Compiled by Ian Murray,
National Secretary, Australian Institute of Welfare & Community Workers
Inc., December 2001. Updated February 2004, Sept.
2005, Apr. 2006, copyright AIWCW.
These
quotations provide evidence for the long-held contention that welfare workers
are at least equivalent to social workers in
1.
Progress Report on Social
Welfare Manpower of the Australian Government
Social Welfare Commission,
2.
Progress Report on Social
Welfare Manpower,
Social Welfare Commission (1975) `The distinction between the roles of social
workers and welfare workers is particularly unclear, with both types of workers
undertaking similar tasks. Though it may be assumed that differential training
produces workers to fulfil particular roles, the tasks undertaken by social
welfare workers do not reflect this objective.’
3.
Howlett et
in Learner (1979): `Task allocation was generally made on an ad hoc basis,
allocating available personnel in response to need as they claimed attention.
Although a higher relative concentration by welfare officer on practical counselling tasks and
by social workers on administrative tasks was identified, the overall
differences were found to be relatively insignificant.’
4.
Learner,
E. Education and Training for Social
Welfare Personnel in
5.
Kayes, Milton: A comparative study of roles and tasks of social workers and welfare
officer with reference to Brisbane and Townsville regions Masters thesis,
Dept. of Social Work, University of Queensland (1981): `The amount of overlap in
tasks is substantial and in spite of social workers and welfare officers in
both region stating that their respective training and qualifications are
different theoretically, and that they therefore should perform different
functions they agree that in practice they do the same work (p. 148)…In many
agencies social workers and welfare officers work together in units or teams
and divide caseloads or duties equally (p. 131).’
6.
Blanchard,
in AASWWE Report (1984:26) `There is virtually no
difference in job specifications of social workers and welfare officers.’
6a. Working Party on
the relationship between welfare work & social work courses in Australia:
Report to the AASWE Council (July 1984) `There is frequently little or no
formal differentiation of position by qualification, especially at the lower
levels of practice, and although social workers more frequently hold management
and planning positions, this is not always the case.’ (p.44).
7.
Durlak (1979) `The
central finding from these [42] comparative studies is that the clinical
outcomes that paraprofessionals achieve are equal to or significantly better
than those obtained by professionals.’
8.
Hattie
et al (1984) `Paraprofessionals are at least as effective, and in many
instances more effective, than professional counsellors.’
9.
Mehr (1986) There
is `relatively well established evidence that the degree one holds has
relatively little to do with one’s ability to work with clients.’
10.
Henry
et al, 1993 in Atkins & Christensen (2001) [There is a] `faulty assumption
that amount of training and experience are equal to quality of training and
experience in the [research] literature on training effects’.
11.
Thompson
et al 1983 in Atkins & Christensen (2001: 127) `Overall, the results
support previous findings about the efficacy of
paraprofessionals….Paraprofessionals’ greater warmth and optimism has been
suggested as a possible mechanism for their therapy effects’.
12.
13.
`62%
of those interviewed believed there were no essential differences or welfare
workers were more competent.’ (ibid).
14.
Murray,
Ian, The Nature and Practice of Basic
Social Welfare Work (1990) `In many settings,
welfare workers now perform the same or very similar work to social workers’.
15.
NSW
Council of Social Services (1988) `…..blurring of the social and welfare work
disciplines and a dwindling of the number of social workers to a minority in
the industry’.
16.
Donovan
& Jackson (1988) `The blurring will happen more and more as attention is
given to integrating and articulating the various education courses and as
award re-structuring, work-based competency analysis and multi-skilling proceed
throughout the industry’.
17.
Bradbury,
Hilary Social Work and Welfare Work: An
Examination of the Inter-Occupational Relationship, MSW Thesis,
18.
Briggs,
1980, in Zastrow The Practice of Social
Work, Dorsey Press (1989: 22) `Social Work is an uncertain profession with
confusion regarding competency and levels of competency’.
19.
Carew & Smith (1991:56) Social
workers used maxims based on experience rather than on knowledge from research,
and practitioners develop their own set of personalised criteria for knowledge.
Sturmey, Ruth Educating Social,
Welfare and Community Development Workers for Rural/Remote Areas, Armidale
NSW, Rural Development Centre, August 1992 [Par. Nos. 20-26]:
20.
`It
was observed during this project’s field work that what in rural areas had been
a case of necessity [employing welfare workers instead of social workers]… was
now becoming a matter of choice. For example, in several remote areas in
Western Australia, managers in DCS reported preferring to employ
welfare-trained workers because in their experience they tended to be more
skilled, adaptable and immediately useful’ (p.18).
21.
`Some
say that the major difference is only the length of the course’ (p. 32)
22.
[In
23.
`Participants
[in the study] observed that the lines of division between `social work tasks’
and `welfare work tasks’ was very blurred in practice – even when people
thought there were or ought to be real differences in the ways of doing the
same tasks in a social work or welfare work approach, or when it was thought that
the types of tasks each should do should be different’ (p. 64).
24.
The
list [of competencies, derived from the DACUM method] `tended to be similar for
social workers and welfare workers’ (p.70).
25.
`Some
remarked that welfare workers were preferable to social workers precisely
because they tended to get better practical skills training, and because they
tended to be older, had more experience of life’ (p. 81)
26.
`There
was agreement that in everyday face-to-face work with clients and community
organisations there is often little difference between the tasks of welfare and
social workers in rural/remote areas’ (p. 90).
27.
Murray
(2001a:2) `The “2+2” model of social work course…. usually includes only 2
years of professional vocational study, built upon 2 prior years of what might
be generally unrelated subjects in an Arts degree, except for the need for
subjects covering introductory psychology and sociology. There are many welfare
workers with a dedicated bachelor degree in welfare work, which included
extensive professional content throughout three years of study. And so the
difference in duration of study [between welfare work and social work] may not
be so great.’
28.
Martin
Ryan et al (1995) Social work students and graduates do not often apply the
theory or research findings they encounter in classes.
29.
Fook, J (1996: 20) `Many social work experts question the applicability of
social work theory’.
30.
Laragy, Carmel (1997:109) Managers
at the Commonwealth Rehabilitation Service complained “that social workers were
considered the least responsive to client needs amongst the professions”. They
were accused of `wanting to pry into family relations and create dependence, and others complained of social workers `taking
the high moral ground’ and assuming a superior position’.
31.
Australian Standard
Classification of Occupations, 2nd Edition, 1996, p. 195-6.
ASCO Code 2512-11 Welfare Worker
`Assists individuals, families and groups with social,
emotional and financial difficulties to improve quality of life by educating
and supporting them and working towards change in their social environment.’
ASCO Code 2511-11 Social Worker
`Assesses
the social needs of individuals and groups, and assists people to develop and
use the skills and resources needed to resolve social and other problems.’
32.
Jones,
A. and May, J. Working in Human Service
Organisations (1992) `It has been argued that the difference between social
work and community welfare work is that of profession and semi-profession. This
distinction is increasingly difficult to sustain. Both share a similar body of
knowledge, the differences in length of training are narrowing, and educational
institutions and employers are tending to view them as overlapping rather than
discreet occupations’.
33.
Ministerial Review of the
Training of Youth Workers in Victoria, (Chair: Peter Chew), Melbourne, Office of Youth Affairs,
August 1995. `While in the past the term "professional" in particular contexts has been reserved
for people having at least a three-year
tertiary-level qualification (with two year course characterised as "para-professional"), we believe that a well designed
high-quality two-year program can equip its graduates to perform competently
and to professional standards...’
34.
Aveline, (1990) sadly, the
correlation between training and effectiveness is low.
35.
Weisz et al, 1995 in Atkinson &
Christensen (2001: 124) `found a significant main effect that paraprofessionals
had better outcomes than graduate students or professional therapists’.
36.
Stein
& Lambert (1995) `it is quite remarkable that more compelling evidence is
not available that demonstrates that graduate training directly relates to
enhanced therapy outcomes.’
37.
Mowbray,
R. (1995) there is no clear evidence that professionally trained
psychotherapists are in general more effective than paraprofessionals
38.
Schmolling et al (1997; 338) note that
`the responsibilities, knowledge, training, and competence of generalist human
services workers [in the USA] have, from the workers’ point of view, increased
to a level comparable to that of traditional professionals, and large numbers
of the former and even some traditional professionals believe strongly that
many generalists outperform traditional professional workers.’ This human
services textbook goes on to suggest that` these convictions give rise to
strong feelings about the differences in pay, status, responsibilities and
opportunities for advancement between human services generalists and
traditional professionals’.
39.
Mehr (1998:65) `Human services workers do seem to be
as good at those activities that both they and the disciplinary professionals
are trained for and do.’
40.
Morris,
Debbie (2001): AIWCW National Membership
Survey – Statistical Report, AIWCW National Newsletter, July 2001. Summary
by Ian Murray:
In a national survey of members of AIWCW in 2001, 72% of respondents had worked with a social worker as a co-worker, and of these, 18% stated their work was “similar” to that done by social worker(s), 17% “very similar”, and 53%” the same” (N=166). That is, nearly 90% believed they did similar or the same work to social workers. In estimating their competency compared to similar tasks performed by social workers, 10% stated they were less competent, 62% “just as competent”, 4% “slightly more competent”, 12% “moderately more competent” and 12% “much more competent”. (N=171). Again, 90% believed they were just as competent, or more so, compared to social workers. And 90% stated that the social workers they worked with agreed with them about any similarities and differences. Although these results reflect only the perspective of welfare workers, they well illustrate their widespread experiences.
41.
General Skilled Migration, DIMA, Canberra, November
2001 pp. 52-57
Skilled Occupations List (SOL): Comparison
of Points for Skill for migration to Australia.
Welfare
Worker (ASCO 2512-11) 60 points; Social Worker (2511-11) 60 points;
Psychologist – Clinical (2514-11) 60 points; Acupuncturist (2394-13) 50 points;
Audiologist (2399-11) 50 points;
Counsellor (various) (2513) 50 points; Naturopath (2394-11) 50 points;
Dental Therapist (3492-11) 40 points; Dental Hygienist (3492-13) 40 points;
Geologist (2112-11) 50 points; Management Consultant (2294-11) 50 points;
Community Worker (2512-13) 50 points; Youth Worker (3421-13) 40 points.
42. Murray (2004) `The July
2001 issue of the Australian Psychologist
features international review articles summarising research findings regarding
training for clinical psychology and counselling, and the relevance to
therapeutic outcome of the `working alliance’ between therapist and client ….
and adds further research based evidence to the contention that human services
workers are at least equivalent in effectiveness to traditional professionals
in the `helping’ or therapeutic process.’ Quotes from this journal now follow:
43. Atkins & Christensen (2001: 128) `The data [from all review studies] up to this point have not shown an impact of experience and training in general, as evidenced by a therapist’s degree or years of experience’
44. `Paraprofessionals have repeatedly demonstrated successful therapeutic change in clients, even when they have received no specific training in therapeutic procedures’ (p. 128).
45. `If doctoral-level training – or even masters-level training – is unnecessary for effective mental health service delivery for particular disorders, then services can be provided at lower cost. Moreover, these kind of findings could dramatically affect the role of the various mental health professions’ (p 129).
46. Andrews (2001: 111-2) `In general, paraprofessionals were as effective as doctoral-level psychologists …. apparently, many paraprofessionals can assist clients in an effective change process despite the absence of lengthy academic or clinical training…. They are able to engage people quickly and maintain a practical and effective therapeutic alliance that fosters significant behavioural, cognitive and affective changes’.
47. O’Donovan & Dyck (2001) There is an implication that the basic value of post-graduate training is prestige, and the only unequivocal benefit is professional recognition.
48. Colin Crighton, Geriatrician, Port Macquarie News, 16/2/2001 `I am the director of the geriatric assessment and rehabilitation team …. and work quite closely in a team acting with the welfare workers who demonstrated superior skills in personal counselling, crisis intervention and practical assistance. These are skills not restricted alone to graduate social workers and indeed over my past 41 years experience… they are not skills that are always seen in graduate social workers.’
49. Murray (2001a:10) `I am making a plea then for us all to grapple with the reality and confront the issues, rather than trying to push artificial divisions based upon what should be true according to an arguable difference in length of education and university prestige, or some mystical notion of a difference in essence between social workers and welfare workers. In many locations throughout Australia, the difference just does not exist in practice’.
50. Miller et al (2004: 76) `At best, the data indicate a small correlation [between professional training and outcome in psychotherapy]. At worst, … increasing the amount and type of training and experience that most therapists receive may actually lessen therapeutic effectiveness’.
51. Miller (2004) … studies [show] little or no effect for training or experience on treatment outcome.
52. Murray (2004) `The evidence seems overwhelming to this writer that human services professionals are at least equivalent in terms of outcomes to traditional professions such as psychology where therapy and counselling are practised. Some reviewers explain this by the confusion about definitions of `paraprofessionals’ and by inadequate refining of the conditions which are suitable for attention by human service workers. But this downplays the evidence that non-specific and personal/experiential factors present in the `therapeutic alliance’ are likely themselves to be the reason for the effectiveness of `paraprofessionals’.’
53. Roth &
Fonargy (2005:449) Though
professional and lay opinion assume the benefits of experience and training,
evidence of this is surprisingly hard to find. [Roth, Anthony, & Fonargy, Peter, (2005) What works for whom? – critical review of
psychotherapy research. (2nd edn.)
54. Roth & Fonargy (2005: 454)…the possession of a professional qualification is (at best) only weakly associated with better outcomes, a conclusion which - if robust - would have obvious and profound implications for training and accreditation.
55. Roth & Fonargy (2005: 456) Overall, evidence of the impact of training is suggestive rather than substantive, yet we need such evidence in order to bypass what has hitherto been a rather unproductive debate regarding the benefits of professional training or experience.
Additional
copies of this summary are available from the Australian Institute of Welfare
& Community Workers Inc. PO Box 42, Flinders Lane PO, Melbourne 8009 Tel.
03 9654 8287 email: info@aiwcw.org.au or ianmurray@iprimus.com.au