History of social work at SDN: Then and now
SDN has employed social workers for many years, at times with some controversy but always for sound reasons. The social workers at SDN today are part of a professional class that was much smaller in the early 20th century, when 'social work' as a profession didn’t exist. Initially, SDN relied on wealthy volunteers as well as doctors and lawyers working pro bono for some of the work that social workers began to do.
According to the Australian Association of Social Workers, social workers: "partner with people to address personal difficulties and structural barriers in their lives. They work with individuals, families, groups and communities. Many social workers also work in non-people-facing roles, either as an employee or consultants in government or community organisations".
SDN began employing what we would today call 'social workers' in the 1940s. The first of these was Ivy Allen who was employed as Welfare Officer in 1943. Maud Walsh was another early Welfare Officer in the 1940s and we have evidence of her duties. She visited poor families and adjusted their fees if and where it was appropriate.
She also advised staff on record keeping and communicating with parents. A profile of Maud in the Daily Telegraph of 15 August 1954 reported that "Miss Walsh’s job is to look into the backgrounds of the roughly 1,300 children cared for by the Day Nursery Association…".
In 1979, Jan Kelly interviewed the illustrious Joan Fry (see bio here) for her PhD. Joan is pictured above on the Left. In the interview (recording held in our SDN Archive collection) the following conversation took place:
Q: I noticed that a Welfare Officer, Ivy Allen, was employed at one point. Is that something that expanded? –Jan Kelly
A: "She was at Woolloomooloo when we were there and she seemed to be a sort of housekeeper, come whatever. I’m not sure what her qualifications were." –Joan Fry
Q: The annual report calls her a social worker –Jan Kelly
A: "Yes, I know but I don’t think she was qualified. And then we had another woman after that who also did social work who was also unqualified. I forget what her name was. And then we finally had a social worker who was qualified …"–Joan Fry
Q: And their main function was to examine the home? –Jan Kelly
A: "And to assess fees because we had to assess the fees of everyone who came in."–Joan Fry
Our current era of practice that includes social workers probably started with the Special Needs Unit. In 1985, SDN received funding from the Commonwealth Government to establish a ‘Special Needs Unit’. Based in SDN Linthorpe Street, Newtown, the Unit provided early intervention for individual children with disabilities who were attending SDN centres.
The Early Intervention Program evolved out of the Special Needs Unit and was established in 1989. From there in 2004 “Brighter Futures started as a voluntary, targeted program designed for families with children under 9 years of age encountering problems that impact on their ability to care for their children”.
In the next phase “the program target(ed) families who show risk factors that put their young children at high risk of escalating within the statutory child protection system”.
Brighter Futures was renamed Family Preservation in July 2021.
