• Findings: It is clear that the street children are the major targets by the government agencies but these children have no cordial relationship with the police. Their vision of the police is that of ‘punishment’ rather than ‘help’. Also, the government through the Social Welfare Department provides some assistance to street children, but their programmes were not attractive enough to the children, hence, the street children’s concept of approved schools is that of a typical ‘Nigerian prison yard‘.

• Applications : It is argued that the global paradigm shift from eradication of street children to providing support for street children has a very weak root in Nigeria. Therefore, there is the need for proper implementation of the Nigeria Child Rights Act promulgated in the year 2003, which could improve the standard of practice presently obtainable in Social Welfare Department and in other government agencies such as the Police Department as a possible solution to this social menace.

• Findings: Based on a sample of the members of the National Association of Social Workers, the findings suggest that work environment and organizational factors contribute to social workers’ organizational and professional commitment, though the results suggest that organizational commitment is noticeably easier to explain than professional commitment.

• Applications: In today’s changing social service environment it is especially prudent for administrators to promote factors associated with employee commitment. This study suggests that social work managers ought to develop a greater understanding of organizational and professional commitment because of its link to organizational effectiveness and consequently how social workers work toward accomplishing their organizational or program mission.

• Findings: The most important result is that social work can be seen as a social system (function-system) with its own exclusive function that cannot be replaced by any other (function-) system. The reason for this is that every function-system of society occurs as a special kind of communication. Through the identification of an exclusive code of communication the present work demonstrates that professional social work is an essential function-system of society. Social work expands self-referentially, and without internal constraints, by continuously scanning the environment for those already in need as well as for potential new cases of need.

• Applications : Modern social workers have to reflect their daily actions. This can be shown with the help of some historical and sociological knowledge of the forms of mutual help. By integrating some of the discoveries that are introduced here into the research and curricula of social work, the present work raises the level of the current debate and provokes a detailed discussion of the future of social work in modern society.

• Findings: The survey findings indicated that 36 percent (n = 392) of the respondents were considered to be suffering from mental distress. Children and Families Division was worst affected, reporting the highest levels of absenteeism and poorest well-being. The qualitative findings were summarized into five broad themes: organizational culture and function; control; lack of resources; responsibility for people; and the rate and pace of change, which were incorporated into a model.

• Application: The article suggests that during times of change a thorough understanding of working conditions in the public sector are a fundamental prerequisite to developing interventions aimed at improving them. Additionally, the model clearly identifies a number of factors that are ‘organizational’, rather than being intrinsic to working in social services.