Social Workers Affecting Social Policy

An International Perspective

Gal, John, Weiss-Gal, Idit, John Gal, Idit Weiss-Gal

• Publisher: Policy Press
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN:
  9781847429735
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781447320395
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Social Policy
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Furthering social justice and human rights is a fundamental principle underlying the social work profession. Engaging in social policy formulation processes is a major route through which social workers can realise this goal. This type of social work activity has been termed 'policy practice'.

The aim of this book is to shed light on policy practice in social work discourse, education and practice in eight liberal democracies. This is the first effort to undertake a cross-national study of social worker engagement in social policy formulation processes. The book offers insights into questions such as 'what is the importance attributed to social worker involvement in policy change in the social work discourse and education in different countries?' and 'how do social workers influence social policy in various national settings?'

These issues are relevant to social worker practitioners, students, educators and researchers, as well as to social policy scholars, who are interested in the role of professionals in social policy formulation.

TEN

An international perspective on policy practice

Idit Weiss-Gal and John Gal

The point of departure for this volume is that social work is a profession that embodies the values of social justice and human rights, and embraces social change as a means to achieve these values (Hare, 2004). As such, changing social welfare policies is an important, indeed crucial, aim of social work interventions because those policies can facilitate the furthering of these values by changing the environment in which service users live (Cummins at al, 2011). Policy practice is the form of social work practice that focuses on affecting social welfare policies (Jansson, 2008).

Our explicit goal in this book has been to explore the nature of policy practice in social work in eight countries with diverse social work legacies and patterns and different welfare regimes. In order to do this, four principal questions have dominated the country chapters that constitute the bulk of this study. The first relates to the importance of policy practice in the social work discourse. In other words, the volume has sought to explore the place of policy practice in Codes of Ethics, formal documents of social work organisations and the professional literature in the countries examined. The second question endeavours to examine social work education, the degree to which it prepares social work graduates to engage in policy practice and the manner in which it does so. The third question seeks to understand better the actual engagement of social workers in policy practice, in terms of the extent of this engagement and the forms that this takes in different countries. A fourth and final question focuses on the factors that contribute to involvement by social work professionals in policy practice in the various national settings. This concluding chapter attempts to bring together the responses offered to these questions by the country experts that authored each of the chapters of the book. By doing so, we seek to offer some more general responses to these issues on the basis of an examination of the similarities and the differences that emerge in the different country cases.

Thinking about how policy practice is defined

‘Policy practice’ is the term employed here to describe the policy-related activities of social workers. While a more formal definition of this term was offered in Chapter One, it is perhaps worthwhile reiterating that the underlying assumption in this volume has been that policy practice can be distinguished from other interactions between social workers and the policy arena. In particular, policy practice is distinct from civic voluntary political participation, which comprises a wide range of political activities that social workers do or can do as members of the societies in which they live, such as voting in local, state or national elections, actively work for a political party or candidate, or persuading others how to vote.

By contrast, the term ‘policy practice’ refers specifically to professional activities that seek to change or promote social policies which are directly related to the specific problems of the service users and social groups with whom the social workers work. As such, these interventions are undertaken as part and parcel of the social workers’ daily practice in order to meet their service users’ needs or address their problems in a better way. These activities are political in the Lasswellian sense that they relate to the process by which it is decided who gets what, when and how (Lasswell, 1936). Or, as Bruce Jansson (2003, p 289) noted, they refer to efforts by individuals ‘in governmental and nongovernmental settings to secure their policy wishes by developing and using power resources’. However, unlike civic voluntary political participation, policy practice refers to the inherently political activities that social workers do as part of their professional responsibility in order to affect policies that have an impact on services users, and it does not refer to social workers’ voluntary political activities as active citizens of the society of which they are part.

The examples of social worker engagement in policy-related activities in the various chapters of this volume reveal that the distinction between civic political participation and policy practice is not always clear-cut and may be better perceived as two poles of the continuum depicted in Figure 10.1.

Figure 10.1: The civic political participation–policy practice continuum

There can be little doubt that a social worker participating in a campaign for public office on behalf of a specific candidate (civic political participation) or efforts by a social worker to change policies determining access to social care services in the locality in which she is employed (policy practice) represent clear-cut examples of the two poles. Other types of intervention in the policy sphere are not so clear cut. Thus, for example, social worker involvement in social action such as a sit-in or letter-writing campaign which is focused on social problems or policies that diversely affect disadvantaged groups may be construed as either policy practice or civic political participation. This will depend on the specific nature of the social action but also on the organisational context in which it occurs. If this type of activity is not organised by the social worker’s place of employment but by external organisations and takes place after working hours, it will be closer to the civic political participation pole. However, if there is a direct link between the policy-related activities and the specific problems of the social worker’s service users or if the activity is initiated by a professional recruitment network then it will be nearer to the policy practice pole.

Policy practice in the social work discourse

An obvious initial arena for examining the impact of policy practice in social work is the profession’s discourse. The social work discourse is made up of the body of written and oral knowledge and thought created by social work professionals, educators and scholars in a given society. It includes professional Codes of Ethics, formal documents and declarations of social work organisations as well as diverse forms of professional literature and professional debate.

An examination of the place of policy practice in the Codes of Ethics – perhaps the key document in any profession (Banks, 2006) – reveals that, although the explicit term ‘policy practice’ did not appear in any of these texts in the eight countries studied here, most Codes of Ethics do require social workers to engage in activities aimed at influencing policy in order to further social justice. Indeed it would appear that a cross-national exchange of ideas, often through the good offices of the International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW), has contributed much to this trend. More specifically social workers are required to contribute to the development of social policy (UK), to advocate for change in policy (US), to promote socially just policies (Australia), to influence the formation of social policy (Russia), to plan, design, apply and establish changes in social policies (Spain), to play an active role in the promotion, development and advancement of integrated social policies (Italy) or to support policies that further social justice (Israel).

Besides these explicit demands, all of the Codes of Ethics also contain implicit sections which require social workers to engage in activities that can be linked to policy practice. For example, while there is not an explicit call for engagement in policy formulation in the Swedish code, the document does note that social workers are expected to play an important role in community planning and the development of social support programmes.

However, differences also emerge, particularly with regard to the extent to which issues of policy-related activities are referred to in the codes in different countries. In the Codes of Ethics in the UK, the US and Australia, there is extensive reference to social workers’ requirement to engage in activities that seek to influence policy. Moreover these activities are regarded as an integral and crucial part of professional social work practice. Throughout the British Code of Ethics (BASW, 2012), one can find strong legitimacy for social workers to ‘bring to the attention of their employers, policy makers, politicians and the general public situations where resources are inadequate or where distribution of resources, policies and practice are oppressive, unfair, harmful or illegal’ (BASW, 2012, p 9) or ‘be prepared to challenge discriminatory, ineffective and unjust policies, procedures and practice’ (BASW, 2012, p 14). In the US the Code of Ethics contains several references to participation in activities aimed at influencing policy. For example, ‘social workers … should advocate for changes in policy and legislation to improve social conditions in order to meet basic human needs and promote social justice’ (NASW, 2008, section 6.04). Similarly, the 2010 Australian Association of Social Workers Code of Ethics refers to social policy involvement in different places in the code and expects social workers to achieve social justice by ‘promoting policies and practices that achieve a fair allocation of social resources’ (AASW, 2010a, p 8).

In Italy, Russia, Spain and Israel the Codes of Ethics contain statements that support and promote participation in policy practice activities, but these references tend to be more limited in their extent and in their detail. For example, there is a general statement in the Italian Code of Ethics on the need for social workers to play an active role in the promotion, development and advancement of social policies aimed at fostering social and civic advancement emancipation and responsibilities and to alert the authorities and the general public to social problems such as poverty, oppression or inequality. In the Russian Code of Ethics (‘Code of Ethics for the Social Worker and Social Pedagogue, 2003, section 3.2) social workers are requested to ‘influence the formation of the social policy promoting fair satisfaction of social needs’. In the same vein, the Spanish Code of Ethics states that: ‘The duties of social workers are to plan, design, apply and establish changes in social policies and services for groups and communities’ (Consejo General de Colegios, 1999, section 2).

Israel is a good example of a country in which the place of policy practice was expanded in the latest Code of Ethics (Israel Association of Social Workers, 1995), although it stills remains relatively marginalised. While in an early version of the code there was no clear reference to engagement in efforts to influence social policy, in the 1995 publication it is stated that social workers should ‘support policies and legislation aimed at enhancing social conditions and furthering social justice’ (Israel Association of Social Workers, 1995, section 2.6).

The importance attributed to policy practice in the US and Australian Codes of Ethics is also reflected in prominent documents of the social work profession in these countries. In the US policy practice is regarded as a core competency of social work by the Council of Social Work Education (CSWE), and both the CSWE and the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) have increased their support for the importance of engagement in policy practice in recent years. In Australia, official statements by the AASW endorse the involvement of social workers in policy-related activity and perceive policy advocacy as a core professional requirement. The AASW Practice Standards defines social policy as one of the six core areas of social work practice. In addition, the AASW National Social Policy Committee (NSPC), formed in 2006, has been active in promoting an activist social policy agenda within the social work profession.

In other countries reference to the policy involvement by social workers in formal social work documents is much more limited. In the English case, although the Code of Ethics underscores that social workers are required extensively and clearly to engage in policy change, the current National Occupation Standards for Social Work relates only vaguely to engagement in policy. In Italy and Russia the place of activities within the realm of policy practice in the discourse of social work organisations (such as the Professional Register in Italy) is virtually non-existent.

Between these two poles are the Swedish, Spanish and Israeli cases. In the past the discourse of Swedish social work organisations, in particular the Central Association of Social Work and the Swedish Association for Social Workers (SSR), reflected a commitment to engage in policy practice and, more recently, there have been attempts by social work representative organisations to increase policy awareness and involvement on the part of social workers. In Spain there has been limited reference to policy-related activities in formal social work documents, though professional conferences organised by either the General Council of Social Work or university-based schools of social work have tended to serve as forums in which calls for social work involvement in social policy have been made. These calls have intensified in recent years. In particular, the severe economic crisis at the end of the first decade of the 21st century led to a demand issued at the 2009 Spanish Social Work Congress for social workers to participate in formulating municipal social policies and give voice to the needs of citizens. In Israel, calls for social work intervention in social policy debates dominated social work conferences in the 1970s and 1980s. Uniquely, specific references to the term ‘policy practice’ have also emerged in official state publications. In a recently published report of the State Commission on Reform of Local Social Care Services (State of Israel, the Ministry of Welfare and Social Services, 2010), policy practice was described as one of the social workers’ intervention methods. The report also notes that social workers ‘should engage in the formulation of social policy of other social services, local authorities, and the state’ (State of Israel, the Ministry of Welfare and Social Services, 2010, p 36).

Between-country differences emerged with regard to the place of policy practi...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Tables and Figures
• Notes on the Contributors
• Acknowledgements
• One: Policy Practice in Social Work: an Introduction
• Two: Social Workers Affecting Social Policy in Australia
• Three: Social Workers Affecting Social Policy in England
• Four: Social Workers Affecting Social Policy in Israel
• Five: Social Workers Affecting Social Policy in Italy
• Six: Social Workers Affecting Social Policy in Russia
• Seven: Social Workers Affecting Social Policy in Spain
• Eight: Social Workers Affecting Social Policy in Sweden
• Nine: Social Workers Affecting Social Policy in the US
• Ten: An International Perspective on Policy Practice