Welfare Department Needs Stronger Training for Staff Handling Child Cases

Malaysia’s Social Welfare Department needs stronger procedures and more comprehensive training to prepare field officers for increasingly complex child cases, Wan Azizah Wan Ismail said.

Speaking at the department’s 80th anniversary in Putrajaya, the prime minister’s wife said less-experienced officers needed greater exposure to field situations. “Improve the SOPs and provide comprehensive training for field officers. Sometimes officers lack experience, and that is our problem. We need to give them exposure,” she said.

Wan Azizah, a former Women, Family and Community Development minister, said the improvements would help the department deliver services more effectively. Child-protection challenges now extend beyond the physical world, with technology and social media creating new risks that require closer monitoring of children’s safety.

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Improve the SOPs and provide comprehensive training for field officers. Sometimes officers lack experience, and that is our problem. We need to give them exposure.

She also highlighted the emotional pressure on welfare officers, who must make decisions affecting individuals and families. “Sometimes people make difficult decisions to save a child. Some endure other people’s trauma every day,” she said.

Women, Family and Community Development Minister Nancy Shukri said stronger professional standards in social work were also needed. She said the Social Work Profession Act 2026 would focus on qualifications, competence, ethics and accountability among social-work practitioners.

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Sometimes people make difficult decisions to save a child. Some endure other people’s trauma every day.