Distribution of responsibility in inter-professional teams in welfare-to-work

Abstract

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The Fate of Social Modernity

“…Similar dynamics emerged in Dall's (2020) study on case management teams in the Danish labour administration. Team members involved in needs assessments expressed discomfort with clients not receiving 'the help they need due to organisational resources' as well as with 'contradictions between the client's wishes and abilities and the policy demand of labour-market participation' (ibid: 86).…”

“…The traits of modern professionalism (as discussed earlier in this book) may matter greatly in this context, as comes to the fore in research of Dall (2020) when portraying the teamwork of specialists that Danish employment services entrust with 'holistic assessments and recommendations' when addressing unemployed citizens with impairments. The multi-agency teams this author shadowed had a remit to make recommendations on complex cases, with possible decisions being the assignment of a pension or allowance, flexible employment, the entry into a job promotion programme or the return to ordinary interventions of the employment service.…”

“…Involved organisations have been instructed, or have committed themselves, to follow fine-grained operational prescriptions (such as pre-defined staff-user ratios) and to apply standardised (IT-based) case management tools -notwithstanding considerable variety concerning how agents interact with benefit claimants and jobseekers (Kupka and Osiander 2017;Clouet et al 2022). In some jurisdictions, the lion's share of work (re-)integration activity lies with the municipalities where the responsible bodies have a certain flexibility in the interpretation of national guidelines (see e.g., Dall 2020;Bakkeli et al 2022). Elsewhere, national agencies (or quangos) are eager to develop (more) universal standards.…”

“…The shop floor may be an employment service, municipal welfare department or non-state organisation, including quasi-independent public enterprises. Social workers are involved only in some of these settings, mostly at local authority level (see Bergmark et al 2017;Dall 2020;D'Emilione et al 2021). Social work is much less widespread in employment services where most agents have a different occupational background, for instance in public administration (Gottwald and Sowa 2021, for the case of Germany).…”

‘In the Next Moment I Answer, it is Not Possible.’ Professionals’ Experiences from Transition Planning for Young People

“…The rehabilitation and habilitation services are organized under the sector of health in Norway, with a division of responsibility between the municipalities and regional state enterprises. In the community services, the follow-up and outreach health care services, the governance of the client-centred work is assessed by quantitative objectives (Dall 2020). This administration is also the case in the specialist healthcare services; however, expert-led decision-making processes are expected in addition to interprofessional work.…”