Submission to the Social Workers Registration Legislation Bill

Download the Salvation Army's Submission to the Social Workers Registration Legislation Bill (PDF, 400KB)

The Salvation Army generally supports in principle the core objectives of this Bill, particularly the aim of increasing the professionalism of the social work profession and ensuring the public is protected from harm.

Generally, we support;

• the protection of the ‘social worker’ title and the mandatory registration of social workers;
• the exception in this Bill to the Clean Slate regime to help determine the eligibility and fit of a person seeking registration;
• requiring employers to report to the Board if we have any reason to believe a registered social worker is not competent to effectively fulfil their tasks and job requirements;

This Bill has significant effects for NGOs and community groups like The Salvation Army who employ numerous fully registered social workers, as well as other community workers, within our various social programmes. These effects will not be fully known and understood by the NGO sector until the Bill has passed and the final legislation is in operation.