Professional social work and the defence of children’s and their families’ rights in a period of austerity: A case study

2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 40-65
Author(s):  
Jane Tunstill ◽  
Carolyne Willow
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Family Support ◽  
Support Services ◽  
Social Care ◽  
Professional Values ◽  
Policy Context ◽  
The Social ◽  
Professional Child

This article explores the implications of austerity for professional child and family social workers. Their ability to offer and provide a range of child and family support services was threatened by proposed clauses in the 2016/17 Children and Social Work Bill, now Act, which would have exempted local authorities from meeting key existing statutory duties. Having established a policy context for progressive social work, the article records the Bill’s passage through Parliament, and details the successful Together for Children campaign against the clauses, in which the British Association of Social Workers (BASW) and the Association of Professors of Social Work participated. The authors conclude by identifying some of the ways in which social workers can apply their progressive and professional values and knowledge to defend the social care rights of children and families.Keywords: children; social work; legislation; children’s rights; campaigning; austerity

‘[W]e Find Families for Children, Not Children for Families’: An Incident in the Long and Unhappy History of Relations between Social Workers and Adoptive Parents

2012 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 415-427 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marian Quartly
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Adoptive Parents ◽  
Adoptive Parent ◽  
Inclusive Practice ◽  
Australian State ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of

Relatively little work on adoption focuses on the role of social workers. This article gives an account of the conflict between social workers and prospective adoptive parents which developed in Australia in the 1970s, taking as a case study the conflicting roles of adoptive parent advocates and professional social workers within the Standing Committee on Adoption in the Australian state of Victoria. Its overarching concern lies with the historical attitudes of the social work profession towards adoption, both domestic and intercountry, as these have changed from an embrace of both adoption and adoptive parents to mutual alienation. It concludes that the inclusive practice of radical social work could only briefly contain contesting client groups.

Personalisation in children’s social work: from family support to “the child’s budget”

2015 ◽  
Vol 23 (5) ◽  
pp. 277-286 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emilie Morwenna Whitaker
Keyword(s):  
Family Support ◽  
Social Care ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Ethnographic Studies ◽  
The Social ◽  
Case Study Site ◽  
Individualised Care ◽  
And Control

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the changing meaning of personalisation from the New Labour era of bespoke, integrated family support to the more recent implementation of personal budgets for disabled children to deliver “choice and control”. The paper explores the discursive change from early help to “intervention”, the shifting conceptualisation of parents and the turn away from family support towards a focus upon individualised commissioning to meet needs. Design/methodology/approach – In addition to a literature review of policy shifts, findings presented are taken from an ethnographic case study of one team of children’s disability social workers. Observations were undertaken of the team in the office space and at meetings, in addition interviews were conducted with all team members and with seven families. An interpretivist and qualitative approach was adopted throughout. Findings – Findings reveal the frontline and familial challenges of delivering choice and control in a climate of austerity and child-centricism. Salient points for integration around families and between organisations as personalisation narrows in scope are also considered. Research limitations/implications – Findings are taken from one case study site; further research in different sites is required to consider the array of understandings and experiences across the social care landscape and to provide a strong empirical baseline. Originality/value – The paper reports on one of the first ethnographic studies of personalisation in children’s services. The paper is of value to practitioners and managers in social care and the NHS. It is also of value to academics exploring the conceptual and practical issues of individualised care.

Asylum Seekers in Israel: Challenges to Social Work

2019 ◽  
Vol 49 (8) ◽  
pp. 2283-2298 ◽  
Author(s):  
Orit Nuttman-Shwartz ◽  
Ofer Shinar Levanon
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
The Social ◽  
Current Article ◽  
Migration Crisis ◽  
The One ◽  
Global Agenda

AbstractThe challenges facing social workers in addressing the migration crisis are myriad and complex. Against this background, the current article presents a case study on the response of Israeli social work to the asylum seekers, which allows us to identify gaps between the social work profession’s global agenda and its implementation. The article examines how recent immigration policies have impacted Israeli social workers’ responses to these challenges. Following a brief description of Israel’s policies for controlling and limiting the entrance of asylum seekers to the country, the article offers insights into social workers’ involvement in some of the main social services that aim to assist asylum seekers in Israel. Insights are also offered into the response of Israeli social workers to the community of asylum seekers, which focuses on individual needs and on urgent needs. Several explanations for these emphases was offers, noting that they may reflect a more general gap between repeated statements about the significance of human rights for the social work profession on the one hand and the professional reality on the other. Finally, several strategies for social work in the community of asylum seekers and in society as a whole are recommended.

Social Workers’ Impact on Policy Through Regulations: A Case Study of the U.S. Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program

2021 ◽  
pp. 146801732110103
Author(s):  
Susanny J Beltran ◽  
Vivian J Miller ◽  
Tyrone Hamler
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Long Term Care ◽  
Writing Process ◽  
The United States ◽  
Term Care ◽  
The Social ◽  
The U.S

Summary Involvement in the political process in the United States is critical for social work professionals, as social policies dictate funding and programming in social work practice. Yet, there is little to no focus given to the regulation writing process in the social work literature in the United States. This article contributes to the scant body of knowledge that addresses the regulatory process from a social work perspective. A brief overview of the regulation writing process is provided, followed by a case study using the regulations for the U.S. Older Americans Act Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program to illustrate the process. Findings A total of 85 comments, submitted to the Federal Register docket, were analyzed using content analysis. Findings reveal that comment submissions varied greatly in terms of length, source, and input. Notably, findings indicate low participation from the social work profession. Application The open comment period of the regulation writing process offers a free, but effortful, window of opportunity for social workers to engage in post-legislative advocacy. There is a need to support the involvement of the social work profession in the regulation writing process, through practice and training enhancements.

Social Work, Inter-Disciplinary Cooperation and Self-Neglect: Exploring Logics of Appropriateness

2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (3) ◽  
pp. 664-681 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karl Mason ◽  
Tony Evans
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Thematic Analysis ◽  
Social Care ◽  
Local Authority ◽  
Complex Dynamics ◽  
Essential Element ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
The Social

Abstract Working in a cooperative manner with other disciplines or agencies is often cited as an essential element of social work with adults who self-neglect. Cooperative working is now a legal requirement for agencies involved in adult social care in England. However, little is known about how social workers engage cooperatively with other disciplines in practice. This study sets out to explore this issue, employing the ‘Logic of Appropriateness’ perspective to theorise the ways in which social workers talked about working with other disciplines in self-neglect casework. The article presents a qualitative study, which was undertaken through semi-structured interviews with eleven social workers in an urban, adult social care team in an English local authority. Thematic analysis was not only used to draw out four key logics used by the social workers—leadership, joint-working, conflict and proxy—but also highlighted the ways in which social workers moved between different logics when talking about inter-disciplinary cooperation and working with adults who self-neglect. The results highlight the complex dynamics of cooperation and suggest that these dynamics need to be understood in assessing the implementation of integrated policies for social care in this area.

Organising: influences of the state, organisations and wider social policies

2020 ◽  
pp. 139-156
Author(s):  
Linda Bell
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Social Care ◽  
Professional Organisation ◽  
The Social ◽  
Training Research ◽  
Care Training ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Work Education ◽  
Government Initiative

This chapter focuses on organisation. Organising social work falls into many different areas, and because social workers are employed in so many different kinds of organisation (statutory local authorities being only one kind) and different sectors (including health and education, as well as the social-care field), the chapter concentrates only on a few areas. It looks backwards and forwards across the 1990s to the present day, as well as on into the future, and also considers social work both internationally and in the UK. It considers some important areas of social work: the development of professional organisation(s), research conferences, and the further exploration of developments in social work/social care education. Finally, the chapter gives two specific English examples: the first links up social work/social care training, research, and related workshops and conferences in the 1990s; and the second explores how recent social work education has been organised via the UK government initiative of funded ‘teaching partnerships’.

scholarly journals Integrated Care for Seniors as a Challenge for Slovakia

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michaela Vaceková ◽  
◽  
Jana Levická ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Integrated Care ◽  
Social Care ◽  
Political Factors ◽  
Factors Influencing ◽  
The Social ◽  
Political Problem

Older age can be accompanied by a lot of changes in the field of health, which influence the social functioning of seniors.One of the factors influencing the quality of life of seniors is the connection of healthcare and social care, built on the interdepartmental cooperation. This approach is still absent in Slovakia.The aim of the paper is therefore to emphasize the importance and need of integrated care and to describe the barriers that prevent its implementation in Slovakia. In search of answers to the questions: “When and why was the healthcare and social care department of seniors established in Slovakia? What are the reasons persisting in this condition? What are the consequences of this divided care for the seniors in practice? What strategies use facilities for seniors to overcome this situation during the COVID-19 pandemic?” the authors used the method of the case study (Yin, 2003) focused on the Trnava self-governing region. Persistent structural, procedural, legislative and political factors have been identified as the main barriers. Specific for Slovakia is the existence of a barrier of the profession, which is caused by the low interest of social workers in the issue. The authors state that the situation in Slovakia is caused mainly by the reflection of integrated care as a political problem. In the end, the authors make several suggestions for solving the situation.

The Mother-Based Intervention: Policy, Social Work, and the Absence of Fathers in the Social Services in Israel

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nadav Perez-Vaisvidovsky ◽  
Reli Mizrahi ◽  
Ayana Halpern
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Social Services ◽  
The Social ◽  
Intervention Policy

Abstract The increasing scholarly interest in the absence of fathers from family-focused interventions by the social services tends to focus on the role of fathers, mothers, and social workers in this absence. The role of policymakers, however, has been neglected. This article examines the case study of policymakers in the Israeli social services to fill in this gap and examine the role of policy and policymakers in fathers’ absence. The findings reveal that policy is based on the ‘mother-based intervention’ assumption—the services are built around the assumption that interventions include only mothers, and therefore make engaging fathers an exception.

scholarly journals Participation in Botswana: A Case Study of Botswana National Association of Social Workers (BoNASW)

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Kgomotso Jongman
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
National Association ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
Shared Information ◽  
Professional Body ◽  
Ordinary Member ◽  
Work Events

Professional participation in Botswana has been lagging behind since the conception of the social workers association in the past 20 years. Participation in the professional body of social workers have been has a headache for the leaders of the national association. The numbers of social workers attending social work events such as the social workers day, leadership forum and the annual general meetings have been going down over the past 10 years since the official launching of the national association. This unfortunately is not only peculiar to social work, but it seems it worse among social workers. This has left those who are in leadership of the profession with many questions. The most important Questions that have been asked have been; what’s wrong with the social work profession where the participation in the professional bodies has been below par? Is it the problem of social workers only in Botswana or there is apathy all over? This paper has combined the shared information, experience from the author as the president of the association for 6 years, being the advisor for 4 year and now just an ordinary member but holds a position of International Federation of Social workers Human Rights commissioner in Africa. The paper also tries to look at the literature on participation in general.

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