Child Protection & Social Welfare

This 4th annual report includes a multi-country, four region review of the state of the social service workforce. Through Alliance-led mappings and assessments in three regions in collaboration with UNICEF, and information from mappings and assessments in a fourth region, this report consolidates trends and data and makes recommendations for better planning, development and support to this frontline workforce. The report also makes connections to the Alliance's Call to Action for Strengthening the Social Service Workforce to Better Protect Children and Achieve the SDGs.

The National Association of Social Workers, has developed the Practice Standards & Guidelines which provide benchmarks that describe the services that social workers should provide; that employers should support and that consumers should expect. Standards/guidelines reflect current and emerging best practice trends and are a critical component of the professional social worker's toolkit. They are useful for both new and experienced practitioners, and can be effective advocacy tools.

Summary:

This global survey, which presents information on 426 programs in 121 countries in all world regions, aims to fill in existing gaps in our knowledge about the status of IECD and ECI programs internationally.

Resisting Neoliberalism: Professionalisation of Early Childhood Education and Care focuses on the professionalization of early childhood in Australia, Chile, England, Germany, Ireland and the United States.

In many countries around the world, the early childhood workforce often experiences poor recognition for their work which translates to lower wages and qualifications, fewer opportunities for career development and inadequate professional development, in comparison with other professionals working to support older children and adults.

Call to Action on the Social Service Workforce Strengthening in the Europe and Central Asia Region, developed by Oxford Policy Management and UNICEF Europe and Central Asia, seeks to ensure that functions, competencies and qualifications across the social service workforce are aligned so there will no longer be unqualified professionals in roles requiring professional competencies and there will be a range of personnel deployed across a range of services with the right qualifications for the competencies and responsibilities of their position.

The role of social work in international child protection: best practices in stakeholder cooperation focuses on the intersection of law, policy implementation, and social work in child protection, specifically child protection involving children who are separated by an international border from their families.

The Child protection workforce strategy 2017-2020 recognizes the difficulties that can be encountered by child protection practitioners and the vital role practitioners play in working with children and families.
In recognition of the fact that a strong workforce must be supported in order to protect children, Victorian Government focused on five major priorities:

The Vision for Specialised Child Protection Services in the Republic of Moldova lays out a common vision on the system of child protection services and includes a variety of specialized services needed in order to form an integrated and coherent system to meet the complex needs of children victims and witnesses of child abuse and neglect.