Panacea or scapegoat: The socia1 work profession and its history and background in relation to the state welfare department in victoria

Abstract

The position of the social work profession within public child welfare has been a vexed issue, which has yet to be fully analysed and understood. It is important for this issue to be considered in its historical context, as an understanding of the past can influence the future (Liddell 1993). For this reason, the focus on public child welfare in Victoria is historical, looking back from the formation of the government's first direct intervention, to the present time. A subsequent article will examine in more detail the contemporary context within Victoria.The state government department delivering social welfare services to the Victorian community, now titled Health and Community Services, has had a complex history. It is within this changing organisational form that the position of the social work profession is described.The historical description occurs over four decades. The 1960s is described as a period of modernisation of state welfare, when social workers were actively sought after as a means of professionalising the Department. The 1970s are depicted as a period of regionalisation, with the evolution of a social work managed organisational structure. The 1980s are characterised as the era of new managerialism, where the focus is on efficiency and effectiveness in the state public service. The present decade of the 1990s is described in terms of the amalgamation of two departments, and the emerging focus upon child protection, as an arena of social work employment within the child and family welfare functions.The position of social work within this department is characterised as either panacea or scapegoat, at different points in history, and neither extreme is seen as an accurate reflection of what the profession or individual workers can actually offer an organisation.

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