5 minute read

A message from the NSCSW President

Next Article
STRATEGIC PLAN

STRATEGIC PLAN

Strengthening the College, its impact and reach

BY LYNN BROGAN, MSW, RSW

Advertisement

It is difficult to understate that the events of 2020 were not only challenging but life changing for everyone, especially so for those who have lost loved ones.

As social workers, I believe inherent to our being is a passion for helping others, a wanting to make a difference, and a sense of hope and optimism for the future; 2021 is no exception. As we look ahead, I do wish you all blessings that this year will bring you safety, happiness, and fulfillment. While 2020 threw us some curve balls, the College has remained steadfast in our mandate as a regulatory body to serve and protect the public, and as an association focused on engaging, and supporting our members. We have dedicated our work effort to attending to the goals and outcomes identified in our 5-year strategic plan, which was developed following a province wide consultation with members, and passed a membership vote in 2018 for implementation.

The NSCSW Strategic Plan is intended to bring focus to the primary activities of the College. It represents our foundation for growth to strengthen the profession of social work in Nova Scotia, achieve legitimacy and credibility as a professional body, and to place the College on a path to become an authentic voice for social workers, and a recognized leader in advocacy and social justice issues in effort to protect Nova Scotians and enhance their overall health and well-being.

Armed with a clear legislative mandate, and a strategic plan that guides all the activities conducted by the College, much success has already been achieved as the College nears the end of its third year enacting this plan.

Below, for your ease of reference, I have highlighted just some of the College’s key accomplishments this year:

REGULATION

• Candidacy Mentorship Program – A substantial amount of effort was made to revise the Candidacy Program as a tool to strengthen regulation and importantly prepare and support social workers to effectively integrate Standards of Practice and Code of Ethics into their day to day practice.

• Critical regulatory documents – The NSCSW has made significant advances in developing and updating crucial documents such as the Social Worker Regulations, Administrative By-laws, Application and Renewal Policy, and Complaints Manual. This investment lends to increased transparency and understanding of how social workers are to practice, and professional expectations, which enhances the regulatory capacity of the organization and the social work profession.

• Database – The College has continued to make significant investments in computer services in order to enhance and expand our database performance. It is our hope in streamlining our digital reporting system and making substantive improvements to our registration and renewal processes, social workers will experience an application and renewal process that is readily accessible, much easier to navigate, and less stressful!

ADVOCACY

The social work profession has historical roots in advocacy. It is an implicit function of the social work profession, and is a fundamental expectation of social practice which is explicitly stated in both our professional Standards of Practice and Code of Ethics.

Advocacy holds a prominent role in the NSCSW strategic plan. Significant and strategic investments have resulted in the College making strides toward becoming a recognized leader in advocacy. By engaging and collaborating with members and community partners we have led projects, and produced foundational documents aimed at having a positive impact in the lives of Nova Scotians. Some of our successes include:

• Social Policy Framework – The Social Policy Committee worked with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives to create a social policy framework which provides a road map on what is required to achieve a transformative social policy and fiscal agenda in Nova Scotia.

• Anti-poverty coalition – The College has been instrumental in building and unifying community organizations passionate about changing the narrative on poverty, and advocating for structural change to enhance community well-being.

• Child welfare – The College successfully engaged the Department of Community Services in establishing a collaborative forum to authentically work together on desired outcomes for children, youth and their families, enhance the social work profile in child protection, and improve the working conditions for social workers who choose this challenging field of practice.

• Mental health advocacy – The Social Justice Committee partnered with researchers at Dalhousie University to produce a mental health paper aimed at challenging the current medical model within our health system, and advocates for a human-based model that has at its core the delivery of relationship based, family and child centered approaches.

BUILDING SOCIAL WORK CAPACITY, ENGAGEMENT & COMMUNICATION

• Member communications – Significant gains have been made to promote the profession and engage and communicate with our members including redeveloping our website, developing ongoing robust social media content, producing a bi-weekly newsletter, as well as working with the Editorial Committee to produce three issues of our professional social work magazine called Connection.

• Professional development program – In effort to situate the organization as a resource for social work learning and development, the College continued to provide meaningful professional development opportunities including creating a partnership with the CASW to expand our webinar offerings.

LEADERSHIP & ACCOUNTABILITY

• Governance – The College has updated this policy document which establishes clear roles and responsibilities in the organization, and clear accountability measures.

• Finances – Enhanced our financial reporting and oversight.

• Annual report – Investments have been made to create a comprehensive detailed annual report featured in the spring Connection issue

• Current state analysis – Completed a critical state analysis of the College which led to a staff re-organization.

While the above does not represent an exhaustive list of the changes made and experienced by the NSCSW, the evidence is clear; the College of today is transforming in nature, complexity and reach in an effort to address its dual function as both a regulatory and association body. We are committed to making the necessary changes and improvements to meet our legislative mandate and to serve and support our members, and thus have substantively ramped up all our activities in our desire for change and success.

I do believe the key accomplishments showcased above better position the College toward achieving one its greatest accomplishments: credibility. An organization where members are proud to belong, other organizations are amenable to participate and be affiliated with, is considered trustworthy , and the public perceives its value.

It is so important to acknowledge the successes realized would not be possible without the dedication of a six-member staff team, the forward-thinking leadership demonstrated by Alec Stratford, our Executive Director/Registrar, and the hundreds of volunteers committed to the profession who have stepped up to support the College. Thank you all!

We have much work to do as we continuously strive to strengthen the College as a regulatory body, promote the profession of social work, and importantly support and serve you our members.

I am proud to be a social worker, and so honoured to be your President.

With kind regards,

Lynn Brogan, MSW, RSW

NSCSW Council President

This article is from: