Resisting Neoliberal Social Work Fragmentation: The Wall-to-Wall Alliance

Social Work ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 64 (4) ◽  
pp. 339-345
Author(s):  
Roni Strier
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Public Management ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Academic Disciplines ◽  
Professional Status ◽  
Potential Contribution ◽  
Services Delivery ◽  
Welfare Expenditures

Abstract Worldwide neoliberal policies are transforming the landscape of social work. Studies have shown that these policies increased social workers’ caseloads, regulated welfare expenditures, impaired public services’ capabilities to attend to the needs of growing demand, transformed social services delivery by implanting new public management methods, and often also worsened working conditions and deteriorated the professional status of social workers. Moreover, these policies have raised both poverty and inequality levels and left their negative marks on social work education, by prioritizing academic disciplines more attuned with the needs of neoliberal regimes. This article seeks to encourage schools of social work, social workers in the social services, and people living in poverty to challenge the harmful impact of this context by engaging in meaningful alliances focused on the fight against poverty and social exclusion. This article presents a long-term partnership project between a school of social work, local public social services, and groups of active clients, to tackle the issue of poverty in Israel. The article describes the project, introduces the theoretical and methodological principles, analyzes achievements and challenges, and finally discusses the potential contribution of such partnerships for the future of the profession.

scholarly journals Leadership Support of Supervision in Social Work Practice

2015 ◽  
Vol 32 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 151-165 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosemary Vito
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Human Service ◽  
Public Management ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Human Service Organizations ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Service Organizations ◽  
Leadership Support

This article discusses research findings that highlight the importance of leadership support of supervision for social workers in human service organizations. While supervision is considered a cornerstone of social work practice, whether and how such supervision is supported by human service leaders is not adequately analyzed. Using qualitative research data from interviews with supervisors and managers in southern Ontario, this article presents the vital role social work leaders play in supporting supervision by modelling values, and creating a safe organizational culture. The challenges of providing this support are also discussed in the current context of new public management. The article concludes with a series of recommendations, including: prioritizing supervision to promote organizational learning, organizational restructuring to reduce power differentials, modelling social work values to create a safe learning culture, and supporting supervisory and leadership training for social workers. Findings may be of interest to social workers who are leading, supervising, teaching or practicing in human service organizations.

scholarly journals Pandemics and Social Work

2022 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Economic Security ◽  
Academic Disciplines ◽  
Service Users ◽  
Physical And Mental Health ◽  
Aids Epidemic ◽  
Rapid Spread ◽  
Online Exchange

The onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 confronted health and also social services globally with unprecedented challenges. These amounted to a combination of increased demands for support to individuals and families whose physical and mental health and economic security were threatened by the rapid spread of the virus and the imposed limitations to direct contacts with service users. This constituted a situation for which there was no immediate historical parallel but from which important lessons for better preparedness for future global disasters and pandemics can be drawn. There existed no specific introductions to or textbooks on social work responses to pandemics and the nearest usable references concerned social work involvement in the HIV/AIDS epidemic and in the aftermath of natural disasters. Frontline social workers were at first forced to improvise ways of establishing and maintaining contacts with service users partly through electronic means and partly by taking personal risks. This is reflected in an initial delay in the production of comprehensive theoretical reflections on the practice implications of the new situation. Practitioners resorted to pragmatism, which became manifest in numerous episodic practice accounts and brief statements in social work journals which nevertheless contain important messages for new practice developments. Notably, the International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW) opened an online exchange and advice platform for social workers globally and also hosted a series of webinars. Nevertheless, books with collections of contributions from various practice fields and geographical areas soon began to appear. In view of the interdisciplinary nature of social work responses required in the pandemic the use of publications from a wider range of academic disciplines and related professions was indicated for this review.

Transparency in Social Work: A Critical Exploration and Reflection

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jochen Devlieghere ◽  
Philip Gillingham
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Service Delivery ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Public Management ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Research Literature ◽  
Discursive Practice ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Service Users ◽  
New Words

Abstract Social work is a mostly discursive practice, comprised of the verbal and written interactions between service users, social workers, social work managers and supervisors and numerous external agencies. The words used to describe service users and service delivery are therefore important. These words change over time, and new words come into use. With the introduction of New Public Management, new concepts and ideas were introduced to social work service delivery and practice and new words became embedded in the social work lexicon. One of the new words that emerge in both the authors’ research with social work agencies is ‘transparency’. In this article, a critical thematic analysis of the meanings of transparency as it is used in recent social work research literature and commentary is presented. Transparency is explored in relation to how it is used, when it is used, by whom and in relation to what (and who), from the macro-level of social work agencies and governments to the micro-level of individuals as practitioners and service users. In problematising transparency, a rationale for future research is proposed about what transparency means, and could mean, in the context of social services provision and, in particular, for service users.

New Public Management, migrant professionals and labour mobility: possibilities for social justice social work?

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donna Baines
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Public Management ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Study Data ◽  
New Public ◽  
Unpaid Labour

Social work labour is increasingly mobile and global, as are neoliberal policy and management models such as New Public Management. These global processes overlap with local contexts to create and limit possibilities for social-justice-directed social work practice. Drawing on qualitative case study data collected in Canada, Australia, the UK and New Zealand, this chapter: 1) briefly sketches the history of colonialism and immigration that shaped, and shape, these four countries; 2) discusses the standardising influence of New Public Management and managerialism on social work practice possibilities in the four countries; analyses, in particular, the increasing use of immigrant ‘volunteer’ labour and other forms of unpaid labour, including student placements and internships, as a response to ongoing under-funding of social services and policies of ‘permanent’ austerity; and 3) explores implications for practice and possibilities for liberatory social work practice.

scholarly journals Socialarbejdere i et spændingsfelt mellem politik og brugernes behov

2012 ◽  
Vol 9 (16) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tina Bømler
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Sick Leave ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Public Management ◽  
Organizational Context ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Ethical Dilemmas ◽  
Pilot Project ◽  
Regulatory Constraints ◽  
The Social

This article discusses the obligatory job activation measures directed toward workers receiving temporary sickness benefits, a policy that took effect on 1. January 2010. The requirement that workers on sick leave be subject to activation measures so they can return to work more quickly indicates a change in attitude about how we become well again. The purpose of this article is to describe and analyze how social workers in the Danish municipality of Aalborg work with activation of workers on sick leave. It describes how they manage the professional and ethical dilemmas they experience due to the specific activation requirements directed toward workers on sick leave. The problem takes its point of departure in our lack of specific knowledge about how the municipal job counselling centres manage the activation of those receiving sick leave benefits. This article is a part of a pilot project, and therefore based on a limited amount of data. The pilot project should be seen as a preliminary phase of a larger qualitative study of the methodological challenges in the sick leave sector. The article is based on a focus group interview with five social workers in a job centre in the municipality of Aalborg. The results of the pilot study have been surprising. Even though there are professional and ethical dilemmas facing the social workers in the job centre, these are of less importance than the New Public Management based restructuring that has been taking place in the Danish public sector for nearly thirty years. Regulatory constraints, budget controls and standardization of the methods of social work are experienced by the social workers as the greatest obstacle to carry out professionally qualified social work. The requirements connected with regulations, standardized methods and budget controls have placed the social workers in a field of tension between politics and their clients’ needs. Hence, the professional social sector workers find themselves compelled to manoeuvre in an organizational context that places contradictory demand on their activities.

scholarly journals Professionals unprepared: A critical appraisal of social work practice at the Drugs Abuse Rehabilitation Centres in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 108-120
Author(s):  
Shakeel Ahmad ◽  
Abida Bano
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Theoretical Models ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Services Delivery ◽  
Qualitative Approaches ◽  
Social Work Theory

Social work is a practice-based profession that facilitates, enables, and rehabilitates the neglected segments of society facing various issues, including substance abuse. However, social workers' efficiency in substance use rehabilitation is constrained by several factors. Pakistan follows the imported theoretical models of social work, which face enormous challenges during implementation for lacking contextual understanding. This study examines professional social workers' role to examine the challenges in providing institutional service delivery in substance (drugs) abuse treatment centres in Pakistan. The study found that the social work theory and practice gap hurts services delivery in Drug Abuse Rehabilitation Centres through qualitative approaches. Training in social work theory does not adequately equip the students to provide the required social services at the drugs rehabilitation centres. Donor-driven social work drives and demotivated social workers testify to the mismatch between social work theory and practice. Indigenous philanthropy models and broadening institutional support could remedy the situation.

scholarly journals The triplets: Investment in outcomes for the vulnerable – reshaping social services for (some) New Zealand children

2016 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 9-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mike O'Brien
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
The Political ◽  
Children And Families ◽  
Services Delivery ◽  
Key Terms

Social work and social services are in a period of significant change built around three key terms; investment, vulnerable, and outcomes. Those terms are not simple neutral descriptors. Rather, they are shaped in critical ways by the neoliberal framework which informs them. The framework is critically examined here by exploring how it is reflected in the specific meanings and implications of each of the three terms. Social work practice and social services delivery will be heavily influenced by the political and ideological framing of investment, vulnerable and outcomes. The paper takes up some of these implications and raises a series of questions for children and families, for practitioners and for agencies. The responses to those questions will be critical for social work and for those with whom and for whom social workers work.

scholarly journals Higher Education Training in social work in Albania: insights from the experiences of the T@sk project. EASSW 2019 Conference paper

2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-66
Author(s):  
Giulia M. G. Mascagni ◽  
Giorgia Bulli
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Candidate Country ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Higher Education System ◽  
Services Delivery ◽  
The Social ◽  
University Of Florence

In March 2020, the European Union decided to open accession negotiations with Albania, candidate country since 2014. In order to achieve this important goal in the long path of European integration, Albania had to pursue a set of requirements. Among them, the centrality of human rights affects the implementation of policies aiming at integrating minorities, as well as at granting social rights to unprivileged citizens (La Cava Nanetti 2000, Solidar 2016). In this scenario, the evolution of the professional expertise of Albanian Social workers plays a relevant role. In academic and professional terms, social work has a poor tradition in Albania, as in most of post-communist countries (Hoti 2015). In order to face the difficulties of the professional and academic evolution of social work and to facilitate a process of Europeanisation of the Social Services delivery in Albania, the European Commission has funded the project T@sk Towards Increased Awareness, Responsibility and Shared Quality in Social Work (2017-2020). The main aim of the project consists in strengthening the delivery of Social Services in Albania through the empowerment of the Higher Education system in social work. The consortium includes all public universities offering BA and MA courses in social work in Albania – University of Tirana, University of Shkoder and University of Elbasan-, and the University of Florence, the UCM of Madrid, the ISCTE of Lisbon and the Professional Order of Social workers of the Tuscany Region as Higher Education institutions of the program countries. The project operates at three levels: peer-to peer theoretical and empirical update amongst the project partners; triangulation of knowledge, transdisciplinary cooperation with the societal stakeholders and digital innovation; selection and dissemination of best practices. The project is in its final stage, and it is possible to elaborate on the main theoretical and empirical framework adopted, on the results achieved, and on the challenges to create a favorable environment for the development of social work profession in Albania. The article attempts to shed some light in the pattern of evolution of social work practices in Albania, focusing on the social and cultural background of the country, and describing the main achievements of the T@sk project.

scholarly journals Organizational Professionalism: Social Workers Negotiating Tools of NPM

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. e2381 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nanna Mik-Meyer
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Public Management ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Meaningful Work ◽  
Welfare Recipient ◽  
Social Work Values ◽  
New Public ◽  
Treatment Facilities ◽  
The Individual

This article examines how social workers and managers perceive meaningful work and expertise in six care and treatment facilities in Denmark. Based on 29 interviews with social workers (n=22) and managers (n=7), the article shows how New Public Management-inspired tools such as scoring schemas align with social work values such as “client-centeredness” and working with the individual welfare recipient face-to-face. The article finds that fitting social work into organizational schemas changes the work practices of social workers and also the way members of this profession define meaningful work and expertise. In addition, the article also finds that scoring schemas cause conflicts among social workers regarding the character of expertise when values of social work (to meet a welfare recipient’s need) must be aligned with NPM-inspired values of organizations (to meet managers’ demand for documentation).

Modes of Relational Agency among Welfare-reliant Mothers

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hagit Sinai-Glazer ◽  
Boris H J M Brummans
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Present Article ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Human Agency ◽  
Relational Agency ◽  
Research Participants ◽  
Seeking Help ◽  
Depth Interviews

Abstract How do welfare-reliant mothers enact their agency in relationships with social workers and social services? The present article addresses this question by investigating how twenty Israeli welfare-reliant mothers expressed different modes of human agency in in-depth interviews. Results show how research participants enact agency through (i) expressing anger, (ii) seeking help, (iii) resisting and (iv) engaging in non-action. By highlighting the multidimensional and situational nature of agency, this article offers a new relational lens for conceptualising and empirically studying human agency in social work.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document