NGOs hail plan to regulate social workers

PETALING JAYA: Several non-governmental organisations have welcomed the proposed enactment of the Social Workers Act and the move to establish standards for social workers.

Women’s Aid Organisation executive director Ivy Josiah said the contents of the draft bill, however, should be made public for input to be given before it was tabled in Parlia­ment.

“Our concern is the issue of confidentiality (of clients). We are keen to see how the Govern­ment deals with the issue,” she said.

Theresa Symons of Good Shepherd Welfare Centre urged the Government to include a provision to provide the opportunity for existing personnel to be trained as qualified social workers.

Women, Family and Community Develop­ment Minister Senator Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, in a press statement, said social workers must be distinguished from charity workers.

“Introducing the National Social Work Competency Standards is well-timed. The increasing complexity of current social problems requires skilled and trained professionals to cater to the needs of target groups,” she said.

Maria Chin Abdullah of Women’s Develop­ment Collective was interested to see how the law would be enforced.

“We don’t want to have a nice act covering all aspects but failing in implementation,” she said, adding that welfare homes and old folks homes should be monitored to ensure that the operators would not only be interested in profit.

Social Institute of Malaysia director Prof Dr Mohamed Fadzil Che Din said regulating social work could deter bogus social workers because practitioners would have to be registered and licensed.

“This way, children and old folks in need of social care would not suffer due to negligence and malpractice.”

National Welfare Foundation chief executive officer Datuk Sayed Abdul Rahman Sayed Mohd said volunteers engaged by NGOs should be trained so that they could provide quality care, produce good reports and subsequently enhance the credibility of the organisations.


The Star, 6th May