‘Ensure upcoming Social Work Profession Bill includes public sector’

KUCHING (March 17): Malaysia needs to strengthen professional social work in all sectors, especially in the public sector, said the Social Workers Alliance Malaysia (SWAM).

SWAM in a statement said the country has a long way to go to provide skilled, child, and family-sensitive interventions required to protect and nurture vulnerable children.

“This is urgently needed not just at moments of crisis, but often long after, in addition to having programmes to prevent such crises occurring,” said the coalition, which comprises over 30 non-governmental organisations and individuals working on the issue of the Social Work Profession Bill.

According to SWAM, core to such services are professionally trained social workers able not only to holistically assess the range of needs and causes, but to also have the interpersonal skills to work with both those affected and others, so that collectively the best interests of the child are served.

“When a report of child abuse is made, it is expected that the Child Protection Officer from Social Welfare Department (JKM) is a trained social worker, as case management and submission of a social report as well as recommending a fit person is part of the Child Protector’s tasks.

“Likewise, when a child has strayed into delinquent behaviour the court will ask JKM to provide a report on what, within the sentencing guidelines, is the most apt way of proceeding.

“They will also ask JKM to assess the suitability of people to adopt, and whether such an adoption is in a child’s best interests,” said SWAM.

In addition, it said JKM has powers to assess if private and non-profit organisations are providing adequate standards of care and also run their own establishments.

The coalition pointed out that key agencies lack resources both in numbers of staff who are fully-trained, and the provision of regular supervision by more experienced colleagues.

It said the role of social workers and the complexities they address are not widely understood, resulting in the public not seeing the need for training as they do for those providing education or healthcare to children.

“The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) was encouraged by the government’s planned tabling of the Social Work Profession Bill but, like SWAM, wants to see the public sector included from the start, and not left to some future, undetermined date,” it added.

SWAM said this is crucial as public social workers are the ones who have mandatory powers.

“The government is also the major employer of social workers and their services are expected to cover the whole country. Back in 2010, it was estimated that only 10 per cent of the JKM social work staff were qualified.

“When people are recruited for this department, there is no requirement for the Public Services Department to select qualified social workers. This would be unheard of for nurses, counsellors or medics.”

Pointing out that supply is not the issue, SWAM said there are now seven public universities offering degrees in social work.

It said in the late 1990s, universities offering such degrees wanted a law to strengthen both entry to government posts and set mandatory hours of practice hours as part of the professional training.

“In 2010, the Cabinet approved a draft bill mandating social workers in all sectors to be qualified and regulated but it did not make it to Parliament.

“Last year, the long-awaited Bill was revealed by the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development but this new version, surprisingly, only focused on the non-public sector, which has a minuscule number of qualified social workers, when compared to the government sector,” said SWAM.

“Following feedback, it was withdrawn for further review. However, it is as yet unclear whether or not the UN’s call for inclusion of the public sector is to be heeded.”

It thus called on the government to honour the UNCRC Concluding Observations by ensuring the upcoming Social Work Profession Bill is inclusive of the public sector.

“The UNCRC Committee has been clear: statutory child protection requires a unified standard of professional regulation.

“By including government social workers in this legislation, Malaysia will ultimately align with our Asean neighbours—the majority of whom already uphold inclusive legal frameworks that recognise social work as a regulated profession across both state and non-state sectors,” it added.

In November last year, Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri said the government would review the proposed establishment of a Social Work Profession Council for possible inclusion in the Social Work Profession Bill.

Raised during a supplementary question from Ampang MP Rodziah Ismail, Nancy said the proposal would be studied alongside the ministry’s ongoing review of policy changes in the Bill before it is tabled in the Dewan Rakyat.

She added that among the policy amendments being considered was the full application of the law to social workers in the public sector, compared with the earlier proposal that it only covers those in the private sector.