Trends and needs in the Australian child welfare workforce : An exploratory study

[Extract] Until recently, there has been limited focus on the nature and readiness of the broader child welfare workforce for stronger engagement in child abuse intervention and prevention, particularly the universal workforce. There is a concentration of effort and funding in the tertiary sector but there are now increasing calls to prioritise public health prevention. An effective system of family supports, and early interventions entails an integration of programs and services across the three tiers of a public health system: primary, secondary and tertiary. To support workers in ensuring the safety and wellbeing of children and young people, all organisations that offer services to vulnerable children, young people and families—directly or indirectly—need to be able to attract, recruit and sustain a reliable and appropriately qualified and skilled workforce. This report presents findings from an exploratory study that examined broad-ranging, publicly available data to investigate emerging trends, issues and needs in the child welfare workforce and the educational profile of the workforce

Portrayals of Child Abuse Scandals in the Media in Australia and England: Impacts on Practice, Policy, and Systems

This article describes how the media have played a key role in placing the issue of child maltreatment and the problems associated with child protection high on public and political agendas over the last 50 years. It also describes how the influence of the media is far from unambiguous. Although the media has been crucial in bringing the problems into the open, it often does so in particular ways. In being so concerned with scandals and tragedies ∗ Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Bob Lonne, School of Public Health and Social Work, Queensland University of Technology, Victoria Park Road, Kelvin Grove, Queensland 4059, Australia. Electronic mail may be sent to [email protected]. in a variety of institutionalized and community settings, the media have portrayed the nature of child maltreatment in ways which deflect attention from many of its core characteristics and causes. A focus on the media is important because of the power the media have to help transform the private into the public, but at the same time, to undermine trust, reputation, and legitimacy of the professionals working in the field. This concern is key for those working in the child protection field and has been a source of tension in public policy in both Australia and England for many years

An Innovative Use of the Web to Build Graduate Team Skills

Successful graduates in today’s competitive business environments must possess sound interpersonal skills and the ability to work effectively in team situations within, and across, disciplines. However, developing these skills within higher education curriculum is fraught with organisational and pedagogical difficulties, with many teachers not having the skills, time or resources to facilitate productive group processes. Furthermore, many students find their teamwork experiences frustrating, demanding, conflict ridden and unproductive. This paper brings together the perspectives and experiences of an engineer and a social scientist in a cross-disciplinary examination of the characteristics of effective teamwork skills and processes. A focus is the development and operation of "TeamWorker", an innovative on-line system that helps students and staff manage their team activities and assessment. TeamWorker was created to enhance team teaching and learning processes and outcomes including team creation, administration, development and evaluation. Importantly, TeamWorker can facilitate the early identification of problematic group dynamics thereby enabling early intervention

Australian social work in the twenty-first century: Workforce trends, challenges and opportunities

The Australian community services, as in other countries, have undergone rapid and profound change since the 1980s, with transformation of the sector at the organizational, practice and labour force levels. As a result of the increasing domination of neo-liberal ideologies and the impacts of globalization, the role and nature of government altered, as did the broad mandate of social welfare, often through the increased use of market-based policies (McDonald 2006). In what has become known as the human services, significant modifications occurred to the ways in which programmes and services were configured, structured and delivered. New Public Management (NPM - usually termed managerialism) arrived with its associated programme management approaches and an attendant impact on professional practice, often via case management (Lonne et al. 2009). As a traditional professional group charged with delivering community and social services, social work has also altered, with faith in professional wisdom and discretion increasingly supplanted by reliance on highly bureaucratic and interventionist NPM approaches to management (Yeatman etal. 2009). Because this chapter deals with similar problems to those being experienced elsewhere, despite contextual differences, in many senses Australia can be used as a case study for international events. In this chapter I describe these significant change processes and the underpinning ideological and policy drivers. In particular, I focus on the current directions for the profession with respect to altered social functions, practice roles and approaches to work, and then examine a range of workforce sector data trends, such as labour force diversification, rapid sector growth, and the relatively modest increases in the social work labour force. The major shortage of social workers is explored, along with problems faced in recruiting appropriately qualified staff, including international migration of social work practitioners and ensuring a sustainable sector labour force. The implications for curriculum development and social work education are outlined, along with the need to promote ethical practice and compassionate approaches to addressing social exclusion and human rights

Reshaping our protective systems : issues and options

Australia's systems for protecting children from child abuse and neglect are undergoing reform in light of the National Framework for Protecting Australia's Children and innumerable judicial and other inquiries into their operations and outcomes. This article examines the current context for child protection practice and critically examines the dominant policy and practice frameworks, highlighting issues confronting policy makers and practitioners. Within the current systematic reform agendas, it is posited, there are key priorities that must be attended to in order to bring about necessary change, workforce support and a renewed emphasis on quality professional practice and re-orientation of practice approaches. Also required is the embedding of ethics into a relationship-based practice framework, and revitalising localised community involvement in a protective web of care that provides practical, compassionate and accessible help to needy and vulnerable children and families

Alberta Child Welfare: Opportunities for Better Processes and Outcomes

Contemporary Western approaches to protecting children and families have come under increasing scrutiny by the broad community. politicians, professionals and service users as a result of perceived system failings. In an environment of unrelenting media attention, policy makers and practitioners have critically reflected on system issues and practice, and placed increased emphasis on delivering better outcomes for children and families. Alberta's Child and Family Services embracing of Outcomes Based Service Delivery (OBSD) reforms is an example of reshaping the ways in which families and children receive assistance to improve their safety and wellbeing. In this article, I outline and critically analyse the complex issues faced in child welfare, and identify some key reform opportunities and strategies that exist to refashion and improve the ways we can protect children and better help families and communities

Ethical practice in the contemporary human services

This paper examines the findings of an exploratory study of emerging ethical issues and practices reported by a sample of human service managers and practitioners in public and non-profit agencies in Queensland, Australia.---------- Findings: The contemporary context in which human services are delivered in Western societies is characterized by increased marketization, contractualism and managerialist practices, all of which entail different ethical values from those traditionally embraced by the social work profession. Utilizing qualitative and quantitative methodologies, this research identifies current and emerging challenges to ethical practice and existing organizational responses to it. Widespread concern about the negative aspects of changed structural arrangements on ethical practice in the contemporary human services is highlighted. Differences in the ways in which organizations and practitioners are responding to these changes are examined. The limitations of existing approaches and ethics codes are noted.---------- Applications: Implications for organizations, practitioners and educators are explored, and more pro-active management and training strategies are advocated. Further research is required to identify the often-understated negative effects on ethical practice of the market-based reforms of human service structures and processes

Social justice and high-quality human services : visioning the place of a contemporary professional association

The current world situation is plagued by “wicked problems” and a widespread sense of “things are going to get worse”. We confront the almost imponderable consequences of global habitat destruction and climate change, as well as the meltdown of the financial markets with their largely yet to be seen damage to the “real economy”. These things will have considerable negative impacts on the social system and people's lives, particularly the disadvantaged and socially excluded, and require innovative policy and program responses delivered by caring, intelligent, and committed practitioners.\ud \ud These gargantuan issues put into perspective the difficulties that confront social, welfare, and community work today. Yet, in times of trouble, social work and human services tend to do well. For example, although Australian Social Workers and Welfare and Community Workers have experienced phenomenal job growth over the past 5 years, they also have good prospects for future growth and above average salaries in the seventh and sixth deciles, respectively (Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, 2008).\ud \ud I aim to examine the host of reasons why the pursuit of social justice and high-quality human services is difficult to attain in today's world and then consider how the broadly defined profession of social welfare practitioners may collectively take action to (a) respond in ways that reassert our role in compassionately assisting the downtrodden and (b) reclaim the capacity to be a significant body of professional expertise driving social policy and programs.\ud \ud For too long social work has responded to the wider factors it confronts through a combination of ignoring them, critiquing from a distance, and concentrating on the job at hand and our day-to-day responsibilities. Unfortunately, “holding the line” has proved futile and, little by little, the broad social mandate and role of social welfare has altered until, currently, most social programs entail significant social surveillance of troublesome or dangerous groups, rather than assistance. At times it almost seems like the word “help” has been lost in the political and managerial lexicon, replaced by “manage” and “control”. Our values, beliefs, and ethics are under real threat as guiding principles for social programs

Reshaping our Protective Systems: Issues and Options

Australia's systems for protecting children from child abuse and neglect are undergoing reform in light of the National Framework for Protecting Australia's Children and innumerable judicial and other inquiries into their operations and outcomes. This article examines the current context for child protection practice and critically examines the dominant policy and practice frameworks, highlighting issues confronting policy makers and practitioners. Within the current systemic reform agendas, it is posited, there are key priorities that must be attended to in order to bring about necessary change, workforce support and a renewed emphasis on quality professional practice and re-orientation of practice approaches. Also required is the embedding of ethics into a relationship-based practice framework, and revitalising localised community involvement in a protective web of care that provides practical, compassionate and accessible help to needy and vulnerable children and families