In a world where too many people face poverty, social exclusion, inequality and social injustice, a strong social service workforce is urgently needed. A well-planned, developed and supported workforce is better able to address the needs and enhance the resources and resilience of at-risk populations.
Our Framework for Strengthening the Social Service Workforce was initially developed during the Social Service Workforce Strengthening Conference, held in South Africa in 2010. It has since been reviewed, adapted and utilized around the world as the key framework to guide workforce strengthening efforts. It outlines what are now widely considered as the core best practice elements of planning, developing and supporting the workforce. It is intended as a guide to support country efforts to strengthen the social service workforce and systems.
The use of any or all of the strategies depends on country context and assessment of the existing national workforce to arrive at the best approach to strengthening it. Key country-specific contextual factors include the social welfare, child protection, justice, education and health systems, and cultural, legislative, labor market and economic factors that have an impact on all three areas of the framework.
The Guidelines to Strengthen the Social Service Workforce for Child Protection, developed by the Alliance in collaboration with UNICEF (2019), also incorporate this framework.
