Caregivers' perspectives on the SafeCare® programme: Implementing an evidence‐based intervention for child neglect

This qualitative study examined caregivers' experiences with SafeCare®, an evidence‐based programme that focuses on child neglect through modules on health, safety, and parenting. Shortly after completing SafeCare, 30 caregivers participated in a semi‐structured interview about their experiences with the programme. Overall, caregivers indicated that the programme helped with improvements in their parenting skills. Among the factors that contributed to a positive experience were the simplicity of language, the skills‐based approach, and the quality of the relationship with the SafeCare provider. Caregivers also noted several factors that made it difficult to fully benefit from the programme, including financial constraints, removal of their child from the home, and general distrust towards the child welfare system. Findings provide relevant information for SafeCare providers in terms of identifying areas that work well for caregivers completing the programme, as well as areas that might serve as impediments. Implications for contemporary child welfare practice are also considered.     

Factors associated with provider self‐efficacy in delivery of evidence‐based programs for children,youth, and families

Investments in training real‐world behavioral health providers in evidence‐based programs (EBPs) can be costly; thus, it is important to understand which providers may be more or less likely to implement such approaches after training. Provider self‐efficacy is associated with implementation of EBPs, but research on factors associated with provider self‐efficacy is less common. An exploratory, cross‐sectional, quantitative survey examined factors associated with provider self‐efficacy among 150 real‐world service providers who reported delivering EBPs to children, youth, or families in one U.S. state. Factors found to be associated with higher self‐efficacy included profession, workplace support, and extent of training received; difficulty engaging families was associated with lower self‐efficacy. Self‐efficacy was found to be associated with program use but not fidelity. Several organization‐level variables were identified as both facilitators and barriers to implementation of EBPs. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

Sustainable social work: Modelling knowledge production,transfer, and evidence‐based practice

Gray M, Schubert L. Sustainable social work: modelling knowledge production, transfer, and evidence‐based social work This article is a first attempt to present a model of knowledge production and transfer in social work, drawing on the expanding literature on knowledge production. It highlights features of knowledge production in social work, such as the diverse contexts in which knowledge is developed and applied. It argues that knowledge production by itself is not enough. Equally important is knowledge transfer and implementation. The literature on knowledge production highlights problems with the implementation of actually existing knowledge and the potential resistance to this implementation as highly important issues for social work research. It leads to a greater awareness of the context in which knowledge is produced and applied and creates a bridge between traditional informal and tacit ways of knowing in social work and the demands of evidence‐based practice.     

How Moroccan‐Dutch parents learn in communities of practice: Evaluating a bottom‐up parenting programme

Research shows that top‐down‐designed parenting programmes do not always meet the needs of postmigration parents. Bottom‐up programmes by migrant organizations hold a promise to fill this gap; however, research about these programmes and appropriate evaluation methodologies is scarce. Drawing upon Wenger's ( 2010 ) “communities of practice,” this paper explores an alternative perspective on parenting programme evaluation. Findings are presented from a study looking into social learning processes of postmigration parents who participated in a bottom‐up programme about raising teenagers in urban areas. Using an ethnographically inspired method combined with a preprogramme and postprogramme design, 115 Moroccan‐Dutch mothers and fathers from 15 programme groups participated. Results show that the programme provided a social learning space in which parents used themselves as resources to learn collectively about parenting. Moreover, parents consciously engaged in learning interactions across learning spaces stretched into their social networks. These analyses showed how parents' development of “learning citizenship” (Wenger, 2009 ) provides us with insight in collective learning dimensions present in a bottom‐up parenting programme, which is often not included in evaluation studies. Implications for practitioners as facilitators of parents' collective learning are presented.     

Re‐conceptualising the link between research and practice in social work: A literature review on knowledge utilisation

Despite the recent movement towards greater research use in many areas of social work, criticisms persist that decision making in practice is seldom informed by sound research evidence. Discourse about the research‐to‐practice gap in social work has tended to focus on the feasibility of evidence‐based practice for the profession, but has rarely drawn from the broader knowledge utilisation literature. There are important understandings to be gained from the knowledge utilisation field, which spans more than six decades of interdisciplinary research.This article introduces the wider knowledge utilisation literature to a social work audience. It considers the potential of this body of literature to facilitate research use in social work, as well as conceptual issues that may be hindering it from informing improvements to research utilisation in practice.     

Theory and social work: A conceptual review of the literature

This article presents a conceptual review of the literature concerning social work and theory. Based on analysis of 93 research studies, drawn from literature in English published between 1968 and 2016, the review considers the many ways that theory is conceptualised in the literature, and asks meta‐theoretical questions about how and why different conceptualisations arise. The article examines definitional questions and ambiguities concerning the use of theory, extant research on the use of theory by social workers in practice, hostility expressed regarding theory in social work, the theory/practice divide and perspectives that emphasise theory's utility or functionality. The article points at some methodological and ethical limitations concerning current research, and summarises dominant, as well as less prominent, versions of what counts as theory within the social work discipline, before finally suggesting that further meta‐theoretical research is needed.     

Changes in preschool children’s social engagement positively predict changes in social competence: A three‐year longitudinal study of portuguese children

To test the hypothesis that social engagement is a foundational aspect of other peer social competence indicators during early childhood, 160 Portuguese preschool children (“3‐year‐olds”) were observed at least in two different school years, using a battery of validated social competence assessments based on direct observations and child interviews. Multilevel growth models tested whether social engagement predicted initial values and linear changes in the other social competence indicators. Results were consistent with the hypothesis, insofar as both initial values and changes in social engagement significantly predicted initial values and changes in other social competence indicators. Additionally, the number of children's reciprocated friendships was also predicted by social engagement. These results are discussed from the perspectives of conceptual frameworks that consider individual differences in social competence during early childhood as a consequence of attachment histories and/or emotional competence.     

Poverty‐aware social work in the child protection system: A critical reflection on two single‐case studies

In recent years, scholarly writing that calls for the development of a new child protection framework that contextualizes risk and links it to poverty and social marginalization has increased. Nonetheless, there is a lack of research on the challenges of implementing such a framework in frontline practice. Based on the ongoing, rigorous documentation of the author's experience, as a social work practitioner in a community child protection centre, this article presents two single‐case studies that describe and conceptualize the potential contribution of the poverty‐aware paradigm to the creation of a social framework for child protection practice. Utilizing critical reflection as a method of analysis, the findings reveal two major tensions entwined in poverty‐aware child protection practice: the tension between focusing child protection interventions on parenting and focusing them on poverty and the tension between framing risk within a social context and framing it within the concept of the best interest of the child. Based on the case studies, seven poverty‐aware practices to cope with these tensions are identified.     

Problematising aspects of evidence‐based policy: an analysis illustrated by an Australian homelessness policy 1985–2008

Although recently criticised in the academic literature, the past few decades have seen international demand for policies to be based on evidence. In this article three aspects of the process of evidence‐based policy (EBP) are briefly examined. They include: (1) how evidence becomes socially worthy of the title; (2) the problems which arise for EBP when there is conflicting or rival evidence; and (3) facets of the transition from evidence to policy – the evidence–policy nexus. After problematising evidence‐based research in this limited way, the issues are clarified and illustrated by reference to the history of the Supported Accommodation Assistance Program (SAAP: 1985–2008), renown at the time as the major Australian program for people who were homeless. SAAP involved an agreement enshrined in legislation between the Commonwealth and all states and territories of the Federation. The argument is based on evidence from the four official national reports of the policy which, over the period of the program, evaluated SAAP and were commissioned and accepted as authoritative by federal, state and territory governments. In a nutshell, the argument is that, at each iteration of SAAP, subsequent policy discounted one of the sets of evidence in the official National Evaluations. This concerned the clear evidence of a lack of external, affordable accommodation options which, in turn, undermined the objectives of the program. The issue remains topical as more recent evidence substantiates the imperative for increased accommodation options for clients ready to exit agencies.     

Problematising Australia's Nanny Pilot Program as evidence‐based policy: A reconstruction of the problem of childcare

In a notable departure from long‐standing childcare policy in Australia, in January 2016 fee relief was extended to nannies providing in‐home care in a 2‐year pilot program. This policy is significant as fee relief is not tied to the meeting of regulatory requirements designed to ensure quality early learning and care for young children. Drawing on Carol Bacchi's approach to policy analysis, this paper extends previous problematising of evidence‐based policy by highlighting the value of first considering how a policy ‘problem’ has been constructed. We propose that the nanny pilot is an ideologically driven policy that has emanated from a construction of childcare that is adult (parent)‐centred and marginalises the needs and interests of young children. Accordingly, certain evidence is privileged while other evidence is ignored, with the ensuing policy focused on economic imperatives rather than quality early learning and care experiences for young children. We draw on an analysis of parent, peak body and researcher submissions to the Productivity Commission's 2013–2014 childcare inquiry, nanny‐focused research, and data from three national surveys to explore the limitations of such a policy approach. The utility of problem reconstruction as a means of disrupting policy‐informed evidence and the legitimisation of purported evidence‐based policy is considered.     

Previous sickness presence among long‐term sick‐listed in Norway and Sweden: A retrospective study of prevalence and self‐reported reasons

The aim of the present study was to analyse previous sickness presence among long‐term sick‐listed individuals in Norway and Sweden and the reasons given for sickness presence. The study was based on survey data for 3,312 persons in Norway and Sweden who had been sick‐listed for at least 30 days. Two questions were used. One measured prevalence: During the last 12 months prior to your current sick leave, did you go to work even when feeling so ill that you should have taken sick leave? The second question concerned reasons for sickness presence. Large differences were found between Norway and Sweden in the prevalence of sickness presence. More long‐term sick‐listed Norwegians than Swedes reported sickness presence [adjusted odds ratio (OR) for Sweden 0.65 (0.53–0.80)]. The Swedes more often reported financial reasons for sickness presence [adjusted OR 2.77 (2.1 to ?3.54)], while the Norwegians more often gave positive reasons related to work. The national differences may be related to differences in sickness insurance strategies.     

A sense of belonging in a changeable everyday life – a follow‐up study of young people in kinship,network, and traditional foster families

This in‐depth follow‐up study of 15 foster youth shows the importance of an ‘open foster family’, open to letting the foster youth into the family life and to cooperating with the adolescent's birth family. Previous findings about the importance of negotiations, mutual rituals, and having fun together in foster families for the creation of social bonds and belonging are strengthened in the follow‐up interview. A lack of these mutual practices is observed prior to disruptions. Most adolescents still living with the same foster family feel a sense of belonging to both their foster and birth families, especially when both families cooperate. This is most evident in kinship families. Over time, adolescents in traditional foster families have also strengthened their social bonds to the foster family, which makes the difference to youth in network foster families less pronounced than in the previous study. Despite life changes, above all changing schools and peers, most adolescents reveal personal agency by still coping with their situation. However, therapeutic support is now more common than 1 year ago, for girls in particular. Methods used are interviews, network maps and text responses (‘beepers’).     

Who Takes Care of Education 18 months on? A follow‐up study of looked after children's perceptions of support for educational progress

This paper represents a follow‐up publication to the findings of a previous paper by documenting the views of a follow‐up sample of 56 young people, aged 12–19 years, looked after in three English local authorities. Young people were interviewed on two separate occasions, 18 months apart, to assess their perceptions of educational progress and identify factors that might support or hinder their education. The interviews took place as part of an ongoing evaluation of the Taking Care of Education project, a development programme designed to facilitate improvements in the education of looked after children. Most young people were aware of individual project‐related activities and a number of these were seen to contribute towards educational progress. Perceptions of educational progress were significantly higher at follow‐up interview and an increased proportion of young people reported that being looked after had had a positive impact upon their education. Carers and teachers continued to be the most frequently mentioned providers of educational support, but the proportion of comments relating to educational support from social workers increased at follow‐up. The most consistent explanation given for improved educational progress was the availability of support and encouragement for educational progress and acknowledgement of young people's achievements.     

Deservingness in the eye of the beholder: A vignette study on the moderating role of cultural profiles in supporting activation policies

People support welfare policy if its beneficiaries are perceived as deserving of support. This study found that individuals’ cultural worldviews play a role in assessing the deservingness of welfare recipients. We investigated whether four different cultural profiles find some beneficiaries to be more deserving than others and how this relates to support for social rights (welfare benefit, retraining, job coach) and obligations (mandatory volunteering). A Dutch vignette experiment showed that reasons for supporting social rights differ between people with different cultural profiles: equality advocates grant support if beneficiaries are needy, while the centre and trusting groups do so when beneficiaries reciprocate. We found that irrespective of deservingness, people with equality‐advocating and trusting profiles tend to be more supportive of social rights, whereas socially discontented citizens tend to emphasise the importance of obligations. In general, obliging beneficiaries to do volunteer work was deemed appropriate by almost all respondents in the study, whereas their cultural values determined the ways in which they considered social rights to have been earned.     

A green social work perspective on social work during the time of COVID‐19

COVID‐19 has challenged social workers to engage with health pandemics and provide essential services in conditions of uncertainty and high risk. They have safeguarded children, older adults and diverse adults in ‘at risk’ groups under tough conditions mediated by digital technologies, adhered to government injunctions, maintained social and physical distancing under lockdown and worked from home remotely. Social workers and social care workers have risen to the challenges, providing services with inadequate personal protective equipment and limited supervision and support. This article highlights the degraded physical environments, socio‐economic and political contexts that intensify precariousness and constraints that neoliberalism imposed on professional capacity before and during this health pandemic. It provides guidelines to protect practitioners and service users. It concludes that practitioners ought to understand zoonotic diseases, environmental concerns, acquire disaster expertise and training, widen their practice portfolio and value their contributions to this pandemic. Key Practitioner Message: ? Develop technological skills and innovate to support stressed individuals, safeguard children, adolescents and elders and deal with poverty and unemployment; ? Use digital technologies involving peers to explore tricky situations, examine ethical dilemmas through scenario building exercises, and tips for self‐care; ? Contribute to environmental protections that prevent the spread of zoonotic diseases like COVID‐19; ? Seek supervision and support for disaster‐based training from your line manager.     

Microcredit for rural poverty alleviation and social well‐being: A study of Sabah,Malaysia

Microcredit is an influential intervention used to alleviate poverty and improve social well‐being in rural communities in Sabah, Malaysia. This study examined the effects of a microcredit scheme, Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia (AIM), on the well‐being of these communities. Using a survey method, a pre‐tested interview schedule was administered to 277 AIM recipients in Sabah, Malaysia. Social well‐being was examined based on the three indicators of Midgley's social development approach: the management of problems, the fulfillment of basic needs, and social opportunities provided. AIM microcredit schemes were successful in improving the well‐being of AIM recipients, although the recipients faced a number of problems, including unemployment, lack of education, and access to public services and healthcare facilities. The findings of this study represent a useful guideline to the AIM authority, development practitioners, policymakers, and governmental organization and non‐governmental organization workers.     

Social assistance assessments of couple households: A vignette study on applicants’ ethnicity and gendered family roles

Social work professionals’ assessments of social assistance (SA) eligibility for a heterosexual couple with a baby are examined. Professionals (n = 899) spread over 43 social service offices in 19 Swedish municipalities assessed a vignette. According to the vignette, one of the parents abstained from paid work to take parental leave, which caused the couple's need for SA. Two vignette dimensions were varied: the couple's ethnicity (Swedish/Arabic) and gendered family roles (mother/father going on parental leave). Data were analysed using multilevel logistic regression modelling. The results show that the combination of the couple's gendered family roles and ethnicity seems to have bearing on the assessments. Professionals were most prone to grant SA to couples with Swedish names where the mother went from work to parental leave. The lowest granting rate was found in assessments of couples with the same gender setting and Arabic names.     

Immigrants’ support for social spending,self‐interest and the role of the group: A comparative study of immigrants in The Netherlands

This study examined immigrants’ support for social spending. We tested the dominant self‐interest hypothesis for a number of immigrant groups in the Netherlands with highly varying socio‐economic positions. We additionally examined the effect of immigrants’ group interest by testing the relevance of in‐group immigrant benefit participation rates and their effect on support for social spending. In this article, we discuss how immigrants’ sense of belonging to a group affects the association between immigrants’ self‐ and group interests in welfare and their support for social spending. We found that self‐interest has explanatory relevance, but that this is strongly correlated with level of income. Results showed weak support for the effect of group interest. Instead of the expected moderation effects of sense of belonging on the self‐ and group‐interest explanations of support for social spending, the results showed a direct effect of sense of belonging on support for social spending.     

The Associations between income,informal social networks,and health among older adults in South Korea: A multi‐group analysis based on the level of age‐friendly environments

The aim of the present study was to empirically investigate the role of age‐friendly environments (AFE) on the associations between income, informal social networks, and health among South Korean older adults. We used data from the “2017 Age Integration Survey” collected nationally and ultimately analyzed 615 older adults over 50 years of age. Structural equation modeling and multi‐group analysis were used to test the hypothesis. Specifically, two groups of perceived levels of AFE (top 25%, bottom 25%) were compared in order to examine the moderating effects. The results indicated that poor income and scarce informal social networks each had a significantly adverse impact on health. However, the effect of income on health was no longer significant for older adults living in environments that were more age‐friendly. In both groups, the presence of fewer informal social networks adversely impacted health, although the sizes of the effects decreased when the level of AFE perceived by older adults was improved. Finally, several implications of the study findings were discussed.