Social workers being given professional status

A bill which will grant professional status to social workers started being debated in the House of Representatives.

The bill also provides for regulation of the profession, the requirements for the granting of warrants to social workers and safeguards for the rights of service users.

Social Policy Minister Lawrence Gonzi said moving this bill was one of the joys of his post.

He spoke on the importance of social work for society and how the sector had evolved over time, paying tribute in particular to organisations such as the Cana Movement for their pioneering work.

He said that successive governments had sought to improve this sector, such as through social benefits. But cheques were not the solution for all problems, hence the need for social workers and organisations involved in social work.

He recalled that in the late 1980s the government had recognised the status of the social worker, not least through the setting up of appropriate university diploma courses.

The Social Work Development Programme had been started as an agency in the 1990s to help social workers specialise in various sectors. In 2001 it had been given a new identity as Appogg, helping social workers to become much more effective in their chosen area.

Dr Gonzi said the continued development of Maltese society had shown how sensitive and delicate social work could be. This had led to the decision to raise the benchmark of university training to the level of a degree.

Dr Gonzi said that some three years ago he had started discussions with the Association of Social Workers on the steps to recognise social work as a profession while the association became its own members' standards watchdog.

The government was moving the bill in the full knowledge that it had the backing of the association, although the bill could always be improved.

The new law could be the final link that would complete the chain of investment in social work in Malta.

Dr Gonzi explained that it would be illegal for anyone to claim to be a social worker if he/she did not hold a warrant issued under the law. This was being done more in the client's interest than in the social worker's.

The bill would set up a Malta Social Work Profession Board, and provide a code of ethics and the regulatory set-up for social work in Malta.

Dr Gonzi said it was a breakthrough that the bill provided for social workers to group together and offer their specialised services, registering their associations with the board.

Although the university now only ran courses for a degree, the qualifications of workers who had already graduated with a Diploma in Applied Social Studies or a Diploma in Social Work would be deemed to be equal to the degree.