Social workers are regulated health professionals who work with individuals, families, groups and communities to improve individual and collective well-being. They share the core values of respecting the dignity and worth of all people, pursuing social justice, providing service to humanity, practicing with integrity, confidentiality and competence.
In Canada, we have three overarching pillars that support and guide a skilled and ethical social work profession: education, association and regulation.
Each pillar has its own mandate, which supports the field by fostering excellence, promoting and supporting the profession, advancing social justice and ensuring ethical service provision.
Education
The Canadian Association for Social Work Education (CASWE) promotes excellence in social work education, scholarship and practice. It does t his through accreditation of social work programs in Canadian universities, as well as through consultation, collaboration, advocacy and the dissemination of research.
Association
The Canadian Association of Social Workers (CASW) is the national association voice for social work in Canada. We develop and disseminated the Code of Ethics and Social Policy Principles, which provide a consistent set of values, principles and standards of conduct for all social workers across Canada. We ensure that the frameworks in place to support the profession reflect current social policy principles.
Regulation
The Canadian Council of Social Work Regulators (CCSWR) provides a national structure for provincial and territorial social work regulatory authorities to act together as the voice—both nationally and internationally—on social work regulatory matters in Canada.
Intersectoral Committee
In 2016, an intersectoral committee was established to foster communication, connection and collaboration among the three pillars at the national, provincial and territorial levels.
Composed of representatives from each pillar, the committee builds upon the history of collaboration between these three pillars and provides a framework to identify and prioritize issues of shared concern. It provides a unified voice for the three pillars, which enables them to better support and promote the social work profession.
