Social Work Regulation: Essential to the Profession

by Dwight J. Hymans, MSW, LCSW, ACSW

Dwight Hymans

Dwight J. Hymans, MSW, LCSW, ACSW

     Social workers didn’t need the government to designate the profession as essential to know that they fulfill the qualifications of this description. However, the government needed to designate social work as essential during COVID-19 to recognize what practitioners have known all along: Their work in all settings is vital to ongoing public health, safety, and welfare. The theme “Social Workers Are Essential” offers the opportunity to reflect on the ways that regulation and licensing are essential to social workers in their essential roles, including:

• Regulation transforms a profession’s aspirational code of ethics to legally enforceable obligations. Regulatory codes of conduct take ethical values such as nondiscrimination and turn them into law.
• Regulation upholds the social work value of social justice by protecting consumers. Licensing is proof that the practitioner has demonstrated the ability to perform competently and a guarantee that consumers have recourse should harm occur.
• Licensure, like the definition of “essential worker,” is government recognition that professional social work practice has a direct impact on public health and safety. All U.S. jurisdictions license clinical social workers; 41 regulate clinical, masters, and bachelors practice; 8 regulate clinical and masters practice; and 2 regulate clinical and bachelors practice.
• Social workers provide services to some of the most vulnerable populations in their communities. Regulatory boards stand behind licensed practitioners to protect consumers by holding licensees accountable.
• The social work practice act in 48 states prescribes the use of certain titles and the scope of activities, thereby protecting the essential role of social workers by identifying who can be called a social worker and defining what a social worker can do.
• In times of crisis, regulation provides parameters around safe, ethical, and competent practice, giving social workers structure for exercising creative solutions. While the speed of regulation to change can be frustrating for consumers and practitioners, the deliberate rhythm offers opportunity for considering potential consequences and diverse perspectives.

     In 2019, ASWB’s 54 U.S. member boards reported a total of 498,071 licensed social workers. Of this number, 208,262 are clinical social workers, 186,631 are masters social workers, and 58,970 are bachelors social workers. States with a separate masters license for macro practice reported 36,939 advanced generalist licensees. These numbers do not include social workers exempt from licensure—indicating the workforce is potentially much larger. In fact, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (n.d.) reports 713,200 social work jobs in 2019. To help the profession quantify the workforce more accurately, ASWB plans to undertake a social work census as part of its next practice analysis. The practice analysis process gets under way later in 2021. Stay tuned!  

     Regulatory board service is yet another way for social workers to expand their essential role by helping to shape regulation and protecting the public. ASWB encourages social workers to consider volunteering for their social work regulatory board or as a public member on another regulatory board. Diverse voices are valued and often underrepresented.

References

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (n.d.). Occupational Outlook Handbook, Social Workers. U.S. Department of Labor. Retrieved February 9, 2021, from https://www.bls.gov/ooh/community-and-social-service/social-workers.htm

Dwight Hymans, MSW, LCSW, ACSW, is Chief Executive Officer of the Association of Social Work Boards, the nonprofit association of social work regulatory bodies in the United States, including the 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands, and the 10 provinces in Canada.