THE RE-AWAKENING ROLE OF SOCIAL WORKERS IN POLICYMAKING FOLLOWING A GLOBAL PANDEMIC: LESSONS FOR EDUCATION AND PRACTICE
THE RE-AWAKENING ROLE OF SOCIAL WORKERS IN POLICYMAKING FOLLOWING A GLOBAL PANDEMIC: LESSONS FOR EDUCATION AND PRACTICE

Summary/Abstract: Social workers have contributed to policy analysis and planning since the rise of the discipline’s professional identity. Through lobbying, policy advocacy and macro-practice, responses about human rights and social justice are crafted and integrated into international and transnational social work practice. However, these roles have been diminished over recent years to standardise and confine the profession to the limits of a given nation’s legal and social status. Public crises like the recent novel virus SARS-CoV-2 force us to rethink the role of social workers, especially regarding their contribution to the development of social policy and policy practice. This paper considers whether social workers are well prepared to take on these roles again, when historically education and practice have shied away from them, leaving contemporary practitioners in a predicament. There are both challenges and opportunities in social policy arising from COVID-19 and this paper argues the need to re-emphasise social workers’ role in social policy in making recommendations for education and practice.

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