Overhaul for social workers
Mandatory registration for social workers seems likely this year but MPs are questioning whether an inquiry should be held or if the laws should simply be changed by the Government.
While a national register for those who work with New Zealand’s most vulnerable exists, inclusion is voluntary.
The Social Workers Registration Board has been lobbying for mandatory registration for several years.
Appearing in front of Parliament’s social services select committee, Social Development Minister Anne Tolley called for an inquiry into the registration system for workers, based on ‘‘issues developed by the board’’.
Labour MP Carmel Sepuloni questioned why the Government could not simply legislate to make registration compulsory. ‘‘You’ll get no disagreement from any political party that we need to be heading toward mandatory registration of social workers.’’
Tolley said while the Government could go ahead and pass laws itself, the extent of the overhaul meant cross-party and public input would be preferable.
But the details of exactly what would be proposed or considered in such an overhaul were unclear.
Tolley said she had a ‘‘desire to see the profession of social workers lifted in quality and recognition’’. Any changes had to be ‘‘enduring’’, which is why she preferred a cross-party approach.
‘‘Part of that is if you were going to bring in mandatory registration, how would you define what a social worker is?’’
The ongoing training of social workers and questions over how a disciplinary process might look were also raised.
‘‘I don’t think any of us are in any doubt that many of the families that we’re dealing with today have very high and complex needs – are we training our social workers to be prepared well enough to work with families with those sorts of needs,’’ Tolley said.
Social Workers Registration Board chief executive Sean McKinley said this was the next step for the profession.
‘‘We know who our social workers are, and now we need to look at a post-qualification framework for developing social workers in the future, so that they’re meeting needs.’’
Sepuloni’s private member’s bill calling for mandatory registration was voted down in the House late last year. Nationally, it is understood about 5000 social workers are registered but as many as 18,000 people identified as practising as a social worker at the last census.