- Details
- Category: Child Protection Australia media articles
- Created: Tuesday, 15 March 2016 06:53
- Written by ABC News - James Hancock
A national registration system for social workers is being urged by the South Australian Government in the wake of damning coronial findings after the tragic death of Adelaide girl Chloe Valentine. ***(In fact, the social workers themselves are looking at adopting a "self-regulated" model of oversight, which will do nothing to help protect children or ensure that social workers are abiding by the laws. Afterall, it's no different to the law society of each state regulating lawyers that pay to run the law society.*)
Key points:
Coroner Mark Johns investigated the child's death in 2012 after she crashed when forced to ride a small motorbike in her backyard as her mother and then-partner watched on.
Mr Johns recommended formal registration for social workers as part of the National Registration and Accreditation Scheme because he found shortcomings in the handling of the Valentine case by workers at government agency Families SA. SA Health Minister Jack Snelling will put the registration proposal to next month's Council of Australian Governments health council meeting in Perth.
"It does require unanimity on the council because obviously you can't have different states with different registration systems," Mr Snelling, who chairs the health council, said.
Chloe Valentine's mother and then-partner were jailed for criminal neglect over the child's death.
The inquest was told social workers had been inadequately trained and relied on emotion rather than professional knowledge in their work.
Mr Snelling conceded any legal registration of social workers could still be years away.
"When South Australia agitated for a national accreditation scheme for paramedics it took some years before we were actually able to get all the states to agree to do that," he said.
Social worker registration could ensure adequate standards
The Association of Social Workers said it had sought a registration system for two decades.
SA branch president Mary Hood said not all people who called themselves social workers were qualified as such and a registration system would lead to greater accountability.
"We would also be able to hold those qualified social workers to standards that we set up as a professional association, so that certainly is something that we think would raise the bar," Dr Hood said.
University of South Australia child protection expert Elspeth McInnes agreed with the association that universities could help boost the calibre of social work.
Current degrees covered such things as working with the elderly and homeless, but Dr McInnes said there was a case for introducing undergraduate electives or post graduate degrees with a focus on child protection.
Dr McInnes said people from a range of different professions potentially had something to contribute to child protection.
"Lawyers who work in that area and that whole criminal justice system could benefit from understanding child protection more concretely," she said.
"There are others like medical workers, the whole health workforce, that come into contact with children who have experienced abuse."
Uni SA and Flinders University said existing courses covered child protection, but the content could be boosted.
*** Interjection by Alecomm
* https://www.aasw.asn.au/social-policy-advocacy/self-regulation
Source : http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2016-03-13/sa-pushes-for-national-social-worker-registration/7241018?WT.mc_id=newsmail
