Building state capacity for welfare governance: The pathway and development of child welfare system and social work in China

ABSTRACT

China’s dramatic socioeconomic transformation after the reform and opening up, coincided with changes in state-family relationship, has resulted in a large number of children at risk of care. In the past three decades, child welfare has been highly concerned by the government and society, and the child welfare system has substantially developed in the direction of establishing a moderately universal system. In this process, the development of child welfare and social work has shown a mutually reinforcing trend. This includes the professionalisation of child welfare services, the professional training of child welfare workers and the advancement of child welfare policies. The governance of child welfare is an essential component of national social governance. Its future development should be oriented towards a developmental and holistic approach of governance, and social work as an important institutional actor plays a critical role in promoting good governance of child welfare and beyond.     

Impact of microcredit on rural household welfare and economic growth in Vietnam

Since its birth in 1970s, microcredit has been growing rapidly with the aim to reduce poverty and to promote economic growth. Using the large panel data of the Vietnam Access to Resources Household Surveys, the objectives are twofold: (i) to evaluate the micro-impact of microcredit on rural household economy, particularly on output value and net income of rural households, using Matched Difference-in-Difference method; and (ii) to evaluate its macro-impact on economic growth, especially the aggregate effect of production increase and income growth, using Input–Output analysis. The results at micro level find that microcredit benefits self-employment rather than other economic activities of households. The salient results from the macro-economic analysis reveal that, not as expected, the effect of microcredit on output increase is not so large. The findings suggest that microcredit is an effective development strategy at both micro and macro levels, thus the Vietnamese government should enact the relevant policies to enhance the effectiveness and outreach of microcredit.     

Impacts of off‐farm employment on welfare,food security and poverty: Evidence from rural Vietnam

How off‐farm employment can enhance welfare in terms of food consumption and poverty alleviation is a critical question facing many developing countries. This study addressed that question by pursuing two objectives: (i) to quantify the impact of off‐farm employment on rural households’ welfare, food security and poverty; and (ii) to examine the factors that affect their decision to work off‐farm. Using panel data, we estimated a difference‐in‐difference combined with a propensity score matching model. The findings show that off‐farm employment improves income, ensures food security and contributes to poverty alleviation. The results also show that age, marital status, education, labour, financial capital, land, location, market access and losses from natural disasters are significant contributing factors to the decision to participate in off‐farm employment. The findings suggest that to improve the welfare of rural households, the Vietnamese government should proceed with policies that enhance their opportunities for participation in off‐farm employment.     

Work,welfare, and wellbeing: The impacts of welfare conditionality on people with mental health impairments in the UK

The personal, economic, and social costs of mental ill health are increasingly acknowledged by many governments and international organisations. Simultaneously, in high-income nations, the reach of welfare conditionality has extended to encompass many people with mental health impairments as part of on-going welfare reforms. This is particularly the case in the UK where, especially since the introduction of Employment and Support Allowance in 2008, the rights and responsibilities of disabled people have been subject to contestation and redefinition. Following a review of the emergent international evidence on mental health and welfare conditionality, this paper explores two specific issues. First, the impacts of the application of welfare conditionality on benefit claimants with mental health impairments. Second, the effectiveness of welfare conditionality in supporting people with experience of mental ill health into paid work. In considering these questions, this paper presents original analysis of data generated in qualitative longitudinal interviews with 207 UK social security benefit recipients with experience of a range of mental health issues. The evidence suggests that welfare conditionality is largely ineffective in moving people with mental health impairments into, or closer to, paid work. Indeed, in many cases, it triggers negative health outcomes that make future employment less likely. It is concluded that the application of conditionality for people with mental health issues is inappropriate and should cease.     

From welfare state to welfare society: toward a viable system of welfare in Japan and England

Laratta R. From welfare state to welfare society: toward a viable system of welfare in Japan and England
Int J Soc Welfare 2010: 19: 131–141 © 2009 The Author(s), Journal compilation © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and the International Journal of Social Welfare. This article compares the impact that public welfare reforms during the 1980s and 1990s had, and are still having, on the relationship between statutory organisations and the non‐profit sector in two developed countries, England and Japan. The author argues that the failure of these reforms clearly shows that, although non‐profit organisations may not be able to effectively replace the state in the provision of welfare services, they can contribute, working closely with the statutory organisations, to the shaping, financing and delivery of public services in a variety of ways. It is also interesting to note that, while the public welfare reforms of the late 1990s in England produced a shift away from a culture based on privatisation and contracting‐out toward a partnership culture of collaboration between state and non‐profit entities, similar reforms in Japan have resulted instead in an uncertain area of deregulation and privatisation.     

The impacts of accessible service delivery on front‐line helping relationships in child welfare

This paper presents the results of a study comparing the impacts on helping relationships of locating front‐line child protection service providers in central locations or in accessible school and neighbourhood service delivery sites. Creating easier access to front‐line child protection service providers, fostering more positive community perceptions of child welfare services, improving client and service provider satisfaction with helping relationships and services, and increasing families' willingness to ask for help were core objectives at the accessible sites. Using a quasi‐experimental outcome design, file reviews and qualitative interviews with service providers and parents, this study presents evidence that accessible sites had substantial success in achieving these objectives when compared with central service delivery locations.     

The influence of ideational contests of social policy on government welfare efforts

There has been limited empirical research on the interaction between media influence and governments' decision-making in the social policy field. Drawing on a wider study of the ideation of poverty in South Korea, this research tests if policy ideas represented in the media have bottom-up framing effects on policymaking and can be a reliable indicator of the government's social policy efforts. This study analysed the editorials of major Korean daily newspapers, over the period of a decade from 2000 to 2009. The analysis outcomes identified a significant correlation between the extent of poverty discussions in the media and government welfare spending.     

The effects of social and political openness on the welfare state in 18 OECD countries

Studies examining the relationship between globalisation and the welfare state tend to focus on the effects of economic dimensions of globalisation, the extent to which a country is part of the world market. Globalisation also has social and political dimensions and the effects of these on welfare states – in terms of social security transfers and generosity – are studied in this article. Data from the KOF Index of Globalisation , the OECD Historical Statistics and the Comparative Welfare Entitlements Dataset are used to analyse the effects of social and political openness on the welfare states of 18 countries of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development between 1970 and 2000. The analyses show that social security transfers and generosity have increased less in countries with the highest increase in social openness and that the welfare state is not affected by political openness.     

The management of professional roles during boundary work in child welfare

Hall C, Slembrouck S, Haigh E, Lee A. The management of professional roles during boundary work in child welfare Int J Soc Welfare 2010: 19: 348–357 © 2010 The Author(s), Journal compilation © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and International Journal of Social Welfare. This article examines the ways in which child welfare professionals negotiate their roles and those of other professionals in home visits with clients, in this case the parents of young children. The concept of boundary work is developed within the context of the professional–client encounter. Drawing on Goffman's concept of ‘footing’, the analysis examines how professionals attend to ways of constructing family problems in terms of appropriate professional interventions – both from themselves and others. It is argued that the careful consideration of how problems merit interventions displays an adherence to the development of the supportive relations which move beyond strict professional remits. The article adds to the research evidence, which sees inter‐professional coordination as a complex matter, located in everyday practice rather than as advocating more tightly monitored procedure.     

The differential role of human capital and health in explaining welfare exit‐route and labour outcomes

The aim of this study was to determine the differential effects of human capital and health on welfare exit‐route, earnings and working hours among female welfare recipients in Israel. The study also examined whether higher human capital mediates the effect of health problems on the different outcomes. The data were obtained from a national panel survey of 2,700 single mothers who were receiving welfare when the Israeli welfare reform was implemented. The effect of health was found to be more consistent than the effect of human capital. Formal education had no effect on welfare exit‐route, while health did. The effect of health on working hours was more profound than the effect of human capital, while the reverse applied to earnings. Richer human capital did not mediate the effect of health problems. These findings suggest that the prediction power of human capital on labour and welfare decisions has weakened under welfare reform provision.     

Social support in single parents' transition from welfare to work: Analysis of qualitative findings1

Cook KE. Social support in single parents' transition from welfare to work: Analysis of qualitative findings Since 1995, single parents have been required to participate in welfare‐to‐work activities. While quantitative meta‐analyses have consolidated the social and economic impacts of such transitions, no attempt has yet been made to synthesise the qualitative evidence. In this article, I offer an analysis of 16 qualitative articles that explore the role of social support in the lives of single mothers making the transition from welfare to work. By focusing on the functions and reciprocal nature of social support, this study examined how welfare‐to‐work programmes shift women's dependence from the state onto family and friends, many of whom are in similarly impoverished situations and/or are unable to provide adequate support. Furthermore, women are often required to reciprocate the support they receive, which creates additional barriers to a successful welfare‐to‐work transition.     

Agreement and discrepancy between children,parents, and social workers on school‐based effort avoidance in child welfare services

A multiperspective approach is beneficial for obtaining reliable and multifaceted pictures of child behaviour problems. The goal of the present study is to examine interrater agreement on school‐based effort avoidance between children receiving child welfare services, parents, and social workers. Given previous findings, interrater agreement is expected to be low. Self‐reported data on school‐based effort avoidance were gathered for children and adolescents in child welfare services. Additionally, social workers (using the Teacher‐Report Checklist for social and learning behaviour) and parents (using the parallel version of the self‐rating questionnaire on school‐based effort avoidance) were asked to complete an external assessment tool to compare children's perspectives with the ratings of significant adults. The results confirmed significant discrepancies between parents' and children's ratings on effort avoidance tendencies. Furthermore, there were only small to moderate correlations between children's self‐ratings and the adults' assessments; however, the consensus between adults was higher than the interrater agreement between children and social workers. Discrepancies in ratings from multiple informants underline the importance of integrating multiple perspectives, especially children's perspectives, in the diagnostic process in order to plan and adapt appropriate care and treatment.     

Negotiating dilemmas in the practices of street‐level welfare work

Hjörne E, Juhila K, van Nijnatten C. Negotiating dilemmas in the practices of street‐level welfare work Int J Soc Welfare 2010: 19: 303–309 © 2010 The Author(s), Journal compilation © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and International Journal of Social Welfare. The theme of this mini‐symposium is based on the core ideas of two influential books published about 30 years ago, namely Michael Lipsky's Street‐Level Bureaucracy – Dilemmas of the Individual in Public Services (1980) and Jeffrey Prottas's People‐Processing – The Street‐Level Bureaucrat in Public Service Bureaucracies (1979). In these books, three dilemmas were identified that have great importance for welfare workers' position as mediators between institutions and citizens: autonomy versus control, responsiveness versus standardisation, and demand versus supply. In this editorial, we discuss these dilemmas with regard to the present context of street‐level welfare work, which is strongly influenced by managerialist policies (also called new public management). It is emphasised that in the era of managerialism, the dilemmas should be approached as empirical matters: how they are present, talked into being and negotiated in naturally occurring practices of street‐level welfare work, and with what consequences.     

“They tippy toe around the race issue”: The impact of a Title IV‐E program on culturally informed practice for child welfare students

This study examines changes in MSW students' perceived cultural competence across 11 child welfare practice skills before and after participation in a University's Title IV‐E program and explores students' perceptions of cultural competency and cultural humility. The findings indicate modest gains across all 11 practice skills; however, focus group interviews revealed that students do not necessarily feel prepared to conduct culturally competent practice with children and families. A culturally informed practice in public child welfare is discussed and includes training implications for Title IV‐E programs.     

The role of law in welfare reform: critical perspectives on the relationship between law and social work practice

This article considers the complex relationships between law, welfare policy and social work practice, in order to address the question of what role legal frameworks might play in achieving welfare policy and professional practice goals. It traces how law has developed as a core component of professional practice, and challenges some of the false expectations placed upon it. It then draws on findings from an international knowledge review of law teaching in social work education to propose a model for understanding how professional practice incorporates legal perspectives, and proposes ways in which legal frameworks can provide positive and constructive vehicles for accountable practice.     

Child‐led research in the context of Australian social welfare practice

This paper details the first child‐led research programme to be implemented in Australia in which children design and lead their own research about issues they identify. The programme was specifically adapted for children who were service users of a nongovernment organization that provides social welfare and support services to vulnerable children and their families, living in communities of the disadvantaged. The practitioner – researchers faced the expected challenges of power in child–adult relations pertinent to the status of children in a genuinely child‐led research endeavour. However, the paper details the additional challenges and responses required when conducting research in a practice environment and the successful adaptations that were used to meet these challenges. The positive findings of an independently commissioned programme evaluation raise important questions about the place and purpose of child‐led research within the field of children's social welfare practice.     

Building home on a fault line: Aging out of child welfare with a serious mental health diagnosis

Youth aging out of foster care are at high risk for homelessness. This research explains how and why homelessness occurs among youth with serious mental health struggles after aging out of residential and transitional living programmes. Using a longitudinal constructivist grounded theory design, we analyse 20 in‐depth interviews exploring youth's transition experiences and perceptions of transition success within 4 months of emancipation and at 6 and 12 months postemancipation. Monthly 15‐min check‐ins prevented attrition. A three‐phase transition process was observed driven by participant desires and actions to cultivate psychological home through establishing physical home alone away from social networks. Pre‐emancipation, the promise of home was privacy and opportunity for self‐redefinition. Shortly after emancipation, home became a physical and social space to be, a valuable resource to share and a demonstration of personal transition success. However, later in the year postemancipation, maintaining physical home proves nearly impossible given the risk context. Findings speak to how and why youth aging out appear overly self‐reliant upon emancipation. Cultivating a psychological sense of home has practice implications for child welfare providers who aim to prepare youth to live independently postemancipation.     

The evolution of the social welfare system in Palestine: Perspectives of policymakers in the West Bank

Palestinians living in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip have long experienced social problems such as high rates of poverty and unemployment. These social problems necessitate the development of a viable, effective social welfare system. Relying on colonialism theory, this study examined the evolution of the social welfare system in the Palestinian Territories with an emphasis on the West Bank. Data were collected through semi‐structured interviews with 16 staff officials in Palestinian ministries and through archival material and administrative records. Results indicate that the Palestinian National Authority inherited a fragmented social welfare system in 1994 that lacked an appropriate legal framework. Additionally, internal deficiencies (e.g., unclear legal mandates, duplication of services) and external restrictions (e.g., road closures) have undermined the effectiveness of Palestinian social welfare institutions. The newly adopted approach to social welfare planning (i.e., partnership) and recent national planning initiatives show promise. Implications for social welfare policy and future research are discussed.     

Unemployment and conditional welfare: Exclusion and belonging in immigrant women's discourse on being long‐term dependent on social assistance

Long‐term unemployment with dependency on social assistance in Sweden has increased and is particularly high among foreign‐born persons. The present study explored immigrant recipients' experiences of being welfare reliant. Swedish‐Iraqi women's construction of exclusion and belonging in relation to policies and welfare regulations was scrutinised. The women referred to unemployment with frustration, expressing that it renders dependence on social welfare and enforces adherence to the stipulations of the social services. The individual's mobility and agency are restricted and concerted efforts to obtain employment are futile, which increase the sense of exclusion. However, the entitlement to social assistance also engenders feelings of belonging, of being connected to and cared for by the new country. More research is needed to examine the role that social assistance regulations play in forming feelings of belonging and exclusion. It appears essential that political initiatives be taken to reverse the trend of high unemployment among foreign‐born persons.