MALTESE ASSOCIATION OF SOCIAL WORKERS

HISTORY

In 1992 two psychiatric social workers based at Mount Carmel Hospital approached four other social workers at the Department of Family Welfare and with NGO’s and broached the idea of forming an Association of Social Workers. A Steering Committee was formed, and it met several times to prepare the ground-work – mainly in the form of a draft statute- necessary for the formation of the Association.

During the summer of 1993 three meetings for all Maltese social workers were held at the premises of the Association of Professional Bodies in Pembroke. During these meetings, the Statute was approved, and in July of that year the Maltese Association of Social Workers was formed. Since then the MASW has striven to facilitate the continuing professionalisation of social work in Malta. After many years of hard lobbying by the MASW, the Social Work Profession Act was passed by Parliament in November of 2003. It came into force in 2004.

At present, membership of MASW numbers 70. All suitably-qualified social workers and University students reading for a B.A. in Social Work at the University of Malta are eligible for membership.