Social Work in Rural New South Wales School Settings: Addressing Inequalities Beyond the School Gate

Abstract

Children and young people in rural Australia experience disadvantage compared with metropolitan counterparts, with low educational attainment and disengagement from schooling being linked to poorer health outcomes. Schools are an existing contact point between individuals and health services. However, these health services are often overburdened and have limited scope to address broader social issues and teaching staff are focused on achieving curriculum outcomes. Embedding social workers within schools may provide an avenue for supporting students, yet social workers are rarely present in New South Wales public schools. This paper describes a study to determine teachers’ understanding of the socioeconomic issues faced by school students, and the role of the social work profession in addressing such issues as part of the early stages of establishing a Social Work in Schools (SWiS) project. Eighteen semistructured interviews were undertaken with teachers across four rural Australian schools. Participants identified their awareness of potential risk factors that could lead to educational disengagement, reflected on their own limitations in dealing with these broader health presentations given their teaching focus, and provided insights into their understanding of the potential role of social workers.