Missing piece in social worker registration bill
Social Service Providers Aotearoa will tomorrow tell the social services select committee that some changes are
necessary if the Bill on mandatory social worker registration is to achieve its purpose.
SSPA represents community-based organisations providing child and family social services. Social workers make up a
significant section of the workforce.
National manager Brenda Pilott says SSPA supports mandatory registration to maintain public accountability and safety
and recognise the value of social work as a regulated profession.
“The Bill supports these aims by protecting the title ‘social worker’ so it can only be used by a registered social
worker. But it falls down by not defining what social work is,” she says.
“It’s a serious flaw because it leaves it to each individual employer to define a social worker’s scope of practice.
This is at odds with a basic purpose of the Bill which is to have a consistent understanding of the profession of social
work.”
Brenda Pilott says that without a definition of the scope of practice, an employer can call a social work position
something else in order to avoid the compliance costs and processes of registration.
“Social workers are concerned that those who are not registered will face severe disadvantage to their career prospects
and earnings potential,” she says.
SSPA will recommend to the select committee that the Social Workers Registration Board be required to have a definition
of the scope of practice of social work.
“We will also point out that while mandatory registration is to be welcomed, it will place additional costs on NGOs that
are already seriously under-funded. This is an issue the Government must address,” Brenda Pilott adds.
ENDS