Social Work Bill given second reading

The House of Representatives yesterday gave a second reading to the Social Work Profession Bill, which will give professional status to social workers. The bill also sets up a board to regulate the profession.

The last opposition speaker in the debate, Mr Joe Abela, said the responsibility which parliament was giving social workers through their warrant, should also be recognised by other professionals with whom social workers came into contact, such as at the schools, courts and hospitals.

Mr Abela said other professionals also had to take difficult decisions and their responsibilities should also be recognised by law. These included occupational, physio and speech therapists. A bill similar to this one should thus also cover their duties.

It was positive that the bill was recognising the associations representing social workers. Without their associations, professionals would lack the enthusiasm to keep themselves up to date, to the detriment of their patients. He felt a fund should be created for such associations to carry out research projects.

The bill was positive but it should now be backed by proper support to social workers to enable them to work more efficiently. Unfortunately, many people still viewed politicians as being more effective to solve their social problems than the social workers. This situation needed to change.

Mr Abela called for social workers and other professionals to help illegal immigrants, particularly children, held in detention centres. The situation was currently so bad that a hunger strike was being held at Safi barracks, he said.

Winding up, Parliamentary Secretary Dolores Cristina thanked the social workers for their work and their dedication. She said that the bill was providing safeguards for all those who had the warrant to practice as social workers. The regulatory board would ensure the highest standards in social work.

Social workers themselves had wanted the sector regularised so as to improve their status, dignity and credibility. Social workers will also be registered to protect the public from bad practices and to retain levels of professionalism and accountability.

Mrs Cristina said the training of social workers was continually being improved and the enactment of this bill would lead to even better training for those interested in social work. Indeed, there were grounds for more specialisation in different sectors, such as in fostering, adoption, children in care, adolescents and young pregnant mothers. But the available human resources made it impossible to have enough social workers and it was very probable that there would never be enough social workers.

She agreed with an opposition MP that the voluntary sector was shrinking, saying this was happening because of a change of lifestyles - more women were working and this resource was constantly on the decline. It would be unfortunate if this resource continued to decline.

Mrs Cristina referred to the alleged case of child abuse by members of the church. She insisted that there would be zero tolerence for such cases, but one should not judge all the clergy on the basis of this alleged case.

Near the end of her speech Mrs Cristina referred to the fact that some 568 Maltese women had gone to the UK over the past 10 years to have an abortion. She agreed with Ms Marie Louise Coleiro that this figure was worrying, more so as it involved only one country. These were 568 children which nobody had ever seen, children which, had they been born, would now be going to school for the first time, receiving Holy Communion or Confirmation.

It was not enough for Malta to be against abortion. The circumstances had to be created where a woman did not feel the need to have an abortion.

Assistance services did actually exist, but they may not be enough or they were not well known. No circumstance should justify abortion.

The country should continue to create the climate where abortion was not acceptable.