Compiled by Ian Murray, National Secretary, Australian Institute of Welfare & Community Workers Inc., December 2001. Updated February 2004, Sept. 2005, Apr. 2006, copyright AIWCW.

These quotations provide evidence for the long-held contention that welfare workers are at least equivalent to social workers in Australia. The quotations are arranged roughly in chronological order, with some modifications to reflect common themes. Minimal references are given to provide a context; full references are available for most quotations from the compiler. This compilation does not claim to be exhaustive, and it omits the few studies in the psychological literature that do claim positive effects of training on therapy outcomes.

1. Progress Report on Social Welfare Manpower of the Australian Government Social Welfare Commission, Canberra, AGPS 1975: `[There is] no clear distinction between social and welfare workers in the workplace because the tasks undertaken by both did not reflect their different levels of training (p. 53)’

2. Progress Report on Social Welfare Manpower, Social Welfare Commission (1975) `The distinction between the roles of social workers and welfare workers is particularly unclear, with both types of workers undertaking similar tasks. Though it may be assumed that differential training produces workers to fulfil particular roles, the tasks undertaken by social welfare workers do not reflect this objective.’

3. Howlett et in Learner (1979): `Task allocation was generally made on an ad hoc basis, allocating available personnel in response to need as they claimed attention. Although a higher relative concentration by welfare officer on practical counselling tasks and by social workers on administrative tasks was identified, the overall differences were found to be relatively insignificant.’

4. Learner, E. Education and Training for Social Welfare Personnel in Australia (1979): `Variously qualified and variously designated personnel performed similar tasks’.

5. Kayes, Milton: A comparative study of roles and tasks of social workers and welfare officer with reference to Brisbane and Townsville regions Masters thesis, Dept. of Social Work, University of Queensland (1981): `The amount of overlap in tasks is substantial and in spite of social workers and welfare officers in both region stating that their respective training and qualifications are different theoretically, and that they therefore should perform different functions they agree that in practice they do the same work (p. 148)…In many agencies social workers and welfare officers work together in units or teams and divide caseloads or duties equally (p. 131).’

6. Blanchard, in AASWWE Report (1984:26) `There is virtually no difference in job specifications of social workers and welfare officers.’

6a. Working Party on the relationship between welfare work & social work courses in Australia: Report to the AASWE Council (July 1984) `There is frequently little or no formal differentiation of position by qualification, especially at the lower levels of practice, and although social workers more frequently hold management and planning positions, this is not always the case.’ (p.44).

7. Durlak (1979) `The central finding from these [42] comparative studies is that the clinical outcomes that paraprofessionals achieve are equal to or significantly better than those obtained by professionals.’

8. Hattie et al (1984) `Paraprofessionals are at least as effective, and in many instances more effective, than professional counsellors.’

9. Mehr (1986) There is `relatively well established evidence that the degree one holds has relatively little to do with one’s ability to work with clients.’

10. Henry et al, 1993 in Atkins & Christensen (2001) [There is a] `faulty assumption that amount of training and experience are equal to quality of training and experience in the [research] literature on training effects’.

11. Thompson et al 1983 in Atkins & Christensen (2001: 127) `Overall, the results support previous findings about the efficacy of paraprofessionals….Paraprofessionals’ greater warmth and optimism has been suggested as a possible mechanism for their therapy effects’.

12. Murray, Ian, Social Work and Welfare Work – Separate but Equal? (1989). `Many senior staff, including regional managers within Community Services Victoria, admit that Welfare Workers and Social Workers work at the same jobs with equal competence, on average. A prominent union official in the welfare field (Lyn McKenzie) supports this contention’.

13. `62% of those interviewed believed there were no essential differences or welfare workers were more competent.’ (ibid).

14. Murray, Ian, The Nature and Practice of Basic Social Welfare Work (1990) `In many settings, welfare workers now perform the same or very similar work to social workers’.

15. NSW Council of Social Services (1988) `…..blurring of the social and welfare work disciplines and a dwindling of the number of social workers to a minority in the industry’.

16. Donovan & Jackson (1988) `The blurring will happen more and more as attention is given to integrating and articulating the various education courses and as award re-structuring, work-based competency analysis and multi-skilling proceed throughout the industry’.

17. Bradbury, Hilary Social Work and Welfare Work: An Examination of the Inter-Occupational Relationship, MSW Thesis, Sydney (1988). `Even though there was no clear division of labour between social work and welfare work, social work sought to create a hierarchy in its relation with welfare work and to occupy the superordinate position in the hierarchy (p. 34). Respondents thought it ironic that they were considered suitable to “fill-in” for a social worker on holidays, but that a certain mystique was still supposed to cloak the tasks of social work’ (p. 49).

18. Briggs, 1980, in Zastrow The Practice of Social Work, Dorsey Press (1989: 22) `Social Work is an uncertain profession with confusion regarding competency and levels of competency’.

19. Carew & Smith (1991:56) Social workers used maxims based on experience rather than on knowledge from research, and practitioners develop their own set of personalised criteria for knowledge.

Sturmey, Ruth Educating Social, Welfare and Community Development Workers for Rural/Remote Areas, Armidale NSW, Rural Development Centre, August 1992 [Par. Nos. 20-26]:

20. `It was observed during this project’s field work that what in rural areas had been a case of necessity [employing welfare workers instead of social workers]… was now becoming a matter of choice. For example, in several remote areas in Western Australia, managers in DCS reported preferring to employ welfare-trained workers because in their experience they tended to be more skilled, adaptable and immediately useful’ (p.18).

21. `Some say that the major difference is only the length of the course’ (p. 32)

22. [In Western Australia] `there is criticism about the lack of clear distinction between the quality of outcome from the social work and welfare courses. Some do not see that skills levels are more highly developed by social work courses. Some community service managers in remote areas see welfare workers and mature aged workers as more suitable for direct work with clients than young social work graduates’ (p. 47).

23. `Participants [in the study] observed that the lines of division between `social work tasks’ and `welfare work tasks’ was very blurred in practice – even when people thought there were or ought to be real differences in the ways of doing the same tasks in a social work or welfare work approach, or when it was thought that the types of tasks each should do should be different’ (p. 64).

24. The list [of competencies, derived from the DACUM method] `tended to be similar for social workers and welfare workers’ (p.70).

25. `Some remarked that welfare workers were preferable to social workers precisely because they tended to get better practical skills training, and because they tended to be older, had more experience of life’ (p. 81)

26. `There was agreement that in everyday face-to-face work with clients and community organisations there is often little difference between the tasks of welfare and social workers in rural/remote areas’ (p. 90).

27. Murray (2001a:2) `The “2+2” model of social work course…. usually includes only 2 years of professional vocational study, built upon 2 prior years of what might be generally unrelated subjects in an Arts degree, except for the need for subjects covering introductory psychology and sociology. There are many welfare workers with a dedicated bachelor degree in welfare work, which included extensive professional content throughout three years of study. And so the difference in duration of study [between welfare work and social work] may not be so great.’

28. Martin Ryan et al (1995) Social work students and graduates do not often apply the theory or research findings they encounter in classes.

29. Fook, J (1996: 20) `Many social work experts question the applicability of social work theory’.

30. Laragy, Carmel (1997:109) Managers at the Commonwealth Rehabilitation Service complained “that social workers were considered the least responsive to client needs amongst the professions”. They were accused of `wanting to pry into family relations and create dependence, and others complained of social workers `taking the high moral ground’ and assuming a superior position’.

31. Australian Standard Classification of Occupations, 2nd Edition, 1996, p. 195-6.

ASCO Code 2512-11 Welfare Worker

`Assists individuals, families and groups with social, emotional and financial difficulties to improve quality of life by educating and supporting them and working towards change in their social environment.’

ASCO Code 2511-11 Social Worker

`Assesses the social needs of individuals and groups, and assists people to develop and use the skills and resources needed to resolve social and other problems.’

32. Jones, A. and May, J. Working in Human Service Organisations (1992) `It has been argued that the difference between social work and community welfare work is that of profession and semi-profession. This distinction is increasingly difficult to sustain. Both share a similar body of knowledge, the differences in length of training are narrowing, and educational institutions and employers are tending to view them as overlapping rather than discreet occupations’.

33. Ministerial Review of the Training of Youth Workers in Victoria, (Chair: Peter Chew), Melbourne, Office of Youth Affairs, August 1995. `While in the past the term "professional" in particular contexts has been reserved for people having at least a three-year tertiary-level qualification (with two year course characterised as "para-professional"), we believe that a well designed high-quality two-year program can equip its graduates to perform competently and to professional standards...’

34. Aveline, (1990) sadly, the correlation between training and effectiveness is low.

35. Weisz et al, 1995 in Atkinson & Christensen (2001: 124) `found a significant main effect that paraprofessionals had better outcomes than graduate students or professional therapists’.

36. Stein & Lambert (1995) `it is quite remarkable that more compelling evidence is not available that demonstrates that graduate training directly relates to enhanced therapy outcomes.’

37. Mowbray, R. (1995) there is no clear evidence that professionally trained psychotherapists are in general more effective than paraprofessionals

38. Schmolling et al (1997; 338) note that `the responsibilities, knowledge, training, and competence of generalist human services workers [in the USA] have, from the workers’ point of view, increased to a level comparable to that of traditional professionals, and large numbers of the former and even some traditional professionals believe strongly that many generalists outperform traditional professional workers.’ This human services textbook goes on to suggest that` these convictions give rise to strong feelings about the differences in pay, status, responsibilities and opportunities for advancement between human services generalists and traditional professionals’.

39. Mehr (1998:65) `Human services workers do seem to be as good at those activities that both they and the disciplinary professionals are trained for and do.’

40. Morris, Debbie (2001): AIWCW National Membership Survey – Statistical Report, AIWCW National Newsletter, July 2001. Summary by Ian Murray:

In a national survey of members of AIWCW in 2001, 72% of respondents had worked with a social worker as a co-worker, and of these, 18% stated their work was “similar” to that done by social worker(s), 17% “very similar”, and 53%” the same” (N=166). That is, nearly 90% believed they did similar or the same work to social workers. In estimating their competency compared to similar tasks performed by social workers, 10% stated they were less competent, 62% “just as competent”, 4% “slightly more competent”, 12% “moderately more competent” and 12% “much more competent”. (N=171). Again, 90% believed they were just as competent, or more so, compared to social workers. And 90% stated that the social workers they worked with agreed with them about any similarities and differences. Although these results reflect only the perspective of welfare workers, they well illustrate their widespread experiences.

41. General Skilled Migration, DIMA, Canberra, November 2001 pp. 52-57

Skilled Occupations List (SOL): Comparison of Points for Skill for migration to Australia.

Welfare Worker (ASCO 2512-11) 60 points; Social Worker (2511-11) 60 points; Psychologist – Clinical (2514-11) 60 points; Acupuncturist (2394-13) 50 points; Audiologist (2399-11) 50 points; Counsellor (various) (2513) 50 points; Naturopath (2394-11) 50 points; Dental Therapist (3492-11) 40 points; Dental Hygienist (3492-13) 40 points; Geologist (2112-11) 50 points; Management Consultant (2294-11) 50 points; Community Worker (2512-13) 50 points; Youth Worker (3421-13) 40 points.

42. Murray (2004) `The July 2001 issue of the Australian Psychologist features international review articles summarising research findings regarding training for clinical psychology and counselling, and the relevance to therapeutic outcome of the `working alliance’ between therapist and client …. and adds further research based evidence to the contention that human services workers are at least equivalent in effectiveness to traditional professionals in the `helping’ or therapeutic process.’ Quotes from this journal now follow:

43. Atkins & Christensen (2001: 128) `The data [from all review studies] up to this point have not shown an impact of experience and training in general, as evidenced by a therapist’s degree or years of experience’

44. `Paraprofessionals have repeatedly demonstrated successful therapeutic change in clients, even when they have received no specific training in therapeutic procedures’ (p. 128).

45. `If doctoral-level training – or even masters-level training – is unnecessary for effective mental health service delivery for particular disorders, then services can be provided at lower cost. Moreover, these kind of findings could dramatically affect the role of the various mental health professions’ (p 129).

46. Andrews (2001: 111-2) `In general, paraprofessionals were as effective as doctoral-level psychologists …. apparently, many paraprofessionals can assist clients in an effective change process despite the absence of lengthy academic or clinical training…. They are able to engage people quickly and maintain a practical and effective therapeutic alliance that fosters significant behavioural, cognitive and affective changes’.

47. O’Donovan & Dyck (2001) There is an implication that the basic value of post-graduate training is prestige, and the only unequivocal benefit is professional recognition.

48. Colin Crighton, Geriatrician, Port Macquarie News, 16/2/2001 `I am the director of the geriatric assessment and rehabilitation team …. and work quite closely in a team acting with the welfare workers who demonstrated superior skills in personal counselling, crisis intervention and practical assistance. These are skills not restricted alone to graduate social workers and indeed over my past 41 years experience… they are not skills that are always seen in graduate social workers.’

49. Murray (2001a:10) `I am making a plea then for us all to grapple with the reality and confront the issues, rather than trying to push artificial divisions based upon what should be true according to an arguable difference in length of education and university prestige, or some mystical notion of a difference in essence between social workers and welfare workers. In many locations throughout Australia, the difference just does not exist in practice’.

50. Miller et al (2004: 76) `At best, the data indicate a small correlation [between professional training and outcome in psychotherapy]. At worst, … increasing the amount and type of training and experience that most therapists receive may actually lessen therapeutic effectiveness’.

51. Miller (2004) … studies [show] little or no effect for training or experience on treatment outcome.

52. Murray (2004) `The evidence seems overwhelming to this writer that human services professionals are at least equivalent in terms of outcomes to traditional professions such as psychology where therapy and counselling are practised. Some reviewers explain this by the confusion about definitions of `paraprofessionals’ and by inadequate refining of the conditions which are suitable for attention by human service workers. But this downplays the evidence that non-specific and personal/experiential factors present in the `therapeutic alliance’ are likely themselves to be the reason for the effectiveness of `paraprofessionals’.’

53. Roth & Fonargy (2005:449) Though professional and lay opinion assume the benefits of experience and training, evidence of this is surprisingly hard to find. [Roth, Anthony, & Fonargy, Peter, (2005) What works for whom? – critical review of psychotherapy research. (2nd edn.) New York, Guilford Press.]

54. Roth & Fonargy (2005: 454)…the possession of a professional qualification is (at best) only weakly associated with better outcomes, a conclusion which - if robust - would have obvious and profound implications for training and accreditation.

55. Roth & Fonargy (2005: 456) Overall, evidence of the impact of training is suggestive rather than substantive, yet we need such evidence in order to bypass what has hitherto been a rather unproductive debate regarding the benefits of professional training or experience.

Additional copies of this summary are available from the Australian Institute of Welfare & Community Workers Inc. PO Box 42, Flinders Lane PO, Melbourne 8009 Tel. 03 9654 8287 email: info@aiwcw.org.au or ianmurray@iprimus.com.au