OTGV #25 - Pay for Social Workers
Broadcast date : 10/02/03
They really are the forgotten professionals.
Well... maybe not forgotten but definitely taken-for-granted.
We are talking about Social Workers.
Hi, Welcome to On the Grapevine with me Chong Ching Liang.
Dr Myrna Blake has been involved in the training of and has been practicing social work for nearly half a century and, she has noticed changes in the profession over the years.
"The whole profile of the client and also, I guess the expectations of social workers. The field of social workers is enormous. We're not just dealing with public assistance. We are talking about human development, in terms of people making the most of what they have. I once gave a talk where I compared social workers to Batman. When they need to be down in the ground in detail, but up in the sky to see a wide breadth. And also to be able to shift from one side to the other."
Most of the time, social workers work very long hours with salaries that dip below that of most other professions.
But they are increasingly being recognised by the government.
Since 1999, outstanding social workers have been rewarded with the Outstanding Social Workers Award or the OSWA.
One of the winners is Esther Koh, a young social worker for whom the OSWA means quite a lot.
"I am very amazed that I received the award. Very honoured and very affirmed and encouraged that as a younger social worker, I won the award."
However, recognition doesn't feed the stomach as some wisecracks say.
So recognition can go only so far to keep good, decent social workers on the job.
The other OSWA winner Maureen Fung says social workers need to be seen as a professional and at the same time have a fairly adequate wage structure to retain good workers.
"How to reconcile that is going to be tough. Yeah? It's going to be needing time and effort on the part of professional bodies as well as relevant authorities that are working with social services, even our funding bodies, to ensure that social workers are adequately paid for us to have them and sustain them in their job. We are not talking about big bucks where profit organisations are concerned, but adequate you know, comparable to you know, what they are paying social workers in the civil service."
Maureen is a career social worker who has spent her entire working life in the Samaritans of Singapore and most recently, the Asian Women Welfare Association.
The National Council of Social Service is the organisation directly involved in regulating the profession of social work.
The NCSS sees itself as being responsible for upgrading the image of social workers .
It is also looking to upgrade the remuneration package for social workers so that the sector can retain its best workers.
Frances Lui Director of Corporate Communications, NCSS
"NCSS is working with the other government agencies to re-look at the salaries structures and also the career structures of a social service professional. Our objective is to ensure that as professionals, their salaries will be pegged and aligned close to what the civil service is getting."
How much will this help?
Well, for one veteran social worker, this little move will go far.
Maureen Fung again.
"With this latest move of raising the salary scheme of social workers. I think this is important. It will draw people who want to enter with that passion but still need to feed a family to come in. We know there are people who love to do it. I have come across male social workers, they are starting a family and it's not adequate. Had they stepped outside it would be more. And we lose them. Yeah? And we do need male social workers as well. Nonetheless, whatever the sex, we ought to be reasonably paid to do the job."
Nominated MP and chairperson of the 2002 OSWA selection Committee Braema Mathi says more can be done to show social workers Singapore does appreciate their work.
"I think these are steps but I still feel that they are small. Good steps but I feel they are a little long in coming I think it will be great to bring the social workers on par as soon as possible. That's the clearest signal that we can send into society that we appreciate the work they do."
But raising the salary structure and implementing a more structured career path may not solve the problem of funding.
Most Voluntary Welfare organisations or VWOs are cash strapped because volunteers run them.
So increasing the size of their payroll won't help them at all.
But to call simply for the government to step in to contribute more funds may not be the answer either.
Dr Myrna Blake paints the dilemma for me.
"There is a real advantage for the voluntary welfare organisation because they have a freedom in being able to develop programmes that they like. If everything was under the control of the government, there will be a little more of control and you know necessarily because of budget. So if you look at the VWO sector, there's a huge range of how each has developed in terms of specialisation and innovative programmes It would be a pity if that was stifled. And yet on the other hand there is this tension of not having money and stuff sometimes and committees having to spend lots of time fund-raising rather than doing the sort of things they should be doing. But I don't know the answer to this. I just can see the dilemma."
The current rate of social workers dropping out is at 10 percent of the cohort.
Maybe it will change with better pay and recognition that social work is a highly skilled profession.
After all, we mustn't take advantage of social workers just because they have a good heart, right?
This is Chong Ching Liang for Newsradio 938.
================================
Related Links:
Newsradio938
http://newsradio.mediacorpradio.com
Singapore Association of Social Worker's Past OSWA Recipients Webpage
http://www.sasw.org.sg/public/aboutsocialwork.htm#Outstanding_Social_Worker_Award_(OSWA)
Samaritans of Singapore
http://www.samaritans.org.sg/
Asian Women Welfare Association
http://www.awwa.org.sg/
National Council of Social Service
http://ncss.org.sg/ncss/index.asp
They really are the forgotten professionals.
Well... maybe not forgotten but definitely taken-for-granted.
We are talking about Social Workers.
Hi, Welcome to On the Grapevine with me Chong Ching Liang.
Dr Myrna Blake has been involved in the training of and has been practicing social work for nearly half a century and, she has noticed changes in the profession over the years.
"The whole profile of the client and also, I guess the expectations of social workers. The field of social workers is enormous. We're not just dealing with public assistance. We are talking about human development, in terms of people making the most of what they have. I once gave a talk where I compared social workers to Batman. When they need to be down in the ground in detail, but up in the sky to see a wide breadth. And also to be able to shift from one side to the other."
Most of the time, social workers work very long hours with salaries that dip below that of most other professions.
But they are increasingly being recognised by the government.
Since 1999, outstanding social workers have been rewarded with the Outstanding Social Workers Award or the OSWA.
One of the winners is Esther Koh, a young social worker for whom the OSWA means quite a lot.
"I am very amazed that I received the award. Very honoured and very affirmed and encouraged that as a younger social worker, I won the award."
However, recognition doesn't feed the stomach as some wisecracks say.
So recognition can go only so far to keep good, decent social workers on the job.
The other OSWA winner Maureen Fung says social workers need to be seen as a professional and at the same time have a fairly adequate wage structure to retain good workers.
"How to reconcile that is going to be tough. Yeah? It's going to be needing time and effort on the part of professional bodies as well as relevant authorities that are working with social services, even our funding bodies, to ensure that social workers are adequately paid for us to have them and sustain them in their job. We are not talking about big bucks where profit organisations are concerned, but adequate you know, comparable to you know, what they are paying social workers in the civil service."
Maureen is a career social worker who has spent her entire working life in the Samaritans of Singapore and most recently, the Asian Women Welfare Association.
The National Council of Social Service is the organisation directly involved in regulating the profession of social work.
The NCSS sees itself as being responsible for upgrading the image of social workers .
It is also looking to upgrade the remuneration package for social workers so that the sector can retain its best workers.
Frances Lui Director of Corporate Communications, NCSS
"NCSS is working with the other government agencies to re-look at the salaries structures and also the career structures of a social service professional. Our objective is to ensure that as professionals, their salaries will be pegged and aligned close to what the civil service is getting."
How much will this help?
Well, for one veteran social worker, this little move will go far.
Maureen Fung again.
"With this latest move of raising the salary scheme of social workers. I think this is important. It will draw people who want to enter with that passion but still need to feed a family to come in. We know there are people who love to do it. I have come across male social workers, they are starting a family and it's not adequate. Had they stepped outside it would be more. And we lose them. Yeah? And we do need male social workers as well. Nonetheless, whatever the sex, we ought to be reasonably paid to do the job."
Nominated MP and chairperson of the 2002 OSWA selection Committee Braema Mathi says more can be done to show social workers Singapore does appreciate their work.
"I think these are steps but I still feel that they are small. Good steps but I feel they are a little long in coming I think it will be great to bring the social workers on par as soon as possible. That's the clearest signal that we can send into society that we appreciate the work they do."
But raising the salary structure and implementing a more structured career path may not solve the problem of funding.
Most Voluntary Welfare organisations or VWOs are cash strapped because volunteers run them.
So increasing the size of their payroll won't help them at all.
But to call simply for the government to step in to contribute more funds may not be the answer either.
Dr Myrna Blake paints the dilemma for me.
"There is a real advantage for the voluntary welfare organisation because they have a freedom in being able to develop programmes that they like. If everything was under the control of the government, there will be a little more of control and you know necessarily because of budget. So if you look at the VWO sector, there's a huge range of how each has developed in terms of specialisation and innovative programmes It would be a pity if that was stifled. And yet on the other hand there is this tension of not having money and stuff sometimes and committees having to spend lots of time fund-raising rather than doing the sort of things they should be doing. But I don't know the answer to this. I just can see the dilemma."
The current rate of social workers dropping out is at 10 percent of the cohort.
Maybe it will change with better pay and recognition that social work is a highly skilled profession.
After all, we mustn't take advantage of social workers just because they have a good heart, right?
This is Chong Ching Liang for Newsradio 938.
================================
Related Links:
Newsradio938
http://newsradio.mediacorpradio.com
Singapore Association of Social Worker's Past OSWA Recipients Webpage
http://www.sasw.org.sg/public/aboutsocialwork.htm#Outstanding_Social_Worker_Award_(OSWA)
Samaritans of Singapore
http://www.samaritans.org.sg/
Asian Women Welfare Association
http://www.awwa.org.sg/
National Council of Social Service
http://ncss.org.sg/ncss/index.asp
posted by CHONG Ching-liang | 5:22 PM
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