Administration - DCW Instruction Manual [Department for Community Welfare], State Records Office of Western Australia

Administration – DCW Instruction Manual [Department for Community Welfare] appears to be the final draft or master of an instruction manual written in 1972 for Field Officers in the Department for Community Welfare. People who want to know why things happened the way they did might find this file very helpful. While it is written at a particular point in time, it is very likely that the instruction manual describes practices that either had been or would be going on for some years either side of that date.

Access Conditions

These records are open access. The State Records Office of Western Australia provided Find & Connect with a digitised copy of extracts from these records that relate to out-of-home care, which can be accessed here: Administration – DCW Instruction Manual [Department for Community Welfare] digitised file

Records

This file appears to be the final draft or master of an instruction manual written in 1972 for Field Officers in the Department for Community Welfare. The file contains typewritten, foolscap pages with amendments written in blue pencil and typed corrections glued in. The signature of the Director of the Department, Keith Maine, has been glued under the Foreword. The manual is comprehensive. It is arranged in terms of activities a field officer might be involved in but also contains some background about major institutions and departmental functions.

The contents of the DCW Instruction Manual include information and/or instructions about:

• The history, structure and functions of the Department in relation to its statutory responsibilities and operational practices
• The role of key departmental officers, including the Director, social workers, psychologist, field officers and the records branch
• The purpose, admission criteria and practices within Departmental institutions
• Admitting children and young people to non-Departmental institutions, or moving them from those places
• Admitting children and young people to foster homes, or moving them from those placements
• The history, role and practices of the Children’s Court and the role of departmental officers in relation to that court and the children appearing before it
• Entitlements and practices relating to children who were Wards or under another form departmental supervision, including access to medical and dental treatment (a list of approved dentists is included)
• Particular practices and/or policies that apply to Aboriginal children who were in ‘care’
• General departmental clerical and record-keeping functions.

This manual also has a list of suburbs and towns that shows the departmental office responsible. This information may help people find correspondence, as it will show which office would have been likely to deal with a matter, based on the town or suburb where you lived.