A law for social workers that lets civil servants off the hook?

Amar-Singh HSS

To all Senators and MPs

The Social Work Profession Bill 2026 has just been passed by the House of Representatives, with the clauses mentioned below unchanged.

It has been in development since 2010 and is critical to strengthen and bring professionalism to social work. It is meant to establish clear standards, accountability and a code of ethics.

But in its current form, the bill will not achieve its intended goal. It creates a double standard, threatens to penalise civil society and may compromise the quality of care given to vulnerable individuals.

As our elected representatives and lawmakers, please note these critical concerns, which we hope you will rectify.

[These concerns were raised during the debate the House of Representatives, but the bill passed without amendment on the points below. The Senate sits from 20 July, and still has a chance to send the bill back with changes. As our representatives, we ask you to take up these concerns before that sitting ends.]

Volunteers vs professionals

The bill lacks any meaningful distinction between professionally trained social worker (professionals) and others who engage in paid or unpaid social work (eg community workers, NGO staff and volunteers).

In Clause 31, “offences” are outlined, and the bill introduces criminal penalties.

Clause 31 (b) says only a “social work practitioner” or “social work trainee” may provide “social work services”.

Unregistered individuals providing “social work services” can be fined up to RM20,000 and/or imprisoned for two years in prison, while employers can be fined up to RM50,000 (Clause 32).

The definition of “social work services” in Clause 2 is very broad. As a result, the bill will criminalise all the thousands of untrained but essential NGO volunteers, soup kitchen operators, faith-based counsellors, befrienders and crisis aid workers.

If an uncertified volunteer steps in to provide crisis intervention or community support, they and their NGO could face criminal prosecution.

We need to refine the definitions in Clause 2 to explicitly separate specialised, professional social work from general humanitarian aid and community volunteerism.

The law should protect the professional title of social worker from being fraudulently used, rather than criminalising the act of helping others.

A double standard for officials

Clause 19(8) looks like a loophole placed in the bill to grant a blanket exemption to public officers. It states they do not need a practising certificate or qualifications to provide social work services in the course of their duties.

This creates a dangerous double standard. The Department of Social Welfare and other government agencies handle the most critical child protection, domestic violence and welfare cases in the country.

Exempting public officers from requiring a practising certificate effectively exempts them from mandatory competency standards. These include professional social worker degrees, continuing professional development (CPD), and the strict code of ethics enforced on the private and NGO sectors.

Vulnerable individuals deserve the same standard of professional care, whether they see a public or private social worker.

The department should be staffed by professionally trained social workers, not untrained individuals doing serious social work. 

The blanket exemption should be replaced with a transparent, time-bound transition period (eg three to five years) to allow public officers to achieve accredited competency standards. New staff employed should all be professionally trained social workers.

A council with no elections

Unlike comparable councils (eg the Malaysian Medical Council, the Malaysian Bar and the Nursing Board), the Malaysian social work profession council (Clause 3) has no election by the profession itself.

For a body meant to regulate a profession’s ethics and standards, the chair (secretary general of the ministry) and deputy chairman (the director general of the Department of Social Welfare) are both civil servants. Every other member is minister-appointed.

This looks more like a government department than a self-regulating professional council.

Senators and MPs alike should push for an election mechanism. At least half of the council members, if not all, should be elected by registered practitioners, rather than unilaterally appointed by the minister.

The power to revoke appointments under Clause 10 must be bound by clear statutory grounds rather than political whims (appointment revoked with no reason provided).

Honourable Senators and MPs, we have waited more than 15 long years for this bill to be tabled. We are lagging behind other Asean on legislation in social work. We do not want this law delayed further – we want it fixed at the Senate stage, while there is still time.

Our child protection services are weak and our welfare services lack professionalism. It is critical that we pass this bill to enable our social services to be upgraded to a professional level, run by professionally trained social workers. We have enough repeated failure in our child protection services.

We implore you to look past partisan lines. Listen to the concerns of actual practitioners on the ground and push for these critical amendments when the bill reaches the Senate. We look to you to protect the public interest.

This is probably one of the single most important bills we can pass for our children and for our nation. Please give us, the nation, a meaningful and effective Social Work Profession Bill.

Dato’ Dr Amar-Singh HSS is a consultant paediatrician and child-disability activist.

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