Greens renew call for professional registration on World Social Work Day 2019

2019-03-19

Greens spokesperson for Health Hon Alison Xamon MLC has today renewed her call for social work to be included in the health practitioner National Regulation and Accreditation Scheme.

 

“World Social Work Day 2019 provides an opportunity for us all to recognise the extraordinary and valuable work undertaken by social workers in our community every day.

 

This work is undertaken with some of the most vulnerable members of our community, and as such, it is appalling that there is currently no form of legal professional registration for social workers in Australia,” said Ms Xamon.

 

Ms Xamon said that a professional registration scheme had been called for by many organisations, including the Australian Association of Social Workers, for a very long time.

 

“Including the profession of social work in the national registration scheme would allow for qualification and practice standards for entry into the profession, as well as continuing professional development as a requirement for maintaining that registration and accreditation.

 

The requirements of registration would provide the public greater confidence that our social workers are qualified and conform to that ethical practice, and put greater protections in place for people accessing their services,” said Ms Xamon.

 

“Registration will also provide proper recourse for consumers when things go wrong when service providers are not qualified, are underqualified, or act unethically. Under a registration scheme these people will be less likely to enter the profession and to remain in the profession.”

 

Ms Xamon said she had been calling for the inclusion of social work in the national registration scheme for a long time and was extremely disappointed that this had not yet occurred.

 

“I call on the current Minister for Health, as I called on his predecessor, to advocate for these changes at the national level to ensure the proper recognition and protections are afforded to social workers and to the people who access their services”.