A New Approach to Social Welfare Problems

Inadequacies in social welfare systems are reviewed, with particular reference to the hiatus between the ideology which emphasizes stability and that which fosters radical change. Not least of the forces inimical to change have been the bureaucratic organization and professional self-preoccupation of social welfare agencies and their personnel. Choices among new strategies for social action, using both consensual and conflictual models, now confront social welfare workers in this country.     

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.     

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.     

Transforming child and family services in urban communities in South Africa: lessons from the South

Post‐apartheid, South African agencies have been required to shift their services in fundamental ways, including offering services in previously un‐resourced areas, honouring the rights of children and families, ensuring that users, staff and governing bodies are representative of the population and providing developmental social welfare services in place of child protection‐oriented interventions only. A study of urban South African child welfare agencies provides insight into the complex task of managing and leading change. In view of overloaded change agenda and resource constraints, managers focused on effecting incremental change and prioritized the most ‘rewarding’ change efforts. Transforming practice towards a developmental approach was less successful. Structural interventions were also not prioritized. Child welfare agencies internationally face demands to transform in response to the effects of local change and globalization. The study's insights might resonate with agencies working for change in other societal contexts.     

Aboriginal Children Belong in the Aboriginal Community: Changing Practices in Adoption

The placement of aboriginal children has been the responsibility of white social workers attached to state welfare agencies. Many of these children have been fostered or adopted by white families and have had little or no contact with the aboriginal community. Aboriginal people are now voicing opposition to such practices and are calling for an end to inter-racial adoption. They want the placement of all aboriginal children to be in the hands of the aboriginal community and are seeking to establish aboriginal placement agencies. These, and other demands, were voiced by an aboriginal task group at the recent First Australian Conference on Adoption.     

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。     

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。     

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.     

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.     

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.     

Voluntary Leaders in Voluntary Welfare Agencies

The voluntary sector is an increasingly important component of our system of welfare provision. This paper focuses on voluntary leaders of welfare agencies in the voluntary sector; the chairpersons of governing bodies. It draws on a study carried out in an outer metropolitan borough with a socially mixed population. The characteristics of chairpersons and the background to their involvement are described. It appears that most are drawn in to their agencies and in to the role of chairperson more by chance than through positive commitment to a cause, but that, once in post, they rise rapidly to the challenge. Leadership of the local voluntary sector is found to be part of a wider commitment to community benefit and to collective provision of welfare. Some implications of the findings for the development of voluntary sector welfare agencies and for social policy are discussed.     

Keeping the Faith: The Impact of Human Services Restructuring on Catholic Social Welfare Services

Church related agencies are major providers of community services in Australia (Lyons, 2001:34‐35). While the history of church related welfare service provision is not well known in Australia it is asserted that many have a long tradition of outreach and service provision to marginalised groups regardless of the government social policy of the day (ACSWC, 2000; Mendes, 2003). This paper examines the current environment of human services restructuring and the impact of the shift to contractualism on one church related provider: Catholic social welfare provision in Australia. It explores the significance of the church's social teachings and history on concerns that service innovation, diversity and advocacy are currently under threat. Finally it calls for greater appreciation of the distinctive contribution of church related agencies and what they have to offer in service delivery and as contributors to the social policy discourse.     

Digital by default? A qualitative study of exclusion in digitalised welfare

Digitalisation reforms have become increasingly pervasive across European welfare agencies and public sector institutions. As welfare provision becomes premised on the use of digital technologies, often in the form of “self‐service” solutions, new demands are imposed on citizens, including already disadvantaged groups. Although existing research has showcased how digitalisation often reproduces existing lines of stratification, little to no work has been conducted on such processes in the context of welfare provision and public administration. Through a study of citizen service centres in Denmark, based on ethnographic observations and qualitative interviews, this article analyses the new exclusionary mechanisms that emerge at the frontline of the digital agenda. The article argues that digitalised welfare agencies simultaneously sustain existing lines of social stratification and enhance these by producing new forms of digital exclusion. Taken together, the article contributes with new knowledge on the impact of digitalisation policies and their exclusionary consequences for disadvantaged citizens.     

Street‐level discretion,emotional labour and welfare frontline staff at the Australian employment service providers

Despite the current controversial debates about discretion in public bureaucracies in general, and in welfare agencies in particular, the current literature on street‐level bureaucracy mainly assumes that discretion is a distinctive feature of the daily work of public servants. Nonetheless, a pertinent question has not specifically been asked in this literature, that is, given the context of privatisation and increased welfare conditionality in the welfare sector that are seriously challenging welfare frontline staff's commitment to social justice and human rights‐based practices, what are forms of street‐level discretion likely to contribute to improving the quality of welfare services? In this study, we attempt to address this question by exploring discretion displayed by welfare frontline staff in four Australian employment service providers. We argue that emotional labour, especially when being informed by critical empathy, is an important and effective form of street‐level discretion that welfare frontline workers can perform to better support welfare recipients and minimise the punitive aspects of welfare policy.     

United we stand? Collaboration as a means for identifying children and adolescents at risk

The study describes collaborative involvement of child welfare agencies in Sweden with mandated reporters and analyses the association between socioeconomic and demographic factors as well as collaborative involvement on referral rates. The empirical material consists of data collected on location in 100 Swedish child welfare agencies, augmented with register data. The study shows that: (i) collaboration is common in the child welfare field, (ii) structural factors moderately predict municipal variations in child welfare referrals and (iii) most importantly, that collaboration on the aggregate level seems to serve as a marginal, or even counter-productive, measure in identifying children and adolescents at risk. The results are particularly discussed in the context of policy principles in Swedish child welfare, i.e. collaboration as a statutory requirement for child welfare agencies and the official notion of collaboration as an important means to facilitate early interventions.     

When standardization becomes the lens of professional practice in child welfare services

This paper examines the relationship between professional work and standardization. There has been an increase in the use of standardized programmes in child welfare services (CWS) in Western society. Some researchers have criticized standardized programmes suggesting that they undermine professionals expertise and threaten their position, whereas others argue that such programmes strengthen professional practice. In this paper, we examine how standardized tools, in this case, a standardized parenting programme and a standardized Norwegian assessment tool, influence professional roles as experienced by child welfare workers (CWS professionals) in Norway. Semistructured individual and group interviews were conducted with 31 frontline workers in two CWS agencies. Our findings suggest that standardized tools increase the social workers experienced professional competence but challenge their professional knowledge base, reflective practice, and professional accountability. Professional and practical implications for CWS work are discussed in the light of these findings.     

States of Welfare: A Response to Charles Atherton

This response deals with Atherton's objections in so far as they are relevant and restates the importance of clarity about the content of the term "welfare state". It suggests that the term be restricted to states which offer a minimum real level of living to all their citizens, and shows that it is possible in both principle and practice to compress income inequalities to a point where poverty is effectively abolished. The article discusses some of the logical and semantic problems that have arisen as terms such as "welfare state" and "welfare regime" have been adapted to make international comparisons.     

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.     

Killing the Golden Goose? Third Sector Organizations and Back‐to‐Work Programmes in Germany and the UK

Third sector, or not-for-profit, organizations have been viewed in many parts of Europe as agencies that can be harnessed by public policy programmes to support the socially excluded. Within the emerging mixed economy of welfare, third sector agencies offering training, support and employment for groups disadvantaged in the labour market provide an important example. This illustrates, from one specific field, the dynamics occurring at the interface between public and third sectors in the delivery of public policy goals. This article examines both the history of 'partnership regimes' in this field and the evolving local organizational arrangement. The developments in the contrasting welfare regimes of Britain and Germany, which exemplify different institutional traditions, are analysed. The potential impact of regulatory changes on the capacity of third sector work integration agencies to deliver policy goals is assessed in both countries using evidence from recent case study research. The analysis suggests that the emerging managerialist partnership structures are tending to convert third sector organizations into 'just in time' deliverers of poor programme outcomes in both welfare regimes while also eroding their distinctive potential to provide more than mere labour market integration.