The Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development (MWFCD) is spearheading a new era of professionalism in social work. The performance of this new class of social worker is premised on competency standards based on international best practice.

This move is part of the Ministry’s solution in effecting positive social change in light of the multifarious social problems that have emerged in the context of a globalized and fast- changing world.

On April 23, 2010, Cabinet approved several groundbreaking measures proposed by the MWFCD to ensure the provision of quality welfare services and professionally competent social workers:

i) To establish the National Social Work Competency Standards;

ii) For the Ministry of Higher Education to standardize the curriculum in social work education in institutions of higher learning which offer the social work degree course;

iii) To enact the Social Workers Act;

iv) To establish the Social Work Council to regulate social work practitioners and educators;

v) For the Public Service Commission and the Public Service Department to recruit qualified social workers into the public sector; and

vi) To upgrade the Social Institute of Malaysia and other accredited institutions to offer social work courses at the certificate and diploma levels.

The Ministry has stepped in with this initiative to address the vacuum left by the declining capacity of the traditional informal care sector of families, kin and communities to respond to the complex and extended individual and social problems faced within society.

The rationale for such a move is strongly supported by the increasing risk of harm towards clients if social workers do not have the appropriate competencies to respond to their needs.

Hence, the professionalization of the social work profession reflects the commitment of the Ministry to the care, safety and protection of all its citizens, in particular vulnerable groups such as children, persons with disabilities, people experiencing physical and mental health problems and other groups open to exploitation and harm.

SHAHRIZAT ABDUL JALIL