强化社会工作协调人职能,增进福利机构专业化进展

福利服务专业化成为福利机构发展的总体趋势。21世纪以来,社会工作作为社会福利专业化的重要推动力普遍走进社会福利领域。在推动社会福利服务专业化进程中,如何发挥其积极功能是社会工作实践探索的重点。本文从强化社会工作协调人职能的角度,探讨社会工作推动福利机构专业化的方式。     

感言第二届中国特色社会工作论坛

社会工作是以机构为史撑的专业化和职业化的组织体系。在现代社会福利制度中,社会服务是将社会福利的政策和制度所确定的方针、任务和目标加以实现的行动体系,而社会工作作为社会服务的专业主体,一方面在将社会福利的理念、政策转化为实际的行动过程中,对促进社会服务合理、有效、公平地满足社会成员的福利需求,为人们提供专业化的服务,具有不可替代的地位和作用;另一方面,社会工作作为社会服务的专业体系,必须依托于社会服务机构,并在社会服务的组织体系内和活动领域中才能发挥其作用。因此,在社会工作职业化和专业化的进程中,专业化的社会服务组织扮演着不可或缺的重要角色。社会服务组织的建设直接影响着社会工作职业化和专业化的发展进程,并决定着社会工作专业功能的发挥。     

上海的非营利组织与社会工作

自上世纪80年代起,中国社会福利服务演变呈现民营化的发展趋势,即政府支持民间社会服务机构的发展,甚至将原本由政府经营的机构,转交给民间管理经营.同时为提升社会福利服务的品质,努力推进社会工作的专业化、职业化,并开始形成以社会工作专业为基础的社会福利非政府运作模式.     

福利治理与政府购买社会工作服务--基于北京市S社区老年社会工作服务案例分析

福利治理是社会治理的重要组成部分。福利治理与社会福利制度的完善程度密切相关,对于一个完善的社会福利制度来说社会工作服务发挥着重要作用。政府购买社会工作服务应该被看做是政府对于社会福利治理的一项重要举措、一项制度安排。目前,政府购买社会工作服务涉及的领域非常广泛,在一定程度上表明政府福利制度趋于完善和福利政策趋于成熟。本文以老年社会工作发展的内在机制为切入点,以政府购买社会工作服务为例,深入分析政府福利制度与政策的制定在社会福利治理方面的作用。政府购买社会工作服务表明政府在福利供给方面有了新的政策视角,链接了新的社会资源,在一定层面表现出政府社会福利治理方面的作为与能力。     

感言第二届中国特色社会工作论坛

社会工作是以机构为支撑的专业化和职业化的组织体系。在现代社会福利制度中,社会服务是将社会福利的政策和制度所确定的方针、任务和目标加以实现的行动体系,而社会工作作为社会服务     

社会福利服务机构专业化发展路径思考

政府应从制度规范角度保障社会福利服务机构的专业性国外及香港的社会福利、服务事业走过了志愿性向专业性发展的道路,而专业性的发展取得了较好的效果。以香港为例,在20世纪60年代以前,社会福利服务组织一般都是民间的志愿性组织,主要依靠私人的募捐和慈善,20世纪70年代开始,香港开始大力推行社会工作专业化,把前期的救济型福利转变为综合型社会服务。1984年底,香港社工注册制度建立,从业者自愿注册。     

福利机构社会工作专业化建设的探索与实践——访上海社会福利中心主任李宏

上海市社会福利中心为隶属于上海市民政局的社会福利事业单位，由中心本部及下属11家单位构成。主要有上海市儿童福利院、上海市第一、第二、第三和第四社会福利院、上海市民政第一、第二、第三精神病院、上海市荣誉军人疗养院和上海市儿童临时看护中心等。服务对象包括：孤残儿童、老年人、慢性精神残疾者、荣誉军人、优抚对象以及其他弱势群体，为服务对象提供生活护理、医疗康复、心理照料等一系列整体服务。上海社会福利中心是全国民政系统内较早推进社会工作的试点单位。近年来福利中心通过专业化试点，以点带面，在整个福利中心系统推开社会工作人才建设，取得了较多的成果。该中心的专业化建设成为全国民政系统的一面旗帜，得到了中组部、国家人事部、民政部的肯定。为了更好地展示他们的专业化的经验，本刊记者采访了上海社会福利中心主任李宏。     

社会工作视角下的生态福利社会化

社会福利是与民生、与社会工作密切相关的领域,生态福利作为社会福利的新的组成部分,更加强调作为个体的人与生态环境的互动。生态福利更强调社会应该为人类生存与发展所提供的好的生存环境以及物质福利与精神福利的双重促进。运用社会工作助人自助的理念和社会工作专业方法可以很好的将生态福利的服务推广和运用到生活中。生态福利社会化概念的提出,有利于扩大社会福利的内涵,唤醒公众关注社会福利的意识,促进社会全面发展。本文将从生态福利社会化的定义、社会工作与生态福利的关系、社会工作方法在生态福利社会化中的具体应用以及社会工作者在其中的角色等方面,对社会工作视角下的生态福利社会化进行探析。认为社会工作方法的应用有助于推进生态福利社会化,促进社会和个人良性互动、协调发展。     

社会工作协会功能角色研究

本文采用文献法和观察法,基于近年各地社会工作协会发展实践的考察,发现在“政社分开”的社会体制改革和以改善民生为重点的社会建设以及适度普惠型社会福利制度构建的进程中,社会工作成为政府创新社会治理和发展社会服务的中坚力量。而随着社会工作人才队伍和社会工作机构数量迅猛增长,地方政府纷纷依托社会工作协会对本地社会工作发展事务进行管理和服务。从实践来看,社会工作协会对推动社会工作本土化、专业化、职业化有着极其重要的作用,它扮演着“社会的助推器、政府的合伙人、社会工作者的监护人、社会工作机构的领路人”四种功能角色。     

养老机构社会工作如何实现“三化”

对于养老机构来说,社会工作在提高机构服务专业化水平,创新机构管理和服务模式,构建和谐机构中的重要作用日益被认同和重视.然而如何才能更好地推动养老机构社会工作发展,提高社会工作的专业化、职业化、社会化水平则成为机构管理者和社会工作者所必须共同思考的问题.     

Social workers' attitudes towards social welfare policy

As social workers are widely called upon to take an active role in influencing social welfare policy, a better understanding of their views on the welfare state is crucial. This study examines the attitudes of 422 Israeli social workers from diverse social welfare agencies regarding social welfare policy. The framework for understanding these attitudes includes the notions of professionalisation processes, social work values, and the class position of social workers. The study's findings indicate that support for the welfare state is quite moderate and these reflect more the class affiliation of social workers than their professional values and the professionalisation process.     

Working with managers to improve services: changes in the role of research in social care

The setting of specific objectives for children's services and the identification of key outcome indicators, together with the development of a core information specification for children's services with its practical application in the implementation of the Integrated Children's System, all mean that substantially more data are now available to child welfare agencies. Not so long ago in the UK it was the role of research teams to collect and analyse such data. Now that so much of it is already available to agencies, are researchers who work in this area of applied social policy research becoming redundant? Using data from the cohorts of looked after children being studied at the Centre for Child and Family Research, Loughborough University, the paper demonstrates how researchers can work in consultation with the managers of child welfare agencies to make better sense of the data at their disposal. It considers three issues: what additional variables need to be explored to help agencies better understand their performance; how groups of children could be identified who follow predictable pathways through social care; and how qualitative information is necessary to gain a true picture of what is happening. All of these examples demonstrate a fundamental role for researchers in working with social services personnel to identify how services can be improved.     

The Impact of Welfare Reform Policies on Child Protective Services: A National Study

The 1996 welfare reform bill set forth major changes in social welfare policies. In addition to federal work requirements and time limits, new state policies impose behavioral mandates that may be accompanied by financial sanctions for noncompliance. Analysis of a survey of state Child Protection Services (CPS) directors focuses on four major areas: effect of Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) on CPS; interaction between the two agencies; role of TANF sanctions in referrals to CPS; and select special areas of concern. This research provides empirical insight into the interaction between these two agencies, specific TANF sanctions, and the potential conflicts between TANF policies and CPS concerns for the welfare of children and families under its charge.     

Redefining Welfare: Australian Social Policy and Practice

The present paper outlines and analyzes Australia's welfare reform policies as they have been implemented over the past decade. While there have been numerous social policy initiatives over this period, welfare reform provides an interesting site for analysis and review. This suite of policies and programs is of particular importance from several standpoints. First, its target groups – those needing income security assistance, including the unemployed, people with disabilities, and single parents – are historically and traditionally of concern to social work and social welfare. Second, welfare reform policies have had significant impact on social welfare agencies, and the social workers and welfare workers employed in them. Finally, welfare reform has had a wider impact on inequality in Australia and our attitudes to those in need. This paper first provides a brief overview of the context of Australian social policy and welfare, its origins and current situation. It then outlines the key operational elements of welfare reform and how it has been implemented. The third section of the paper offers a critical analysis of these policies and programs and finally poses some questions and issues requiring further discussion and research.     

Social Work Tomorrow: Towards a Critical Understanding of Technology in Social Work

Correspondence to Bob Sapey, Department of Social Work, University of Central Lancashire, Preston PR1 2HE Summary This paper makes use of theoretical ideas that have been developedto understand the impact of new technology on organizationsand applies them to its use within social work agencies. Thesedeveloping theories employ ideas that are familiar to socialworkers—organization theory, decision making theory, andcommunication theory. The paper therefore argues that socialworkers are in a good position to understand and influence theuse of computers within welfare agencies and do not need tobe inhibited by a lack of technological knowledge. It is furtherargued that, unless social workers do become involved in theways in which new technologies are used within organizations,they will fail to influence its impact upon their clients andmay further fail to control the way in which computers affectthe nature of social work itself in the future.     

Disciplinary research agendas and institutional arrangements for evaluation research

An evaluation agenda for social work to strengthen the research foundations for practice requires more replication, an extension of the range of outcomes it is possible to study and a narrowing of the gap between research, policy and practice. Enlarging understanding of social work's political functions and its relationship to welfare entails research programmes, strongly rooted in the social sciences, which include analysis of community interventions, social work's regulating and mediating functions, and exploration of the personal and social circumstances of those who achieve success and well-being despite their vulnerabilities and limited life chances.Universities, independent research institutions and social work agencies are the necessary locations for this substantial and diverse agenda.     

Towards a Legal Definition of Social Welfare

The author formulates a definition of the term ‘social welfare’. This definition, he claims, is necessary if there are to be controls imposed both on the activities of private social welfare agencies, and on the benefits given to such agencies by the community in the form of exemptions, concessions and rebates. The author advocates a definition which reflects current community views about social welfare and proposes ways in which the definition can be interpreted to avoid the rigidities of the legal system. Finally he argues that the exemptions and concessions should be given to a more restricted range of private agencies than at present.     

Part-Time Workers in Welfare: Who Wins,Who Loses,and Why?

This paper reviews the literature on part-time employment and presents data from a survey of part-time social workers in Melbourne. Information on part-time employment by age and gender is presented and industrial issues relevant to part-time work are discussed. Data on demographic characteristics, working conditions and employer perception of advantages and disadvantages of part-time social work are presented from a postal survey of Melbourne health and social welfare agencies.     

Strategies for survival: users' experience of child welfare in three welfare regimes

This paper draws on research into child welfare services in France, Germany and England which compares the subjective experience of mothers who have been in contact with family support and child protection agencies in the three countries. The mothers' stories suggest that successful help‐achieving strategies differ according to the nature of the child welfare regime, and that behaviour which is effective in getting a good response in one country may work less well elsewhere. The stories of two mothers in each of the countries have been chosen to demonstrate how the structures of different social welfare regimes affect the efforts of welfare users to get the help they need.