Clothing provided initially by social workers (5)
I believe the answer is:
pants
'clothing' is the definition.
(pants is a kind of clothing)
'provided initially by social workers' is the wordplay.
'initially' indicates taking the first letters.
'by' says to put letters next to each other.
'social workers' becomes 'ants' (I've seen this in another clue).
The first letter of 'provided' is 'p'.
'p'+'ants'='PANTS'
(Other definitions for pants that I've seen before include "Rubbish (slang) - undergarment" , "Puffs, gasps" , "Breathes heavily in trousers" , "Shorts" , "Undergarments; rubbish" .)