Challenges and opportunities for the professional action of social workers

Abstract

This study reveals the tensions, conflicts, restrictions, distortions, limits and potential found in the wide range of professional action of social assistants in the Single Social Assistance System (SUAS). The presentation of these elements seeks to provoke more qualified responses that allow the strengthening of social workers as critical and competent co-participants in the construction of SUAS. It analyzes data from a study conducted with social workers in Rio Grande do Sul State and from workshops held during a training course for social workers promoted by the Municipal Secretariat for Citizenship and Social Assistance f the municipality of Pelotas, RS in 2008. The data resulting from these analyses is synthesized and presented in eight categories: a) the diversity of the employment relations of social workers; b) the challenge of the specific functions and responsibilities of the social service professional; c) the sparse resources for implementing social assistance policy; d) the lack of a permanent educational process; f) the absence of a collective professional identity; g) work "in network"; h) a territorialization of service.