Social work and the attachment story: a felicitous bond?

This chapter examines the symbiotic relationship between child welfare professional practice, social work in particular, and the ascent of attachment theory. The development of social work had provided fertile ground for the incubation of early ideas about attachment theory, particularly in child and family social work. It was not, however, accepted as a legitimate theory simply because John Bowlby had introduced it to the profession. Rather, while the foundations were there for attachment theory to be used in practice, it was a more complex process that eventually resulted in the theory being taught on social work courses and used routinely by practitioners. Crucial in that translation was the shift in emphasis from ‘normal’, non-clinical populations to children suffering maltreatment. As the institutional logics driving social work with children and families have shifted from the provision of help to the prediction of risk, attachment theory has been a flexible companion providing enticing vocabularies to support moral claims.

Resultatbaseret statsstyring af lokal kernevelfærd

Results based management is an example of a management approach affecting policy implementation through specific policy tools. It is legitimized as a way to strengthen control with public expenses and to produce more effective welfare services.The article is based on a systematic literature review of results based state management of local welfare in three policy areas (primary school, employment and social service) and focuses on what happens when results based management is implemented in welfare organizations.The results from the review point to a range of non-intended consequences and the argument put forward is that they are related to a discrepancy between performance goals and welfare professional work. Besides theory on unintended consequences of results based-management, the article draws on frontline theory and sociology of professions. More specific, we use a concept of classification to explain what happens when results based management meets welfare professionals with a large room of discretion.

Hvem læser på velfærdsprofessionsuddannelserne? – ændringer i rekrutteringsmønstre de sidste 25 år

Denne artikel beskæftiger sig med den generelle udvikling i den sociale rekruttering til de videregående uddannelser i Danmark de sidste 30 år og sætter særlig fokus på, hvilke sociale grupper velfærdsprofessionerne rekrutterer fra, sammenlignet med øvrige videregående uddannelser. Velfærdsprofessionerne er interessante, fordi de indtager en central rolle i forhold til at opretholde vitale funktioner i velfærdssamfundet. De seneste år har været præget af en debat om, hvorvidt disse semiprofessioner har oplevet et relativt statustab set i forhold til de øvrige videregående uddannelser. Vi undersøger ændringer i adgangen til velfærdsprofessionsuddannelserne og de øvrige videregående uddannelser gennem en række statistiske modeller på baggrund af registerdata fra perioden 1989-2011. Vi finder, at den sociale ulighed, eller sociale selektivitet, i adgangen til videregående uddannelser generelt er mindsket over årene, men primært i de perioder hvor uddannelserne ekspanderer. Vi finder videre, at den sociale selektivitet i udgangspunktet er ganske forskellig afhængig af, om vi betragter de selektive lange videregående uddannelser eller de mindre selektive velfærdsprofessionsuddannelser (hvor pædagoguddannelsen er den mindst selektive af de fire behandlede velfærdsprofessionsuddannelser). ENGELSK ABSTRACT: Jens Peter Thomsen, Siri Dencker and Thomas Mørch Pedersen: Changes in Access to Higher Education and Welfare Professional Educations in Denmark 1989-2011 In this paper we examine the social backgrounds of the individuals enrolled in welfare professional educations in Denmark. We ask if there have been significant changes in enrollments in these educations relative to other higher educations during the past 30 years? Can we find evidence of a purported status loss of these professional educations relative to other professions? This paper addresses these questions by applying various regression models using Danish register data from 1989 to 2011. It is shown that: 1. Social inequality in access to higher education has been on the decline during 1989-2011, but only in times of educational expansion. 2. Social selectivity in access to welfare professional educations differs, all of these educations being significantly less selective than university education. Key words: Inequality in access to higher education by social origin, educational expansion, higher education programmes, access to welfare professional programmes.

Rights-Based Framework and Social Work

The past few years have seen a surge in efforts to incorporate rights-based approaches in social work practice. This rise has been spearheaded by a growing awareness that human rights can reduce or eradicate poverty and injustice while advancing human dignity and social welfare. Professional Codes of Ethics around the world maintain social workers’ responsibilities to uphold human rights. However, few rights-based approaches to social work practice have been developed. This encyclopedia entry introduces the concept of rights-based approaches, presents new models of rights-based social work, reviews the rights-based principles for social work practice of human dignity, nondiscrimination, participation, transparency, and accountability, and discusses how this framework can be applied to various practice settings and populations.

Discretion in the “Backyard of Law”: Case Handling of Debt Relief in Sweden

This article explores discretion in welfare professional work. The aim is to analyse what room for discretionary decision-making that exist in case handling of debt relief at the Swedish Enforcement Authority (SEA). The analysis is guided by a conceptual distinction between structural and epistemic aspects of discretion, as well as between substantive and procedural aspects. The data comprises official and internal SEA documents, interviews with management and staff and field notes from observations. The analysis points to a change in the balance between standards and discretion in relation to the on-going formalization of case handling at the SEA, though not in the simplistic sense that discretion is diminished through formalization. When taking into account the different analytical aspects of discretion, it is concluded that discretion is narrowed only in some respects. There is still space for case officers in selecting and interpreting information and assess-ing the conditions regarding subject matter.