THE United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) and Malaysian Association of Social Workers (MASW) today called on lawmakers to hasten the tabling of the Social Work Profession (PKS) Bill as parliament sits for the third time next week. 

Unicef Malaysia Chief of Child Protection Saskia Blume said enacting the bill would acknowledge and support social workers in the country.  

She said the lack of regulation of social work hindered the potential of social workers to contribute effectively to society.  

“There is need for trained social workers because there are 18,750 cases of child abuse recorded by the Social Welfare Department and the Royal Malaysian Police reported 13,529 cases of domestic violence between 2020 and 2022,” she said during a press briefing in conjunction with the “Social Workers: Heroes Among Us” campaign. 

Blume pointed out that social work is unregulated in Malaysia, unlike in other Asean countries such as the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, and Indonesia. Furthermore, Malaysia has only one social worker for every 8,576 people, compared to Singapore (1:3,448), United Kingdom (1:3,025), and Australia (1:490).  

Secretary of MASW Amy Bala said the public had yet to understand the real meaning of social work, with many Malaysians viewing those in the profession as charity workers. 

“For social workers, the bill gives professional status and recognises them as valued professionals, encouraging appropriate remunerations,” she said. 

She noted that social work was an established academic discipline in 12 institutions of higher learning nationwide that offered diploma to PhD programmes. However, not all individuals doing social work were professionally trained due to lack of regulation. 

Amy was confident that the government would soon table and pass the bill to acknowledge the role of social work in community development in line with the government’s vision for Malaysia Madani. 

The PKS Bill, formerly known as the Social Worker’s Bill, was first approved by the cabinet in 2010 and is under review by the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development. – Bernama, October 3, 2023.