2014 Ron Federico Memorial Lecture: Keeping Social Work Relevant in Child Welfare Service Delivery

Abstract

Working at the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) for 5 years (1995 to 2000) and having sat in the CSWE conference room before that, I frequently saw the picture of Ron Federico that was prominently displayed. As I worked on initatives to promote professional social work practice in public human service agencies, building partnerships between social work education programs and communitybased agencies was essential. It was also necessary to articulate the competencies BSW graduates should have to practice in child welfare agencies. Thus, through my work, Ron Federico became more than a picture on the wall— he became a major force as I increasingly became knowledgeable about the essential contributions that he made to social work education. Thus, I was extremely honored to be selected to present the 2014 Ron Federico Lecture. This lecture is grounded in the work that I have done, much in collaboration with many others, and the things I have learned over the past several decades. Since 1987 I have journeyed from the National Association of Social Workers (NASW), to CSWE, and then to the Institute for the Advancement of Social Work Research (IASWR), and then back to NASW in 2009 to direct its nascent Social Work Policy Institute. What I attempt to provide here is a somewhat historical view, because it helps to know where we have been to help us in moving forward. This retrospective provides a policy view of where our assumptions that social work degrees are not only relevant, but also perhaps essential for good child welfare practice have been grounded. It also suggests that we are not yet able to make an irrefutable assertion that a social work degree is the only path to excellence in child welfare practice, improved child and family outcomes, and improved staff retention. This paper also looks at strategies we might use to ensure that the social work profession, including the expertise and education of both BSW and MSW graduates, continues to be relevant for today’s and tomorrow’s child welfare service delivery. It should be acknowledged that I first came to NASW on a parttime, temporary basis, to work on fulfilling the recommendations that had been developed as part of then NASW President Dorothy V. Harris’s Presidential