Professional Social Workers in the Child Welfare Workforce: Findings from NASW

The U.S. Children’s Bureau has historically recognized the significance of the child welfare workforce in improving the lives of children, youth and families, as well as the important role of social work within that workforce. Although the public may perceive the child welfare workforce as being predominantly comprised of social workers; in fact, fewer than half of child welfare workers have a social work degree. This discrepancy has been attributed to professional shortages, workplace conditions, caseload size and complexity, and low salaries. However, studies initiated by the National Association of Social Workers have found that the profession continues to successfully attract new graduates to child welfare practice and that social workers in child welfare enjoy high levels of job satisfaction. These studies also identified factors that contribute to the retention and attrition of social workers in child welfare.

Social Workers' Perceptions of Family Preservation Programs

The passage of the Adoptions and Safe Families Act of 1997, with its focus on child safety and concurrent planning, has presented family preservation workers with new challenges and new opportunities. Twenty volunteers from a large comprehensive social service agency were interviewed to determine their experiences with two models of family preservation—Multisystemic Therapy (MST) and Traditional Family Preservation Service (TFPS) or practice as usual. Workers from both programs were able to articulate values consistent with family preservation as important strengths of the programs— keeping families together and empowering families for example. Information from referring agencies was described as variable and not especially useful when working with seriously troubled families, especially as it related to risk and child safety. Both groups indicated that the jargon of family preservation had permeated their agencies, and that working with other agencies was at times a challenge, though for different reasons. Finally, despite some reservations about the effectiveness of short-term treatment with families that face serious challenges, both groups of workers were generally satisfied with family preservation as an approach to practice.

Young working girls: a summary of evidence from two thousand social workers

edited for the National Federation of Settlements by Robert A. Woods and Albert J. Kennedy, its secretaries, with an intro. by Jane Addams.

Manual for Virginia social workers,

Mode of access: Internet.

Social workers in 1950; a report on the study of salaries and working conditions in social work, spring 1950.

Mode of access: Internet.

Medical and psychiatric social workers,

Mode of access: Internet.

Social workers abroad assess their training in the United States.

Mode of access: Internet.

Social science in the professional education of social workers.

Mode of access: Internet.

Medical social work in tax-supported health and welfare services; a report of the Joint Committee of the American Association of Medical Social Workers and the American Public Welfare Association,

Mode of access: Internet.

Salaries and professional qualifications of social workers in Chicago, 1935,

Photoprinted.

An impressionistic view of the winter of 1930-31 in New York City, based on statements from some 900 social workers and public-health nurses;

"W.C. 39."

Towards racial health; a handbook on the training of boys and girls, parents, teachers & social workers,

Bibliography: p. 312-318.