On July 8, Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri posted on Instagram that the Social Work Profession Bill would be tabled in the Dewan Rakyat next week, provided the ministry’s arrangements go smoothly.
On the same day, she held a briefing session on the Bill with Members of Parliament, leaving several stakeholders claiming they had been caught by surprise.
While some may view this development as a cause for celebration, others fear that the tabling of the highly anticipated Bill risks becoming an exercise in futility.
The frustration stems from the fact that the Bill, which has been amended several times, is expected to govern social workers only in the private sector, while exempting their counterparts in the public sector.
This is not a new concern.
The issue was highlighted by Twentytwo13 last year, with stakeholders urging the ministry to fix the Bill before it is tabled.
Proponents of the Bill argue that it makes no sense to exempt government social workers, including those in the Welfare Department, given that the legislation was always intended to strengthen professional social work within government agencies.
This argument is logical, given that a large proportion of social work takes place within government agencies – covering critical areas such as child protection, domestic violence, poverty relief, and support for stateless individuals.
In essence, the legislation must regulate all practitioners across all sectors to safeguard those who rely on these services, especially the vulnerable.
Some public sector workers have in the past also expressed an eagerness to be regulated under the proposed law, warning that their roles risk becoming blurred or that they could even lose out to licensed social workers if they remain unlicensed and unregulated.
Uncertainty also hangs over the establishment of the Social Work Profession Council, which will be created once the Act is passed.
The composition of the council remains vague, apart from the role of chairman, which is believed to be reserved for the ministry’s secretary-general.
Qualified social workers representing various organisations now say they are left wondering whether they will even have a seat on the council.
It is rather peculiar that so many vital details remain unclear to stakeholders, given that the Bill is being pushed for its first reading in Parliament next week.
Despite ongoing advocacy and awareness campaigns, many people still do not understand what a social worker actually does. The mere mention of the profession often invites frowns, while a negative perception of the nature of the work persists.
The Bill aims to regulate the profession by elevating social workers to professional status, thereby improving the efficiency and management of social work services. However, sceptics already anticipate that the new law will create a profession with dual standards – one for the public sector and another for the private sector.
Social workers outside government service have insisted there must be open, transparent, and standardised regulation, along with a minimum qualification requirement for all social workers in Malaysia.
It is understood that only slightly over 30 per cent of the 3,000 social workers in the Welfare Department meet the minimum entry requirement – namely, a formal qualification in social work. As such, their competency and ability to carry out their duties have often come under scrutiny.
Conversely, some argue that having a law to govern the profession is better than having no regulation at all.
Their argument is not unjustified, as the tabling of the Bill has been long awaited. The profession has remained unregulated and legally unrecognised, despite social workers playing a vital role in Malaysia’s social services for over 70 years.
However, if the ‘flawed’ Bill is passed in Parliament next week, Malaysia risks lagging behind its Southeast Asian neighbours, including the Philippines and Thailand, where regulations governing social workers in the public and private sectors are unified.
Are the profession and its stakeholders in Malaysia supposed to settle for and accept a piece of half-baked legislation just to tick a box? Do we table and pass a law simply in the hope of amending it at a later date?
Therein lies the dilemma.
Will the arrangements to get this Bill tabled still run smoothly?
The ball is now firmly in the court of the Women, Family and Community Development Minister.
