Social worker

The Social Worker is an NPC featured in The Sims series who will take away a baby, toddler, child, or pet if their needs drop too low, or in later games, if there are no more older Sims remaining in the household (i.e. due to death). They also will come to deliver adopted kids to their new family.

The Sims and The Sims Bustin' Out
In The Sims, the social worker is an NPC in the base game. The social worker is a woman named Sylvia who will come to take neglected babies from a Sim household (after a baby cries for a protracted amount of time). Unlike The Sims 2 and The Sims 3, social workers in The Sims only take away babies.

A glitch exists in The Sims Bustin' Out for console where the player will not get a notification that their baby is being neglected, resulting in the social worker confiscating the child without warning.

The Sims 2 and The Sims Stories
In The Sims 2, in addition to removing babies, toddlers, and children whose needs fall too low, the Social Worker will take any who are left home alone or are orphaned (i.e. the last adult Sim in the household dies), as well as children who are getting an F in school. If The Sims 2: Seasons is installed, the Social Worker will also come if a toddler or child becomes too cold or too hot. Unlike The Sims, if the social worker takes away a child, all other children younger than teen will also be removed from the house.

If a child dies, the Grim Reaper will instead take away the child.

Once they are taken away, they will all be available for adoption by a different family (or families). Once a person has the memory of having a child taken away by the Social Worker, they are ineligible for adopting ever again. It has been noted that Sims may not always get a memory of their children being taken away, but this is relatively uncommon.

The only way to stop the social worker from taking away children without cheats is the "Plead with Social Worker" interaction, which is only available in The Sims 2: FreeTime as an aspiration benefit for Sims with Family as their primary or secondary aspiration. Even if there is a wall around the children or if the social worker can't reach the child, she will teleport the child out of the structure and to her car.

Visits from the social worker are not always negative; in The Sims 2: Nightlife, the gypsy matchmaker may drop her as a blind date, and she also delivers adopted kids to their new families.

Oddly, should a family adopt a child taken from another family, the child Sim will have lost all memories associated with their blood family up until the point they arrived in their adoptive home. The family tree does not get erased, however.

Social workers are considered to be Non-playable NPCs. A neighborhood will have three social workers, who are known simply as "Social Worker". They are all adult females, and all have the same hairstyle and outfit. Social workers do not have last names, so if the player cheats to make a social worker have a baby, the baby will have no last name.

It is possible to meet a Social Worker via being lectured without using cheats. However it is not recommended to try to build a relationship with her even if a friendship can be built safely by using the telephone.

Oddly, Social workers do exist in The Sims Castaway Stories. While they have the same function as in The Sims 2, they sometimes make the child teleport, regardless if there is nothing to block the child's way, rather than taking them off the lot. However, there isn't an adoption service in Castaway Stories, so it's unknown whether the child can be placed in a household again.

The Sims 3
In The Sims 3, as in The Sims 2, social workers will take away all children if one is being neglected. Unlike in The Sims 2, social workers will come shortly after the adoption request was made. Also unlike previous games of the series where social workers were always female, social workers in The Sims 3 can be either male or female.

In The Sims 3, as in The Sims, children (but not babies and toddlers) can be left home alone. The Sims 3 requires players to call a babysitter or stay home when a Sim is about to leave babies and toddlers home alone; if the player makes all the teen or older Sims go past the edge of the home lot without the baby/toddler, they will be required to either go home or call a babysitter. If a baby or toddler is left home alone with a child, a babysitter must still be called. This is probably because the child is not capable of holding the baby/toddler, feeding it, changing its diaper, etc. However, there are still ways of leaving a baby or toddler at home completely alone. Leave one teen (or adult) at home and make them leave the house by either switching their household (via Edit Town) or make them leave the household via a miner hole.

While a human and vampire (and ghosts of these two lifestates) child can be taken away from a family by the social worker, SimBots and mummies are fully exempt from this rule. However, just as in The Sims 2 and The Sims Stories, the Grim Reaper will come in the social worker's place to take away a child of any life state, should they expire.

Unlike when the Grim Reaper takes away a Sim, when the social worker takes away a child, items are not transferred to another Sim. This can be a problem if the child has rare items such as the Moodlet Manager. If the social worker takes away a child when the player does not have a teen, young adult, adult or elder, a message will appear and be returned to "Welcome to The Sims 3!".

Social workers can be added to the household using  (Must have less than 8 Sims or this won't work). They will usually be young adults or adults and range from 1 to 5 traits. The player can split them from the household and save them to the library where they will behave as normal Sims.

In Windows and macOS, if the player tries to save the game when the social worker is present in the case they are taking children away, the game will display a message prior to saving.

With The Sims 3: Pets social workers can come to take away any pet that is being neglected, thus making them unable to die of starvation.

There is a glitch that is fixed. If the player has 2 children die of drowning at the same time, one will be taken away by the social worker (as a ghost) and the other will be taken away by grim reaper.

Getting rid of the social worker
In The Sims a message will appear informing the player of the social worker's arrival. When she arrives, before she reaches the baby, pause the game, and use the "move_objects on" cheat to delete her. However, if she is deleted, resuming the game will also make the baby disappear,. The baby will reappear immediately. The parents will clap when the baby arrives, just as when it was first born. The player will have to rename the baby again, as the game thinks that it has just born, but the gender and skin color will remain the same as the first time. The three-day count to becoming a child will restart.

If playing The Sims 2 or The Sims 3, and a social worker arrives on the lot to collect the children, players can use the (boolprop) testingcheatsenabledcheat to delete her before she has a chance to take them. It is unknown, however, if this action has any negative effects on the game. Players can hide all Non-playable-characters (NPCs) by using the testingcheatsenabled cheat and shift-clicking a Sim, spawning the NPC and Townie Maker, and clicking the "Hide All NPCs" button.

In The Sims 3, if a child is aged up to a teen before being taken by the social worker, he or she will not be taken, but the social worker will not leave.

In addition to the usual reasons for taking a child, a social worker will also remove a child whose parents have died, which will end their family line and put their house up for sale for another family.

Trivia

 * It is possible for a Social Worker to die in the game without using cheats. It will most likely happen if a child is burning to death and they come right as they are about to die. If a social worker walks through flames caused by the fire, there is a chance she will catch on fire and die if not put out.
 * Social Workers have an incomplete character file, and can therefore corrupt game files. Corruption can occur if players interact with the social worker outside of her designated in-game purpose.
 * The Social Worker is the only one of the 2 NPCs (the other being the Grim Reaper) that can remove a playable Sim; but only babies (All Sims games), toddlers and children (The Sims 2 and later).
 * As The Sims 3 lacks memories (until the Generations expansion pack), it is possible to adopt again if a child is taken away. This is different from The Sims 2 and The Sims Stories, in which Sims with the memory can never adopt again. However, with Generations installed, a Sim who had had a child taken away will be unable to adopt.
 * Regardless of whether there are any objects/walls/Sims that are blocking her, she will teleport and take the child/toddler/baby, despite being able to walk through objects such as walls.
 * This might be because The Sims 2 and The Sims Stories allows Build and Buy Modes to be entered, which makes it is possible to trap the Social Worker or the child, toddler or baby. This is also true for The Sims 3 and The Sims 3 (console).
 * In The Sims 3, it is possible for ghost babies, toddlers, and children to be taken away by the Social Worker if they are playable in the household.
 * If a teen and a child are the only ones living on a lot, and a child needs to be taken away, the Social Worker will not lecture the teen(s). Also, the teens won't receive a memory of their siblings being taken away
 * The Social Worker does not appear in The Sims 4. Instead, if a baby, toddler, or child is not fed for a long time, they will disappear in a puff of smoke with a message that reads 'Due to neglect, [Sim Name] has been whisked away to safety. Maybe you should try a goldfish before parenting again'. When the last teenage Sim or older living in the household passes away, a message akin to social services taking over custody of the younger Sims will be displayed, and the game will end promptly.

Other Languages
Asistente social pt-br:Assistente Social Maatschappelijk Werker Социальный работник