The Honourable John G. Abbott, Minister of Children, Seniors and Social Development, and Jerry Earle, President of the Newfoundland and Labrador Association of Public and Private Employees (NAPE), are providing a status update on the Child Welfare Social Work Joint Committee and next steps to address workload challenges.

As March is National Social Work Month, Minister Abbott and Mr. Earle are recognizing and celebrating over 1,600 social workers and thank them for their commitment and dedication in the work they do on a daily basis.

The Joint Committee, with representatives from the Department of Children, Seniors and Social Development and NAPE, continues to work on resolving issues identified by child welfare social workers in three key areas: worker safety, workload, and stress.

In spring 2021, work of the Joint Committee helped to enhance personal safety and support by providing GPS devices and/or cell phones for all social workers to use when conducting home visits. Work also began on developing a risk assessment form that is reflective of the specialized work child welfare social workers are legislatively mandated to deliver.

Most recently, due to the ongoing work of the Joint Committee, a Risk Assessment Pilot Project began in February 2022. The pilot project is assessing social worker’s safety assigning a risk level of high, medium, or low. Once the risk level is assigned, it is determined if the work required of social workers is safe to complete alone; or if mitigating factors need to be put in place to improve worker safety.

Through the pilot project, valuable feedback will be gathered, which will have a direct impact on policy and procedure to ensure the needs of front-line child welfare social work practice is met. Once the pilot project has concluded and staff feedback has been incorporated into the policy and procedures, the Risk Assessment Project will be rolled out throughout the Department of Children, Seniors and Social Development.

We are also pleased to announce that in response to recommendations of the Joint Committee to address workload issues in the field of child welfare, the department will issue a Request for Proposals to develop a service model and workload review. Further details on the Request for Proposals will be available soon.

For social workers interested in providing input or obtaining more information on the Joint Committee, please contact:

• Kelly Codner, NAPE Servicing Representative – kcodner@nape.ca;
• Andy Parsons, NAPE Servicing Representative – aparsons@nape.ca; and/or
• Respective manager in r

Quotes

“The Department of Children, Seniors and Social Development is committed to supporting our most valuable resource, our staff. During Social Work Month, it is a perfect time to sincerely thank the members of the Joint Committee for their ongoing work and commitment to help address the needs of child welfare social workers throughout the province. I believe the Risk Assessment Pilot Project will help to improve the safety of child welfare social workers, and the upcoming service model review will provide the opportunity to further explore options to address workload challenges so that we can better meet the needs of children, youth and families.”
Honourable John G. Abbott
Minister of Children, Seniors and Social Development

“Social workers give so much of themselves in the face of overwhelming workloads, threats of violence, expanded responsibilities, and the stress from the emotional and physical toll that their work has on them. Despite these obstacles, these workers continue to deliver the highest level of care, compassion, and support to their clients and their communities. This process is a welcome step towards addressing the concerns that social workers have consistently raised in recent years. We must ensure that this initiative leads to concrete action to improve the working conditions of Social Workers across our province.”
Jerry Earle
NAPE President

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Media contacts
Khadija Rehma
Children, Seniors and Social Development
709-729-3768, 730-2977
khadijarehma@gov.nl.ca

Keith Dunne
NAPE
709-631-9737
kdunne@nape.ca