Coexisting principles and logics of elder care: Help to self‐help and consumer‐oriented service?

Healthy and active ageing has become an ideal in Western societies. In the Nordic countries, this ideal has been supported through a policy of help to self‐help in elder care since the 1980s. However, reforms inspired by New Public Management (NPM) have introduced a new policy principle of consumer‐oriented service that stresses the wishes and priorities of older people. We have studied how these two principles are applied by care workers in Denmark. Is one principle or logic replacing the other, or do they coexist? Do they create tensions between professional knowledge and the autonomy of older people? Using neo‐institutional theory and feminist care theory, we analysed the articulation of the two policy principles in interviews and their logics in observations in four local authorities. We conclude that help to self‐help is the dominant principle, that it is deeply entrenched in the identity of the professional care worker and that it coexists with consumer‐oriented service and without major tensions in the logics identified in their practices.     

Does what happens in group care stay in group care? The relationship between problem behaviour trajectories during care and post‐placement functioning

Residential programmes for youth may improve youth behaviour during placement, but it is not clear whether there is an association between a youth's behaviour pattern during placement and post‐placement outcomes. Life course perspective has been used to understand longitudinal patterns and pathways, and new statistical methods have been developed to identify latent trajectory groups. This study used administrative data from a family‐style group care programme to assess whether a youth's externalizing behaviour trajectory while in placement can significantly predict delinquency and adjustment outcomes at discharge and 6‐month follow‐up. Findings from multinomial logistic regression revealed a statistically significant relationship between a youth's behaviour trajectory class and outcomes. Behaviour pattern during care was a stronger predictor of outcome than cross‐sectional measures such as other demographic factors, placement history or mental‐health need indicators.     

Offending behaviour in care: is children's residential care a ‘criminogenic’ environment?

This paper focuses on offending behaviour and children in residential care. The paper considers whether children's residential care is a ‘criminogenic’ environment, i.e. whether this type of care environment helps to provide the conditions that produce crime or criminality. The paper draws on the findings from recently completed research on 10 children's homes in a large county local authority in England. This paper focuses on the patterns shown in trend data collected on problematic and offending data across these homes over a 7‐year period (2001–2007) and a 1‐year cohort study of 46 young people. Interviews with care staff and young people are used to contextualize these patterns. The data provide evidence of an environment where conflict and offending behaviour are common. It is argued that the residential care environment, particularly for older teenagers, often presents a set of risks that tend to reinforce offending behaviour and that this is in part due to its ‘last resort’ status.     

Overlooked and under‐served? Promoting service use and engagement among ‘hard‐to‐reach’ populations

Cortis N. Overlooked and under‐served? Promoting service use and engagement among ‘hard‐to‐reach’ populations Social service providers strive to meet the needs of those most marginalised from society and from service systems. Yet many people who might benefit from available help consistently miss out. Using qualitative data, this study developed a repertoire of actions that organisations and service personnel can employ to improve participation and outcomes for groups who may be eligible for and may benefit from services, but whom service providers find difficult to identify, reach and engage. Semi‐structured interviews with service managers and coordinators of child, family and youth services in Australia attest to the diversity and context specificity of those who are deemed to be ‘hard‐to‐reach’. The research data highlight ways to improve reach and engagement in a managerialist context by refining organisational action in four strategic domains: overcoming access barriers, building client relationships, utilising networks and partnerships, and ensuring staff capacity and sustainability.     

Can Quasi‐market and Multi‐level Governance Co‐exist? Insights from the Case of Lombardy's Employment Services System

This article explores the functioning of Lombardy's networked employment services system, inspired by quasi‐market and horizontal subsidiarity principles, and specifically addresses a gap in the quasi‐market literature, where little attention is devoted to the role played by institutions at lower levels of government. A qualitative study of the Lombardy system, with a focus on the municipality of Milan, is relied upon in order to explore the extent to which the principles of quasi‐market and multi‐level governance pursued by the regional government are allowed to co‐exist in practice. Here, sub‐regional levels of government are directly involved in services provision, but enjoy a more privileged condition relative to the private providers, thereby jeopardizing the implementation of an effective quasi‐market. The article contributes to existing theories by suggesting that horizontal subsidiarity and marketization cannot neglect multi‐level governance in those sectors where public bodies at various levels of government are directly involved in implementation.     

Is Personalization the Right Plan at the Wrong Time? Re‐thinking Cash‐for‐Care in an Age of Austerity

As personalization has dominated the policy agenda for reform in social care, its roll‐out as a mainstream option has coincided with global programmes of austerity which have targeted services for disabled people. Was this simply bad timing or was its implementation always part of the agenda for reform? Whilst the principle of cash‐for‐care schemes drew strongly on promoting the independence and autonomy of disabled people, early incarnations of direct payments policy in the UK were initially at least in part rolled out in light of potential cost savings to social care budgets. This article explores these and other issues in light of evaluations of the Scottish government's self‐directed support (SDS) test sites (2009–11) and implementation of subsequent legislation enforcing models of SDS in Scotland from April 2014. Discussion draws on the authors’ recent book (Pearson et al. 2014) to reflect on what the evidence can tell us about radically transforming social care at a time of global austerity.     

Commercial,non‐profit and governmental residential elderly care in Flanders: Differences in client selection and efficiency?

Verschuere B, Moray N, Decramer A. Commercial, non‐profit and governmental residential elderly care in Flanders: differences in client selection and efficiency? Inspired by New Public Management, governments have stimulated competition, outsourcing and privatisation in the public sector. Also, in care of the elderly, there has been a substantial increase in commercial provision. The present study explored the presumed differences in the performance of public (governmental), private non‐profit and private commercial elderly care organisations. We used quantitative indicators on the population of residential elderly care organisations in Flanders (Belgium). Although we found that commercial elderly care facilities tended to be more input‐efficient while non‐profit and public elderly care facilities tended to be more attentive to recruiting and housing residents with high care needs, these results need to be interpreted in light of the regulatory framework in which the different types of elderly care facilities operate.     

Co‐producing innovation or innovating co‐production? Responding to the contact needs of non‐resident parents in the Republic of Ireland

The empowerment and participation of children and families in both the design and the delivery of services oriented towards them is now an accepted norm, if not always the accepted practice. Yet, challenges still remain, particularly where parents are separated and contact issues are problematic. Although contact centres are common in some Western countries including Australia, New Zealand, the UK, France, and the USA, this is not the case in the Republic of Ireland. The relatively recent introduction of divorce, increases in separation and childbirth outside of marriage have led to the need for service planners to respond to the growing issue of non‐resident contact with children. Using Bovaird's co‐production framework, the purpose of this paper is to outline and discuss specific findings relating to service user involvement emanating from a formative evaluation of an innovative supported contact service in Ireland. What emerges from the findings is a picture of co‐production where the broad parameters of the service are professionally defined and where the specifics of service user involvement in delivery vary from family to family but within the bounds of professional control.     

Academic performance and peer relations among rural‐to‐urban migrant children in Beijing: Do social identity and self‐efficacy matter?

Due to the household registration system, millions of rural‐to‐urban migrant children in China are ineligible to receive urban social welfare benefits. These children potentially suffer from the evolving awareness of their perceived inferior social identity and experiences of inequalities at an early stage of life. This study examined whether self‐perceived social identity is related to academic performance and peer relations among rural‐to‐urban migrant children in Beijing. Data were collected from 136 children during 2013 and 2014 in three schools for migrant children in Beijing. Path analysis showed that children who identified as a Beijinger, compared with those who self‐identified with their rural hometown, had better self‐efficacy, which in turn was associated with better academic performance and better peer relations. Enlightened by Western theories, these findings suggest that migrant children’s performance in school could be enhanced by cultivating positive perceptions of their social identity through teachers’ practice and community‐ and policy‐level social support.     

School‐to‐work transition in South Korean young adults: Stratified or Individualized?

This study examines the relationship between family background and school‐to‐work transition (STWT) patterns in South Korean young adults. The transition from school to work has been linear, a simple change in status from full‐time student to full‐time worker. In the recent past, however, segmented (unemployment) and unstable (frequent status changes) patterns (have been increasing). While individualization theorists propose that family background is no longer a strong influence on STWT, stratification theorists posit that family background still plays a key role in STWT. There are a few studies that examine these theoretical arguments using empirical data. The research question is whether nonlinear and low labor market attachment STWT patterns stem from a disadvantaged family background (i.e., parents with low levels of education or low family income). This study applies Group‐Based Trajectory Analysis (GBTA) to the Korean Labor and Income Panel Study (KLIPS). Results show that young adults from disadvantaged family backgrounds are more likely to have segmented and unstable STWT patterns compared to those from advantaged family backgrounds, suggesting that family background still plays a significant role as young adults prepare and enter the labor market. This study supports the use of stratification theory for understanding STWT in labor market uncertainty.     

Job satisfaction and ‘welfare‐to‐work‘: is any job a good job for Australian single mothers?

This exploratory study sought to assess the job satisfaction of employed Australian single mothers who had mandatory employment participation requirements. In particular, we sought to identify the characteristics of the job and the individual that were closely associated with participant's job satisfaction. Self‐report data on job satisfaction, employment characteristics and parenting stress were collected from 155 employed single mothers. Participant job satisfaction was compared to female Australian population norms and linear regression analyses determined the job‐related and individual predictors of single mothers' job satisfaction. Findings from this exploratory study revealed that single mothers involved in a mandatory welfare‐to‐work program experienced significantly lower job satisfaction than the Australian female population. The individual variable, parental distress, negatively predicted each of the six job satisfaction domains while being employed on a casual basis was inversely associated with three domains (job security, work hours and overall job satisfaction). The Australian government purported that making the transition from welfare to work would improve wellbeing for program participants, under the assumption that ‘any job's a good job‘. However, the relatively low levels of job satisfaction experienced by single mothers in the current study provide little support for this assumption.     

Treatment‐as‐usual in effectiveness studies: What is it and does it matter?

Andrée Löfholm C, Brännström L, Olsson M, Hansson K. Treatment‐as‐usual in effectiveness studies: What is it and does it matter? A hallmark of an evidence‐based practice (EBP) is the systematic appraisal of research related to the effectiveness of interventions. This study addressed the issue of interpreting results from effectiveness studies that use treatment‐as‐usual (TAU) as a comparator. Using randomised controlled studies that evaluate the effectiveness of multisystemic therapy as an illustrative example, we show that TAU includes a wide variety of treatment alternatives. Estimated treatment effects on recidivism suggest that TAU seems to contain a greater variation in underlying risk than experimental conditions, supporting the hypothesis that the content of TAU could affect outcomes. Implications for the realisation of an EBP are discussed.     

Supplemental home care and topping‐up: A shift from service universalism towards a new and privatised public service model?

How does a public service model based on service universalism react to the introduction of market principles of topping up? In a recent so‐called Free Municipality Scheme (an experimental scheme that allowed for greater operational autonomy locally in an effort to reduce state bureaucracy), a number of Danish municipalities were for the first time ever allowed to compete with for‐profit providers of home care in selling supplemental home care services paid entirely by the user. The take‐home message from this experience is that the introduction of supplemental home care entails challenges and eventually wider implications for the public service model, on an economic, organisational and cultural level. Supplemental services represent a new and potentially powerful combination of market and state logics that eventually redirects away from the universalist welfare state and towards a new and increasingly privatised public service model – a model where the service level is determined by the user's capacity to purchase and pay for services. The introduction of such services therefore implies a change of the potential of the Nordic welfare state to ensure equal access regardless of class and income.     

(A‐)typical and (in‐)secure? Social protection and “non‐standard” forms of employment in Europe

Atypical forms of employment (part‐time work, mini‐jobs, fixed‐term contracts and solo self‐employment) have gained in importance overall in recent years in many European countries. They are often part of an irregular career pattern and carry a high risk of unemployment. In a 6‐country comparison (Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Italy, Denmark and Poland) we consider whether and in what way national social protection laws cover the various forms of non‐standard employment and the specific risks these entail. Significant variations were found in coverage standards and practices between countries as well as substantial variability within countries in their responses to different types of non‐standard employment. A need for further and improved coordination of both social legislation and tax law is identified.     

The State as a Norm‐Builder? The Take‐up of Parental Leave in Norway and Sweden

This study shows that although Norway and Sweden have rather similar family policies, the seemingly small differences that exist reflect different national ideals of care, and these differences encourage parents to employ different gendered moral rationalities. However, Sweden's ideal of ‘equal‐sharing/professional care’, encourages fathers to take longer leaves than the Norwegian ideal of ‘partial sharing plus choosing between professional or parental care’. Given their different national ideals of caring, different gendered moral rationalities emerge. While in Norway the dominant gendered moral rationality among our interviewees is ‘man‐doing‐his‐duty’, in Sweden two different rationalities arise: the ‘breastfeeding‐plus‐sharing’ rationality and the ‘male‐opt‐out’. This conclusion is based on 60 interviews with mothers and fathers in Oslo and Stockholm.     

What difference do different settings in residential care make for young people? A comparison of family‐style homes and institutions in Sweden

Residential care in Sweden has undergone great change in recent decades. With new small family-style institutions, the boundaries between residential care and foster care have been blurred. Almost all residential care used to be run by the public sector. Today about 80 per cent is privately run. This study compares three different settings in residential care: institutions run by the public sector, privately run institutions and family-style homes. Among other things, it is found that the institutions run by the public sector have better educated staff and a higher staff–resident ratio than privately run institutions. Despite this, they are more restrictive in their intake and they have youths with fewer problems, especially delinquency and other antisocial behaviour. The results are discussed in relation to developments in the residential care sector in Sweden and in relation to the balance between care and treatment.     

NDIS Self‐Management Approaches: Opportunities for choice and control or an Uber‐style wild west?

This article examines the emerging challenges and opportunities presented by self‐management options in Australia's National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). We examine the three different ways in which NDIS participants can opt to self‐manage their funding and services, including direct employment and emerging Uber‐style online platforms, and explore the potential implications of these options for NDIS participants, service providers and the disability support workforce. In particular, we focus on these options in relation to the transition to a marketised services landscape being developed alongside the NDIS, and examine both the risks and opportunities for each stakeholder group. Through this analysis, we identify implications for policy and practice, in particular around regulatory mechanisms and the role of government within this emerging market economy and transforming service landscape.