Social Legislation and Social Work Practice

This article discusses the relationship between social legislation and social work practice, focusing on the challenges faced in implementing the Child Protection Act for asylum-seeking children in Australia. It explores the role of social workers in advocating for children's rights and protecting their well-being. The article also highlights the strengths and weaknesses of the legislation in relation to refugee and asylum seekers in Australia.

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Social Legislation and Social Work Practice
Student’s Name
Course
Professor’s Name
University
Date

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Identification and justification of choice of social legislation in relation to social work
practice
Social work is a profession that normally requires exceptionally high degree of
commitment due to its demanding nature. The complication associated with the job arises out of
the need to have varying skills in order to deliver on tasks, diversity, and roles that have to be
fulfilled. Social workers are also faced with massive public expectations, limited resources, and
agency goals that all need to be satisfied in the shortest time possible. The public knows very few
details about the responsibilities of social workers, and the achievements that they implement in
the society due to focus by the media on the unfulfilled aspects especially in areas of Child
Protection (Paxton, et al., 2015).
Social workers face massive dilemmas when engaging themselves with people’s lives,
and this is based on the association between legislations that have been established, and the
values that the social workers are expected to uphold. The relation between social work and
social legislations is a debate that has massively been undertaken by different scholars. Some
argue that legislations are an integral part of social work, and this is based on how court orders
are normally outlined. Other scholars believe that relying on the laws too much falls short of
tackling the real problem, which is to address challenges that people are facing. This also tends
to exacerbate challenges being faced by people (Phillips, & Spinks, 2013). This presents a
challenge as there is a contradiction between how social legislations should be integrated with
social work, and how these processes might end up affecting the social worker’s ability to make
apt decisions.
The profession has largely been undermined by the public over the years, and this can be
blamed on the absence of awareness among those who need to be assisted by social workers. For
instance, the enactment of the Children’s Act 1989 was solely based on best approaches that
were being taken to deliver social work services in the 80’s. This is as much social work services
were not very much recognized during that era (Dastyari, 2015). Enactment of the
Commonwealth Statutes presented new opportunities, and also provided a better environment for
children as laws that guided upbringing and care provision ended up being radically improved.
Social legislations and associated legal frameworks can never remain static. As such, various
enquiries made into the Child Protection Act by the Victoria Climbie Inquiry Report led the
statutes to be fine tuned further, hence altering the manner in which the act was interpreted and
implemented (Newman, and Steel, 2008).
Social work and the protection of children is an integral part of the society since children
are considered to be a weak group and prone to mistreatment. Organizations such as The
Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW) and Scope of Social Work Practice in Child
Protection outline an in-depth analysis of the scope, contribution, and role that is played by
social workers in instituting child protection services. The organization outlines the secondary
and tertiary stages of protection as defined in the children Welfare Public Health Model
(Zastrow, 2016). In Australia, and in different parts of the globe, neglect and abuse that is

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extended to children is a serious issue and has been known to negatively affect the well-being of
kids even after they mature up. Abuse on children is normally propagated through exploitation,
physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse, and physical neglect. There exist factors that are
taken to be very complex and interlocking, which are the biggest contributors of abuse on
children. This makes the area of social work to be very critical and highly demanding when
compared to all other areas of social work responsibilities. Likewise, social work has long been
involved in the area of children protection through development and customization of policies
that focus on protection of children’s interests (Healy, 2014).
The interests of Social work in children protection and its association with the Children
Protection Act 1998 focuses on sustaining the well-being of children to the maximum, and
equally creating an enabling environment for the survivability of children on a long-term basis.
Societal and personal interests in well-being are based on the existence of a community that is
socially inclusive, and one that can rightfully uphold the principles of respecting human rights,
dignity, and social justice. The principles seek to uphold the right to be part of a loving family
(Rubin & Babbie, 2016).
The social work profession upholds principles enacted by the Declaration by the United
Nations on Children’s Rights. Reliance is primarily based on principle 9, which outlines that all
children must be secured from any form of exploitation, neglect, and cruelty. Based on the
guidelines of Practices under Social Worker, Indigenous knowledge, Social sciences,
Humanities, and Social Workers will normally focus on the relation between a child, the
environment, and family members (Uprichard, 2008). The profession goes ahead to recognize
the effects of cultural, social, and economic aspects on the growth of a kid. Most importantly,
social workers tend to focus on ensuring that they maintain a double-sided view when assisting
and improving the wellbeing of human beings through identifying and tackling external
challenges that may influence discrimination, well-being, justice, and inequality (Archard, 2014).
Social workers employ extensive knowledge, theories, and research skills in an effort to
compressively and holistically determine challenges that a child may be going through. The
assessment process ranges from an analysis of specific requirements, targeted evaluations, and
holistic comprehensive risk and psychosocial evaluation of stress factors, psychological needs,
and strengths of children. The assessment process underlines the needs-based and targeted
interventions plus the emotional factors that affect children’s wellbeing, health, and development
(Fazel, Karunakara, and Newnham, 2014).
The Social work profession covers the following scope in relation to children’s well
being and protection: These includes, onset identification of risks, mitigation measures, and
boosting protective and supporting techniques. In-depth psychosocial evaluation that is based on
children’s strength, which is focused on overall well-being. Intervention on high risk
development while at the same time tackling the challenges faced by families that rare at a high
risk of exposing children to abuse. Evaluation of existing risk factors that relate to neglect and
abuse of kids, violence, cumulative harm, and partner violence (Corbett, et al., 2014).

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Analysis of strengths and weaknesses of the legislation in relation to an area of law in
REFUGEE and asylum seekers in Australia.
Challenges Faced in Implementing the Child Protection Act for Asylum Seeking Children
in Australia.
The united Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) approximates that about
25 million kids all over the globe have have been taken away from their homes. In this figure,
children who are unaccompanied by parents constitute the biggest figure as they make up to 5%
of this population. In Australia, detention of persons seeking asylum is normally undertaken
differently unlike in other western countries, and has been subject to debate on how it tends to
extend oppression on minors. In 1992, Australia enacted legislations outlining that any person
who arrives at Australian borders seeking asylum must undergo mandatory detention (Newman,
Proctor, & Dudley, 2013).
These measures were taken in order to deter immigrants from showing up on Australia’s
border as they tended to overstretch the country’s resources. Many other western countries ended
up following suit and adopted strict measures as Australia since the issue of illegal immigrants
had become a huge problem. The immigrants are taken to offshore centers so as to reduce their
population on the mainland. However, Australia is the only country in the world where
immigrant adults are taken to detention centers together with their children, a matter that is
heavily criticized by other global powers.
Processing of illegal immigrants is undertaken by Department of Immigrant Multicultural
and Indigenous Affairs. Concerns have also been raised by the Medical Professions Board and
Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW) citing that exposing children to mandatory
detention goes against the values established under the Children Protect Act 1998 (Adams,
Dominelli, and Payne, 2009). This is a statute that applies to all commonwealth nations, where
Australia is also a member. Since this is an international statute, local laws that have been
enacted in Australia tend to be given an upper hand during implementation especially where
there is a conflict in ideology.
The detention of asylum-seeking children has been found to cause a psychological toll on
kid’s wellbeing. A 2002 research on the mental well-being of kids in detention centers concluded
that more than a quarter of the refugee kids were mentally disturbed three times more than the
national average. Conclusions drawn from journals such as “Parents and Children in Immigration
Detention” shows that before asylum seeking children reach Australia, they are exposed to
massive mental health challenges (Schech, 2012). Placing them in detention centers for extensive
periods not only affects the children further, but also their parents since they have to carry the
regret and stress of having to put their children in unfavorable situations. Such children are
exposed to emotional and physical neglect, and are still left to live in an environment that is
hostile and degrading. The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) issued

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concerns over forcing children to stay in detention camps, arguing that the psychological health
of such kids is severely impacted. The Australian Child Asylum Seekers argued that in the case
that a civil guardian or parent acted in a manner that resonates with Australia’s actions, then
remedy would be offered in form of subjecting such a child to protection (Woodhead, 2015). The
latter would be taken up by the state and provided with a family. Therefore, mistreating of
asylum-seeking children in such a manner does not augur well with local statutes that have been
enacted to ensure protection of local citizens.
Strengths
The importance of protecting the interests of children has been appreciated by Australian
Authorities, and efforts are being made to fully remove children from detention facilities. This is
seen as a response to massive international pressure, and regulatory bodies within Australia,
which view the act of detaining children at Nauru as counteractive in helping people who are
escaping violence and inhospitable environments. As much as the Mandatory Detention Policy
continues to be implemented, other policies have been enacted to protect unaccompanied
children so that they are provided with families who can provide custody.
The Minister of Immigration and Border Protection is considered to be the state’s legal
guardian, and is mandated to locate a willing family that can provide refuge to unaccompanied
children. This is normally undertaken in conjunction with the Department of Home Affairs
officers and Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW). The importance of protecting
children’s welfare is recognized by Australian authorities, and implementation of radical
measures has led to a great reduction of children in detention centers. Currently, Australian
Statutes establish that it is essential for minors who are seeking asylum yet are unaccompanied to
be incorporated into the community as much as possible.
The vulnerability to abuse of accompanied minors in detention centers should be
analyzed, and where the situation is dire, the children should be taken and incorporated into the
society by providing them with a suitable family. Australian Community Standards stipulate that
all kids, unaccompanied or accompanied, should be subjected to equitable healthcare and
education. The Immigration Detention Center argues that service providers should ensure that
children are not blocked from accessing education services. The Immigration Detention
Standards outline that all detainees should be fully provided with education programs just like
Australian Kids. The programs should be offered in relation to a child’s abilities and age. This
framework promotes and provides education for secondary, pre-school, and primary children. It
also dictates that co-curricular activities such as crafts, regular excursions, facilitates for
entertainment, playgrounds, and case management for kids having special requirements should
be provided (Turner, 2017).
The Department of Immigration Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs outlines three
forms of alternative care that children may be subjected to especially in instances where the
children arrive without the parents. These alternative forms of care ensure that children don’t
necessarily have to be exposed to detention. Additionally, the Australian Immigration Act
outlines exceptions under which a child can have to be taken out of detention and provided with

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bridging visa. This measures allow the kids to be incorporated into the society more efficiently,
thereby, providing them with adequate protection from stressors that they would otherwise face
if they were forced to stay in detention centers. Generally, children have special statutes to
protect their interests in Australia, as the latter subscribes to guidelines under the Convention on
the Rights of the Child (CRC). Additionally, children must be subjected to protection from
violence, access to education, and be provided with access to healthcare facilities. UNICEF in
Australia advocates for the improvement of support to children.
Conclusion
Social legislations, and Social Work plays an integral role in advocacy of human rights.
This makes it possible to deliver targeted services and suitable services to children, thereby,
mitigating instances where the welfare of children is abused. The incorporation of services
offered by social workers services in helping detained children to find suitable homes further
enables the Australian government to uphold the Child Protection Acts 1998. Social workers
help to identify risk factors for children in the society, while exploring areas where improvement
can be done, to sustain the well being of kids. Therefore, social workers in Australia play a
critical role of ensuring that possible neglect and mistreatment on children is curtailed.

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