Social workers’ attitudes and actions in relation to poor social service users

Abstract The international policy trend towards personalised budgets, which is designed to offer people with disabilities purchasing power to choose services that suit them, is exemplified in the Australian National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). This article examines how the ‘purchasing power’ afforded to service users through individualised budgets impacts on social work practice and the choice and self-determination of NDIS service users. Social workers’ views were sought on the alignment between the NDIS principles of choice and control and social work principles of participation and self-determination and how their social work practice has changed in order to facilitate client access to supports through NDIS budgets and meaningful participation in decision-making. A survey was completed by forty-five social workers, and in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with five of these participants. The findings identify how social workers have responded to the shortfalls of the NDIS by the following: interpreting information for clients; assisting service users to navigate complex service provision systems; supporting clients through goal setting, decision-making and implementation of action plans; and adopting case management approaches. The incorporation of social work services into the NDIS service model is proposed in order to facilitate meaningful choice and self-determination associated with purchasing power.

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Team Managers in Local Social Service Departments in Israel as Bottom-Up Social Policy-Makers

Journal of Health and Human Services Administration ◽

10.37808/jhhsa.43.4.1 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 324-345

Keyword(s):

Social Workers ◽

Social Services ◽

Social Service ◽

Public Discourse ◽

Well Being ◽

Structured Interviews ◽

Psychosocial Services ◽

Service Departments ◽

New Policies

Following on Felice Perlmutter's work on the managerial role of social workers in social services, this article contributes to the still limited knowledge on the role of social workers in middle-management positions in formulating new policies `on the ground`. The study expands knowledge about policies determined by team managers in local social service departments in Israel. It occurs in the nexus between street-level bureaucracy, professionalism and managerial positions. Semi-structured interviews with 28 team managers revealed that they formulated `new` policies with regard to the provision of psychosocial services and material assistance (who gets what, when and how). This occurs when they resist official policy, when it is vague or non-existent. Most of their policy decisions are not documented and draw upon consultations with colleagues and superiors though not with clients. The team managers perceive these policies as a means for achieving balance between clients' well-being and budgetary constraints. Yet their decisions lack transparency, are decided upon without public discourse and may lead to greater inequity between clients

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Head Start and Social Work

Families in Society The Journal of Contemporary Social Services ◽

10.1606/1044-3894.756 ◽

1997 ◽

Vol 78 (2) ◽

pp. 172-184 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Arthur J. Frankel

Keyword(s):

Social Work ◽

Head Start ◽

Social Workers ◽

Social Service ◽

Financial Resources ◽

Current Status ◽

Service Component ◽

Work Involvement ◽

The Social ◽

Head Start Programs

The author states that the social work profession is not sufficiently involved with Head Start. Data from a representative sample of Head Start programs shows the minimal role professional social workers play with Head Start even when ample financial resources to hire BSWs or MSWs are available. Evidence suggests, however, that Head Start is open to increased professional social work involvement. The author presents reasons social work professionals are underrepresented in Head Start and recommendations for increasing professional involvement and influence. The author also discusses the history and current status of Head Start, including a thorough description of Head Start's social service component.

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Conclusion

Transnational Social Work ◽

10.1332/policypress/9781447333364.003.0016 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Liz Beddoe ◽

Allen Bartley

Keyword(s):

Social Work ◽

Social Workers ◽

Good Practice ◽

Active Role ◽

Service Users ◽

The Social ◽

Country Specific

This chapter summarises the recurring themes and lessons from the preceding substantive chapters and reflects upon their implications. It draws together the different issues, laws and culture in social work across the five countries examined, and compares the country-specific challenges raised in the chapters. The editors make recommendations for how the social work profession can take a more active role in the transition of Transnational Social Workers, and highlight good practice in preceding chapters. Finally, they comment on the need for more research in the area, including with service users.

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Shame and Social Work

10.1332/policypress/9781447344063.001.0001 ◽

2020 ◽

Keyword(s):

Social Work ◽

Young People ◽

Social Workers ◽

Service Users ◽

Theoretical Approaches ◽

The Poor ◽

Full Participation ◽

Painful Experience

This book aims to approach the phenomenon of shame, especially in the context of social work. It explores the profoundly damaging experience of shame on the identities and potential of many service users, who, through, for example, the stigmatised experiences of poverty or abuse, are silenced within and disconnected from full participation in societies and communities. The book considers shame as a social, moral, and politically generated phenomenon, but equally focuses on the powerful, painful experience of each individual subjected to shaming. Having set out key contextual issues and theoretical approaches to understand shame, the book turns its attention to service users, more specifically young people and the poor. Finally, it offers examples of shame in relation to how social workers experience this in organisations and through, for example, human mistakes and limitations. In relation to shamed social workers and shamed service users, attention is given to how it might be possible to begin to address this painful state.

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Radical Hope

10.1332/policypress/9781447354895.001.0001 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Michal Krumer-Nevo

Keyword(s):

Social Work ◽

Social Workers ◽

Social Services ◽

Work Practice ◽

Social Work Practice ◽

Service Users ◽

Critical Social Work ◽

Close Relationship ◽

The Rich ◽

The Impact

This book describes the new Poverty-Aware Paradigm (PAP), which was developed in Israel through intense involvement with the field of social work in various initiatives. The paradigm was adopted in 2014 by the Israeli Ministry of Welfare and Social Services as a leading paradigm for social workers in social services departments. The book draws from the rich experience of the implementation of the PAP in practice and connects examples of practice to theoretical ideas from radical/critical social work, critical poverty knowledge, and psychoanalysis. The PAP addresses poverty as a violation of human rights and emphasizes people’s ongoing efforts to resist poverty. In order to recognize these sometimes minor acts of resistance and advance their impact, social workers should establish close relationship with service users and stand by them. The book proposes combining relationship-based practice and rights-based practice as a means of bridging the gap between the emotional and material needs of service users. In addition to introducing the main concepts of the PAP, the book also contributes to the debate between conservative and cultural theories of poverty and structural theories, emphasizing the impact of a critical framework on this debate. The book consists of four parts. The first, “Transformation”, addresses the transformational nature of the paradigm. The second, “Recognition”, is based on current psychoanalytic developments and “translates” them into social work practice in order to deepen our understanding of relationship-based practice. The third, “Rights”, describes rights-based practice. The fourth, “Solidarity”, presents various ways in which solidarity might shape social workers’ practice. The book seeks to reaffirm social work’s core commitment to combating poverty and furthering social justice and to offer a solid theoretical conceptualization that is also eminently practical.

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Poverty, recognition, therapy

Radical Hope ◽

10.1332/policypress/9781447354895.003.0007 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 93-104

Author(s):

Michal Krumer-Nevo

Keyword(s):

Social Workers ◽

Therapeutic Relationship ◽

Close Relationships ◽

Power Relations ◽

Basic Component ◽

Service Users ◽

Emotional Pain ◽

Psychological Experience ◽

Full Humanity

This chapter opens Part Two of the book, which is dedicated to the PAP’s version of relationship-based practice. The chapter introduces readers to the concept of recognition, linking it to poverty and therapy. Based on a review of works by philosophers and psychoanalysts, this chapter argues that recognition is a basic component of the therapeutic relationship that enables the psychological experience of one’s subjectivity. Nevertheless, in the context of the power relations that constitute the helping relations with people in poverty, recognition must overcome specific obstacles. The chapter argues that in order to give recognition to service users living in poverty, social workers should acknowledge four aspects of service users’ inner worlds: their needs, their knowledge, the emotional pain caused by poverty, and their ways of resisting poverty. Acknowledging these four aspects enables full recognition and makes it possible to see the full humanity of service users and establish close relationships with them. The recognition of these four aspects are further detailed and exemplified in the next three chapters.

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Social workers’ views about children’s and parents’ competence in child protection decision-making

Journal of Social Work ◽

10.1177/1468017320940635 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 146801732094063 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Johanna Korpinen ◽

Tarja Pösö

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Social Workers ◽

Child Protection ◽

Service Users ◽

Parents And Children ◽

Children And Parents ◽

The Social ◽

Strength Based ◽

Professional Ethos ◽

Controversial Nature

Summary Competence is an essential part of any decision-making process. In child protection, it is challenged by the controversial nature of child removals and the vulnerable situations which children and parents experience therein. This article examines how and on what grounds social workers view parents and children to be competent to give their informed view in care order proceedings and what they do if doubts about competence arise. The analysis is based on 30 interviews with social workers in Finland. Findings The professional ethos and ethics of social work were embedded in the social workers’ descriptions of children’s and parents’ competence. The social workers were confident that the parents and children (of certain age) were competent to give their informed view about whether to consent to the care order proposal and the proposed substitute home. When they spoke about competence ascribed with hesitation, they described the vulnerability of service users, as well as their attitudes and withdrawal from contact. In the cases, social workers emphasized a strength-based view of children and parents and aimed to ‘talk more’ with them and to ‘give them more time’ to support their right to give an informed view. Applications Social vulnerability and competence should be explored reflectively in relation to decision-making in child protection. A better understanding of their interrelation makes social workers more competent to support the service users’ right to be included in decision-making. Critical awareness is needed to recognize when ‘more talk’ is not enough to realize children’s and parents’ rights.

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