Qualifying routes into social work varied according to the field of social work concerned . In child welfare, people tended to be teachers before becoming social workers. The Child Welfare Division was a part of the Education Service and, like nursing, a transition from teaching was acceptable. Voluntary agencies like the Salvation Army had their own training school which included modules for social service work. Probation officers, like Mr Tom Austin himself, tended to be recruited from the army. It was usual that social workers in the hospitals should have a nursing background, moving from that into social work.
An early report to hand is a university research report which described the employment of medical social workers in New Zealand General Hospitals in 1964. There were at that time 53 medical social workers, of whom 50 gave information about their qualifications for the job. There were 46 trained nurses, 19 of whom had post-graduate nursing diplomas and one had "the New Zealand Social Work Diploma", presumably the VUW Diploma in Social Sciences. Four, who were not nurses, had been trained overseas as medical social workers.3
Mr Torn Austin's recruitment and retention figures for social workers employed in the health services and in government agencies provided regular summaries of social workers by grade and qualification in Child Welfare, Health Department, Justice Department, Maori and Island Affairs, and the Social Security Department. His statistics give us an idea of the demand for courses for social workers. For example, according to his 1965 Report: Recruitment and Retention of Social Welfare the statutory departments employed 291 field officers, and had 40 vacancies. Only 26 staff had a Certificate of Qualification in Social Work (the international term for a professional social work qualification), with or without a degree. In his commentary, he noted the qualifications sought in advertisements: Income Security required a good standard of education and a qualification in social science was preferred, while Child Welfare signalled that preference would be given to holders of an appropriate university degree and indicated that those with teaching qualifications would be considered.4 These early figures
3 Robb, J.H. (1965). Report on the Employment of Medical Social Workers in New Zealand General
Hospitals, Victoria University of Wellington.
4 Austin, T.H.J. (1 965). 'Recruitment and Retention of Social Welfare Staff State Services Commission, 6 / 7 / 65 .
were compiled while Mr Tom Austin was the Director at Tiromoana, and he continued to gather statistics while a member of the NZSWTC, as Chief Advisory Social Worker of the Department of Health (T.H.J . Austin, pers. comm. 19/6/95) .
Mr Tom Austin was closely involved with improving educational provision for social workers. In his interview, he explained the connection between himself, Mr Barnett, the new Secretary for Justice, Mr Mayhew, the Chief Probation Officer, and Professor Minn as noteworthy in that it illustrated the close ties between senior officials in the justice field in New Zealand who were active in promoting the education of probation officers and social workers and the School of Social Science at Victoria University College in the 1950s. Here is an example of the co-operative alliance between the university and a statutory social service. Austin made the following points at the beginning of his interview for this research, when filling in the details of his personal work history.
I When you were with Probation and Health, would you perhaps have been looking at what you wanted for social workers?
Indeed so, and for the service itself. Rather, studying what was needed in the context and the available resources at the time " . maintaining the level of service then provided ... but looking forward (a definite emphasise on this) to staff development, service development, the improvement of social work skills largely in those days. From on-the-job training and in-service courses there was inevitably and properly in my view a degree of ad hockery, if a probation district or latterly a hospital showed a particular interest in, say, professional development then one got in behind them. As a personal aside, I found a vast difference between being in the Probation Service Head Office as part of the Directorate staff and in the Health Department working in an advisory, consultancy and support role where one had no authority as such, but one hopes quite a bit of influence . ... I was in the Probation Service, from 1949 to 63, initially in Auckland then as District Probation Officer, Palmerston North, from 1953 to 62. I was a Probation trainee in the UK 1 948-49. I didn't quite complete the course because we came out to NZ . ... I chose to do the practical course because I'd
just come out of the Army and I'd been away from home and I mention this because it gave me at least some clues as to probation work even though it was different from that in New Zealand. And you know I found it extremely useful. I can claim that right from the beginning I was interested in training, staff development and service development.
I was fortunate in coming in 1949 because it happened to be the year that the probation service in New Zealand began a revival. ... In 1949 when I arrived out here, ... there were merely 5 full time probation positions and, by sheer luck, one of them was vacant . . .. 1 found that sort of background
1
gained in Englandextremely useful. 1 applied within a few months of arriving out here for a Social Science Bursary the first year they were introduced. 1 was awarded a bursary but was told that, because I'd only just arrived out here that they would defer me taking it up for 12 months. I couldn't see the sense of this at the time, but in fact they were right because that extra 12 or 15 months of getting to know New Zealand, the Social Services such as they were then was extremely useful. ...
The other personally interesting thing was that the person who interviewed me for my probation training, was one W.G. Minn, then (I think I've got this label right), the Secretary of the Probation Training and Advisory Board in Home Office. So he came out to NZ, .... He replaced David Marsh. So that there were then, may J claim it, three of us with probation experience from the UK, mine minimal, (and
1
emphasise that). Pat Mayhew and Professor Bill Minn, we three combined together in the latter 50s and early 60s, a number of in-service probation courses, held for the most part in Arohata Borstal or at the penal training centre at Mount Crawford prison. Biestek's Case Work that was very much the textbook. The interesting thing I think is that at that comparatively early stage in the Probation Service, the in service focus was to a very large extent on social work or case work principles rather thaf' as I think happened in other services in so far as they provided in-service courses or trainingmuch more on agency issues (T.H.J. Austin, pers. comm. 19/6/95) .
This account shows concern on the part of senior personnel in the statutory agencies to take responsibility for their employees so that people with a job to do should be properly prepared for it. It also shows Mr Tom Austin working in Justice and Child Welfare as well as in the Health Sector. Mr Tom Austin showed surprise when asked to comment, at the beginning of the interview, on his time as an employer, saying he never regarded himself as one. In Justice and in Child Welfare, he held managerial positions in which his bureaucratic function was defined less clearly than it would be today. With the current breakdown of employment into measurable tasks, the rationalisation of management and employee roles has crystallised. As a result, there are new styles of working and expectations of what should be achieved in the workplace.
Another example of how effective a few words of encouragement by the right person could be in encouraging social workers to attend training courses comes from Professor Robb:
And I remember at one stage, I suppose about the second year that I was on the staff when we were beginning to feel that the enthusiasm for coming on the course was declining among the field staff in some of the departments; I was at a training course or something of that kind which Child Welfare was running at Christchurch at the time, and Charlie Peek, who was then the superintendent of Child Welfare came in to sort of address the troops during the course and someone said to him obviously with an eye to my presence "How do you view the relevance of the training course for people's careers in the Department?" and he said very firmly "its not the only thing we take into account, but if we ever had two people otherwise equally well qualified for promotion or a job we would certainly choose one who had been through this course". And I got the impression that from that moment the number of applicants jumped up O.H. Robb. pers. comm. 24/4/95)
In 1967, Maurice McGregor5 estimated that 16% of social workers employed by government agencies had a Dip. Soc. Sci. (VUW) or equivalent, while 24% would probably hav e been through the course at Tiromoana6 (McGregor, 1967: 21). Two years later, Messrs Austin and Buxton (1969) examined the future for social work training in New Zealand. They looked at recruitment and selection, staffing, the need for the establishment of what they called a National Council for Social Work, the nature of social work, where training should take place, whether this should be pre or post entry and what sort of curriculum would be appropriate. After pointing out that there was "little certain knowledge about the total number of full time social workers in New Zealand and their level of qualifications", they estimated that:
Including those holding administrative appointments there are about 700 social workers in statutory services and local bodies (hospital and education boards). Of these approximately 15% hold a professional qualification. Possibly a further 45% have attended Tiromoana or other short courses and others hold university degrees, not always in the social sciences (Austin & Buxton, 1969: 5).
Little was known about the proportion of qualified workers in the non statutory sector, but the authors estimated there could be as many as 300 social workers of whom possibly only 5% would have had a professional qualification. Given that the graduates from the VUW Dip. Soc. Sci. tended to get promoted soon after their return to work, it is not surprising (but was at the time worrying) that the proportion of basic grade social workers in the Public Service who had the Dip. Soc. Sci. or equivalent actually dropped steadily from 14.5% in 1956 to 5.8% in 1969. This point was raised by Levett (1970) at a biennial NZASW conference which was focussed on education and training for social work.
Levett, building on the work of Messrs Austin and Buxton, diagnosed the "Crisis in University Education for Social Work" as having several features which were of concern. There were insufficient graduates in proportion to the number of practitioners. There were too few graduates in non governmental organisations. There were many graduates with an average
S At the time a member of NZASW and Chief Social Worker at the North Canterbury Hospital Board. He
was a respondent in this study.
� Tiromoana was a residential training institution for statutory social workers, and is discussed in more detail later.
age "too high to adequately staff the profession at field levels". There were too few people with degrees who were attracted to the VUW graduate Diploma Course and finally, there were too few social work staff at the university (Levett, 1970: 23). This summary of the situation was acknowledged as cause for concern. The following table illustrates the distribution of qualifications among different levels of seniority.
Table 6: 1 Distribution of Qualifications, 1956-69
Persons with the Dip.Soc.5c. or Equivalent Qualifications in the Public Service at Senior and Field Level Positions·
All Senior Social Workers
% Dip.Soc.Sci. or Equivalent
Field
All Field Social Workers
% Dip.Soc.Sci. or Equivalent 1956 54 14.8 203 1 4.5 1961 89 30.3 313 9.3 1966 162 29.6 457 5.9 1969 1 80 33 480 5.S
·Qualifications tend to be under-reported in the State Services Classification lists. These figures were compiled by locating each known Diploma-holder in the lists
(Levett, 1970: 25).
The NZASW Education and Training committee proposed the
establishment of a New Zealand Council of Social Work Training and the NZASW Conference members supported the proposal but decided the NZASW did not have the resources to set one up. Instead, the Association established a working party to carry out research on the training needs of social workers, in order to develop a national policy on social work training. The following year, Austin's 1971 Annual Report to the Health Department collated a summary of social workers by grade and qualification (see next Table). It was recognised that graduates from the VUW Courses seldom stayed long in the front line. These figures support this view as one can see by the higher proportion of qualified staff above the basic grade levels of 1 03
and 104. It was cause for concern that, with the exception of the Health Department, those with qualifications were clustered in the higher positions, while the workers dealing directly with clients tended to be less qualified:
Table 6: 2 Summary of Social Workers by Grade and Qualification, 1971 .
Head Office & Controlling Merit Merit
Controlling Officers of Grade Grade
Officers smaller districts .104 .103
With With With With
Total Qual % Total Qual % Total Qual % Total Qual %
Child Welfare 26 1 7 6 5 64 1 8 2 4 3 1 2 6 1 60 3 2 Health Dept. 1 1 0 0 8 8 1 00 3 2 6 6 32 1 0 3 1 Justice 1 2 4 2 5 3 3 3 9 1 7 2 1 2 60 5 8 Maori & Island Affairs .8 5 6 3 1 1 3 2 7 1 0 0 4 9 2 4 Social Security Dept. 5 3 6 0 3 2 1 2 2 6 1 4 Totals: 4 7 2 7 5 7 1 2 1 3 5 2 9 64 8 1 2 327 2 1 6
Total With Quals %
Total of all staff recorded 559 9 1 1 6
Total i n Grades 104/103 3 9 1 2 9 7
Austin T.H.]. (Dept. of Health, 31 .3.71 : 2)
Another significant report prepared, Social Work Services in Medical and Care (Austin, 1971), provided an overview of practitioners in the health field and discussed strategies which needed to be put in place so that social work practice in the health services could 11 develop in a professional
and appropriate fashion " .7 This discussion made some particularly significant points in relation to the influences which have helped to shape social work education and the supply of qualified social workers in Aotearoa /New Zealand. There were about 180 social workers in the health field (using a wider criterion than in the Table 6: 2 above, including 7 Austin, T.H.] . (Sept. 1971 ). Social Work Services in Medical and Psychiatric Care, Dept. of Health.
paediatric, psychiatric, geriatric, rehabilitation and community health workers). This meant that they were second in numbers only to the Child Welfare Division (Austin, 1971 ). Austin identified five interrelated factors which he saw as influencing the progress to date of professional social work practice in the health field.
Firstly, the existence of only a small pool of professionally qualified social workers in Aotearoa /New Zealand meant that social workers lacked a critical mass to help in establishing the profession. Secondly, there was little understanding among medical staff as to what social workers could be expected to do. Thirdly, social workers were unable to agree among themselves about their role in the health field. Fourthly, social workers who practised in isolation from one another were a fragmented group of people with little chance of being listened to. Finally, he suggested that social workers tended to get involved in tasks that could be done by less qualified people (Austin, 1970: 12).
This last point can be interpreted as an indication that social work skills should recognised not only by others, and not wasted, but that· social workers themselves must recognise these skills. Austin went on to observe that social workers:
require a clear sense of professional role and of the functions appropriate to it - a need that is emphasised by the nature of social work growth until now, by the fragmentation of services inevitable with regional administration and by the isolation unavoidable in an attenuated country ... (Austin, 1971: 12).
All of these observations were recognised by members of the NZASW as they tried to establish some form of national recognition for themselves as a profession. At the same time, while Austin was writing, the question of how the statutory social services were to be reorganised was still a very emotive and important matter for social workers.8
In this report, figures relating to the recruitment of health social workers showed that 41 % of employees had less than two years service and 63% no more than 5 years (Austin, 1971 : 4). Austin argued that this was partly because of an increased establishment for health social workers, but S The mobilisation of members of the NZASW over this issue is discussed in Chapter Seven.
considered that it could best be explained by a fairly high turnover rate among staff. The effect of this was a service in which the majority of staff had less than 5 years work experience thus offering a rather "thin base on which to build a viable service" (Austin, ibid: 4). Austin ended this particular report with a barrage of questions centred on what sort of social work identity was likely to evolve in the near future. Would it be fragmented or unified? His questions show a clear perception of the difficulties facing an emerging would-be profession.
A few months after this report, Mr Daniels, as a member of the NZASW Education and Training Committee, called for more information on the distribution of qualified social workers in the social service workforce. This was on the occasion of a special meeting organised by the committee with Professor McCreary on his appointment as Professor of Social Administration in the Department of Sociology and Social Administration at Victoria University. It is recorded that at this meeting there was a general agreement that the NZASW had "an important contribution to make regarding training for the profession of social work" (Daniels, 1971: 23). Here one can see the recognition of an alliance between the New Zealand Association of Social Work and the sole provider of professional social work training at that time.
In 1971, perhaps in response to the statistics in Austin's annual reports, the Hospital Advisory Council determined to do something about the low level of qualifications among the social work staff in its employ. A Committee on "Means of Improving Training for Social Workers Entering the Health Service" was established and its findings were presented in 1972. The preamble stated:
New Zealand has been slow to accept the need for social workers and is far behind other countries in the development