The impact of service cutbacks, job insecurity and globalisation

The austerity agenda links deficit reduction to cuts in public service budgets. The main argument is that de-professionalisation lies at the heart of assessing the impact of the ‘commercial model’ in the form of efficiencies, pay cuts, rationing, reduced training/staff development and potentially affecting overall economic productivity. This chapter begins to shape an analytical framework for understanding the UK context in which a process of de-professionalisation exists within an employment culture dominated by inequality, precarity, globalisation and declining solidarity.

Professional abuse of power: discreditation or a lowering of productivity?

This chapter discusses the idea of de-professionalisation in the context of abuse of power or authority, and the effect this may have on undermining the position or status of professions. Included also is a review of some of the evidence used to conceptualise de-professionalisation as an economic signifier, defined by de-skilling, low productivity or output resulting from work activity.

A demoralisation or disparagement of the workforce?

This chapter discusses de-professionalisation as defined by a lowering of morale, or a demoralisation and denigration of the workforce. It provides examples of where de-professionalisation has become represented through an attack on the social status and position of a particular professional/occupational group, be it junior doctors, foster carers or university teachers.

Perspectives used in studying professions: social policy and public administration

This chapter discusses several perspectives on professions and professionalism taken from other disciplines e.g social policy and public administration. For instance, the post-structuralist account demonstrates power as dispersed and not simply located in any elite group but lying in administrative machinery and focuses on key ‘discourses’ or events associated with particular social periods and places as having a formative impact. A contrasting framework, Democratic or Collaborative Professionalism, extends the ambit of professionalism where the directions and ideals of different actors achieve greater sensitivity to the interests of a wide range of external stakeholders, for example service users, patients, students and community representatives.

Neo-liberalism as an ideology, an elite project and its impact on austerity

This chapter discusses the relevance of neo-liberalism as both an ideology and as a pragmatic approach, defined as a re-making of the state, where the state is not rolled back as such but is re-shaped, re-configured to better serve the demands of capital. Neo-liberalism represents an attempt to replace political judgement with economic evaluation, including, but not exclusively, the evaluations offered by markets. Writers on this subject such as Davies, Gough, Garrett, Peck, Mirowski and Shaxson are referred to where they address globalisation and audit culture, the logic of markets and economic evaluation. It was believed that the economic pressures generated by neo-liberal globalisation would inexorably lead to welfare state entrenchment or its dissolution and replacement by a lean ‘competition’ state. Yet the global rediscovery of poverty and the challenges to territorially-based conceptions of social rights posed by the increasing flow of migrants have put social policy issues on the social agenda.

Professional training programmes: financial cuts and content critique

This chapter considers how professional training has, in some instances, become devalued and no longer viewed as a preferred method towards enhancing the quality of public services. The trend has occurred despite a rising demand for trained staff, for instance in children’s services, from family crisis support to child protection. Contrastingly there have been some positive innovations within adult social care, where for example homecare providers have recruited people from outside the domiciliary care sector, believing the priority was to find people with the ‘right values’ who would acquire the skills needed to help older people to live well at home. The chapter demonstrates how de-professionalisation has become shaped through the application of a political economy model of delivering public services - in health, education, social care and criminal justice sectors.

De-professionalism as defined by services deemed unconventional, under-performing or ineffectual

This chapter discusses reports that some hospitals and primary care services are ‘under-performing’ due to a lack of health and social care professionals, particularly in areas like critical care, long-term and chronic illness. Similarly, in schools there are continuing claims that core funding remains a serious issue, that they are struggling to get and keep enough teachers, and standards are threatened as a result. Austerity is an extension of the neo-liberal logic to characterise any form of public spending as ‘unproductive’.

Perspectives used in studying professions: sociology, social philosophy

This chapter sets out some of the main frameworks used to study the work of professions from a classic sociology, social philosophy perspective. It is possible to compare and contrast individual disciplinary perspectives and apply them to a specific field of activity, for example teaching and education, delivering health and social care or criminal justice work. The perspectives can also be used to understand and validate the work of professionals, as each reflects a particular emphasis, orientation and contextual prism.

Austerity as a UK policy context in the early twenty-first century

The UK austerity programme has been defined as a fiscal policy and a deficit reduction programme consisting of sustained reductions in public spending and tax rises. Among the questions tackled in this chapter are: ‘were austerity policies an inevitable response to the financial crisis?’ Ideas on austerity are featured by writers including Blyth, Dorling, Skidelsky, Seymour, Kynaston, O’Hara, Rushton and Cooper and Whyte. The chapter asks: whether the dismantling of the welfare state became essential to tackle the budget deficit; and whether the UK government was wise to opt for austerity after the financial collapse of 2008, or should it have gone for economic stimulus. Austerity policies rather than stimulating growth have led to a dismantling of social systems that operated as a buffer against economic hardship.

Conclusion: professionals as entrepreneurs in an age of austerity

This chapter derives a number of conclusions in consideration of specific evocative themes used to discuss de-professionalism and austerity. These include the following areas of debate: the rise in social inequalities and the impact of neo-liberalism ideology, the role of professionalism and the imperative for a workforce strategy to sustain public services, and the role of regulation, professional autonomy and methodology for achieving best outcomes for users of public services. Additionally they include a demand to harness a set of facts and arguments in support of a proposal that would collectively agree on a need to enhance the skills and expertise of practitioners, to extend their entrepreneurial role; and to design research studies aimed at sustaining ‘the professional project’.