FIELDS OF SOCIAL WORK

Social work in the Philippines is practiced in a variety of settings. Although the Department of Social
Welfare and Development is still the employer of the greatest number of social workers, it is not the
only agency that practices social work. Other government agencies like the Department of the
Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the Manila Department of Social Welfare have a big
number of trained social workers to manage and implement their numerous welfare programs and
services. Countless private voluntary welfare organizations are run by many staff trained in social
work. In addition, social workers have been and continue to be employed in education, health,
business, housing, correctional, and community development programs. With so many development
agencies being established today, new settings for the practice of social work continue to emerge.
Having this in mind, we can say that social welfare (in its broad meaning) is the field of social work
practice, whether here or abroad. However, the vast field of social welfare (with its organized
systems of social services and institutions to meet a variety of human needs and problems, whether
under government or private auspices) may be broken down further into specific "fields of social
work practice" or "social work practice settings" characterized by certain programs and services, and
with staff functions and activities that take into account the particular type of clientele being served.
Any setting where social work is practiced, or where the professional training of a social worker is
put to use is a "field of social work."

A worker's choice of field or setting where to practice her profession, from the many alternatives
available, is likely to be influenced by any of the following factors: availability of job opportunities
and the related factors of salary and incentives; employment conditions including opportunities for
professional advancement; personal interests and inclinations; influence of family and friends (in the
Philippines, parents would usually object to a son or daughter's accepting employment in an agency
where her work would involve distant travel or certain risks; agency staff would usually persuade
their friends to join their agency if they like the employment conditions); and immediate as well as
long-term plans (including marriage that may make job proximity to one's home a major
consideration; or plans to live abroad that may influence the choice of agency while still in the
country).

To give an idea of the many choices and alternatives one has in the field of social welfare, we shall
present in this chapter the major fields established as well as the emerging fields or settings for social
work practice today. A brief description of the concern/ objective of the setting and the
nature/functions/ activities characteristic of social work practice in the setting will be discussed.

CHILD WELFARE
The field is concerned with the physical, social and psychological well-being of children and youth.
It involves the provision of different programs and services designed for the care, protection, and
rehabilitation of children and youth in difficult situations. In the Philippines, these youth are those
living in poverty or lacking in normal parental care and supervision.
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) outlines the fundamental rights of
children including the right to be protected from economic exploitation and harmful work, from all
forms of sexual exploitation and abuse, and from physical or mental violence, as well as ensuring
that children will not be separated from their family against their will.
Republic Act No. 7610 (June 17, 1992) is an Act Providing Strong Deterrence and Special Protection
of Children against Child Abuse, Exploitation and Discrimination. Article 1, Sec. 2 provides that "it
shall be the policy of the state to protect and rehabilitate children gravely threatened or endangered
by circumstances which affect or will affect their survival and normal development over which they
have no control." The law defines "child" as a person below 18 years of age or a person who is older
than 18 but is unable to fully take care of or protect himself/herself from abuse, neglect, cruelty,
exploitation or discrimination because of a physical or mental disability or condition

Social workers who choose employment in the field of Child Welfare will work with children who
need protection against conditions which exploit or violate their their right to survival and
development. rights as human beings or prevent them from enjoying The DSWD is the government's
lead agency for the implementation of the provisions of R.A. No. 7610. It takes charge of the
accreditation and registration of child welfare agencies in the country? It works alongside the
Council for the Welfare of Children (CWC), the interagency body mandated by the government to
coordinate the implementation and enforcement of all laws, formulate, monitor, and evaluate
policies, programs and measures for children. Child Welfare is one of the most established fields of
social work practice in the Philippines. In the DSWD, social workers are engaged in administration,
management, supervision and case management work in residential as well as community-based
child welfare programs and services. There are now numerous Non-government Organizations
(NGOs) in this field. The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has a comprehensive program
for children, including the Vulnerable and hard-to-reach. The Child Protection Network Foundation
(CPN) with expertise on the prevention and treatment of child abuse, and the Children's Legal
Bureau (CLB) which focuses on Taw enforcement, prosecution, rehabilitation, courts, LGU, and the
private sector for the protection of rights and the attainment of justice for children," are among the
agencies and organizations that engage social workers in varied capacities

The provision for substitute child-caring services or Child Placement in the field of Child Welfare
is a popular area of social work practice. This service is for dependent and abandoned children who
need to be provided with the nearest substitute to a home on a short term/temporary or long-term
basis. Social workers are herein involved in work relating to the following:
a. Adoption: is a legal process whereby a child who is deprived of a birth family is provided with
substitute new ties, ie., a new parent-child relationship is established and the adopted child enjoys the
same rights and privileges as that of a biological child.
b. Legal guardianship: a process undertaken to provide substitute parental care through the
appointment of a legal guardian for the child, including his property, until the child reaches the age of
majority.
c. Foster Care: refers to a substitute temporary parental care provided to a child by a licensed foster
family under the supervision of a social worker. The ultimate aim of foster family care is to reunite
the child with the biological family or to prepare the child for adoption or, in the case of older
children, to prepare them for living independently.
d. Residential/institutional care: this provides temporary 24-hour residential group care to children
whose needs cannot, at the time, be adequately met by their biological parents and other alternative
family care arrangements. Residential facilities provide an approximation of family life under the
guidance of trained staff, but it is used as a last recourse, resorted to in the absence of foster families.
The Association of Child Caring Agencies in the Philippines (ACCAP) has around 40 to 50 member
agencies consisting of Child Caring and Child-Placing. Agencies. The term "Child Caring Agencies"
refers to duly licensed and accredited agencies by the Department of Social Welfare and
Development (DSWD) which provide 24-hour residential care services for abandoned, orphaned,
neglected or voluntarily committed children (R.A. No. 11642). The term "Child-Placing Agency"
(CPA) refers to a private non-profit charitable agency or a government agency both duly licensed and
accredited by the DSWD to provide comprehensive child welfare services including receiving and
processing of petitions for adoption and foster care; evaluating the prospective adoptive parents
(PAPs), or foster parents; preparing the child case study report and home study report (R.A. No.
11642).
To protect the welfare of the child to be adopted, the law requires a home study report or a written
report prepared by an adoption social worker concerning the motivation and capacity of the
prospective adoptive or foster parents to provide a home that would meet the needs of a child. Social
workers are central to the implementation of the adoption policy. They are involved in: initiating care
proceedings, recommending adoption as a care plan, assessing adopters, matching children, and
providing post-adoption support.

Foster Care Service provides a planned temporary family care for children who are waiting to be
reunited with their birth families or to be adopted. The implementation of the Foster Care Service is
guided by R.A. No. 10165 or the Foster Care Act of 2013. Its Implementing Rules and Regulations
(IRR) accompany Memorandum Circular (MC) No. 21 series of 2018 "Omnibus Guidelines on
Foster Care Service" of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).
Adoption is a professional service to protect the child's rights and welfare; an intervention to ensure
that family life can be restored to a child deprived of his/her biological family. The DSWD is the
state's designated authority to implement the country's Adoption program. Related guidelines and
policies are in place to ensure the systematic and effective implementation of child placement thru
adoption.
The ACCAP is the only association in the country for Child-Caring Agencies (CCAs) and Child-
Placing Agencies (CPAs). These agencies employ two to ten (2-10) social workers tasked to manage
children's cases and couples and families applying for legal adoption and foster care. Over 100
ACCAP social workers have been trained in adoption, foster care, and alternative family care.
A recent development relating to adoption was the passage of Republic Act No. 11642 on January 6,
2022, which strengthened alternative child care by Providing for an Administrative Process of
Domestic Adoption. Under this law, the Inter-Country Adoption Board (ICAB) will be reorganized
into a one-stop quasi-judicial agency on alternative child care known as the National Authority for
Child Care (NACC), attached to the DSWD. This law will ensure that the petitions and all other
matters involving alternative child care, including the issuance of a Certificate Declaring a Child
Legally Available for Adoption • (CDCLAA), and the process of domestic and inter-country
adoption, foster care, kinship care, family-like care, or residential care are "simple, expeditious, and
inexpensive, and will redound to the best interests of the child involved. NACC informed the author
that the agency has proposed, to the government's Department of Budget Management, 500 social
work plantilla positions for the different Regional Alternative Child Care Offices. It is likewise
considering the accreditation of adoption social workers.
The field of Child Welfare in the country does not limit social work practice only to children. The
reality: of multi-problem families would often involve the social worker interacting with a child at
the start, but unavoidably working with the family later, which may lead to the situation causing the
child's problem. Most other fields of social work (e.g., Family Welfare, Courts, Business, and
Industry) involve working with children.

FAMILY AND COMMUNITY WELFARE

Family Welfare as a field of social work is concerned with the improvement, strengthening of and
giving support to the family in meeting its own needs. In the Philippines, social workers in this field
work with disadvantaged, marginalized families: those living in poverty and its usually.
accompanying problems of ignorance, health, nutrition, sanitation, unemployment, under-
employment, family conflicts and destructive relationships, domestic violence and abuse, lack of
parenting skills, solo parents, or no-parent families due to overseas employment, substance abuse
abuse and alcoholism, human rights violence, displacement due to armed conflict, housing problems,
natural disasters, lack of access to community resources, and others.
A social worker's activities in a family welfare setting include the following:
(a) engaging the family in a problem-solving relationship;
(b) mobilizing existing resources and if possible, creating non-existing resources needed by the
family;
(c) working with individuals, groups, and other entities whose support and cooperation are needed to
effectively help a family;
(d) continuously/regularly assessing the adequacy and effectiveness of existing policies, programs
and services that relate to the family; and
(e) supervising staff in their various activities in relation to the families being served...

The Department of Social Welfare and. Development (DSWD), as lead government agency for:
social welfare, has the following programs for disadvantaged families which are its main target
beneficiaries: Alternative Family Care Program, Parent Effectiveness Service, Marriage Counseling
Service, Responsible Parenthood Service, Family Casework, Practical Skills Development, Job
Placement for Family Heads or Male Adults, Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situation,
Supplementary Feeding Programs, Program for Older Persons and Persons with Disability, Programs
for Women, Family and Other Groups, and Social Preparation for People's Participation.†

Social workers are at the forefront in the implementation of these DSWD programs and services. The
same is true in the case of church-sponsored agencies in the country which list families, next to
children, as their main target beneficiaries for service.
Social work with families often engages the social worker in work with the entire community where
the families reside, whether in public housing projects, in relocation and resettlement areas, or in
work with cultural and indigenous communities. Social work in these settings involves not only
providing needed community services and cooperating with various groups and organizations but
also organizing communities for their own problem solving. Many social workers, particularly the
younger and more recent graduates, find the latter most challenging.

Specific social work tasks in the field of housing relocation and resettlement include the following:
(a) helping families prepare for relocation (including providing opportunities for them to participate
in the planning process;
(b) helping families cope with and adjust to the changes that happen with relocation and resettlement;
(c) involving the people in efforts to develop their conditions at the resettlement sites;
(d) identifying and training local leaders;
(e) helping develop local organizations;
(F)promoting/facilitating the coordination of community groups and organizations all working for the
well-being of the relocated families; and
(g) provision of certain social services needed by the relocated families, such as food and
transportation, day care services, counseling services, family planning services, skills training, job
placement, and the like.

Social work practice in tenement housing projects. (also considered "communities") usually involves
the administration and implementation of programs that preserve and promote family cohesiveness
and stability as well as community consciousness, self-reliance, and social responsibility. The goal is
to attain the maximum possible physical, economic, and social development of families and of the
entire community, using their own as well as outside resources. The venue of this line of work is
usually the community center which is designed to provide certain community services and facilities
to meet the needs of a disorganized community like a tenement• housing project, and to facilitate
efforts for the development of shared community interests and responsibility.

Activities of social workers in tenement housing projects include:

(a) discussing and identifying community needs and problems;
(b) defining, together with the people, the community-based programs needed;
(c) stimulating the active participation of all elements in the community;
(d) identifying, training and developing local leaders;
(e) assisting the community in organizing/undertaking services not offered by existing agencies;
(f) administering and supervising specific community projects;
(g) linking up the community with available outside resources; and (h) providing or facilitating the
provision of other needed social • (NGOs) employ social workers verne management and

Today, many non-government organizations (NGOs) employ social workers in the management and
implementation of their programs for community welfare all over the country.
The DSWD, being the lead agency for social welfare, has a comprehensive program for community
welfare where social workers are the lead staff, particularly in local government units (LGUs). These
programs are "intended to assist socially disadvantaged communities in developing their capability to
define needs and formulate solutions as well as set up viable community structures which bring about
desired social changes." Among these are: Social Preparation for People's Participation; Community
Mobilization Service; Community Volunteers and Resource Development; and Development of
Community Welfare Structures.

In addition, the DSWD implements the following social protection/social assistance programs which
show how family and community welfare merge naturally.
1. KALAHI-CIDSS-KKB (Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan - Comprehensive and Integrated
Delivery of Social Services: Kapangyarihan at Kaunlaran sa Barangay) —uses the "Community-
Driven Development" (CDD) approach, a globally recognized strategy for achieving service
delivery, poverty reduction, and good governance outcomes. The development objective of
Kalahi-CIDSS is to have barangays/ communities of targeted municipalities become empowered
to achieve improved access to services and to participate in more inclusive local planning,
budgeting, and implementation.
2. 2 Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) - a human development program that invests in
the health and education of poor households, particularly children aged 0-18 years old (Republic
Act No. 13310 made this as the government's national poverty reduction strategy). The family
beneficiaries of this program are helped through social work case management that would give
them opportunities to be involved in activities for community welfare.
3. 3. PAMANA (Payapa at Masaganang Pamayanan) - to improve underprivileged communities'
access to fundamental social service while also promoting responsive governance.
4. 4. DSWD Centers and Residential Care Facilities.