Organisational Rules and Discretion in Adult Social Work

Evans, Tony

doi:10.1093/bjsw/bcs008

Cited by 119 publications

(102 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…This is far from a new insight (cf. Lipsky 1980; Evans and Harris 2004;Östberg 2010;Evans 2013), but it bears being pointed out again, given how normative decision-making models routinely disregard organizational aspects.…”

Section: Who Makes Treatment Decisions?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Reconsidering critical appraisal in social work: choice, care and organization in real-time treatment decisions

Björk

2018

Nordic Social Work Research

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This paper seeks to provide an empirically grounded discussion of the critical appraisal model of Evidence-based practice (EBP) in social work practice. Studying real-time treatment decisions, the paper looks ethnographically at an attempt to implement critical appraisal in everyday social work practice, and problematizes some of the assumptions underlying this idea. Whereas critical appraisal tends to view treatment decisions as clear-cut events emanating from autonomous social workers, participant observation shows that decisions emerge over time and are 'organizational' rather than individual. Drawing on the notion of 'logic of care' and findings from studies of organizational decision-making, a more practice oriented understanding of treatment decision-making is outlined.

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Section: Who Makes Treatment Decisions?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Reconsidering critical appraisal in social work: choice, care and organization in real-time treatment decisions

Björk

2018

Nordic Social Work Research

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“…Some expressed reluctance to have a say in deciding who should receive support. More discretion in a setting with limited resources could place them in a difficult position, giving them "the freedom to decide which one of a range of equally 'needy' people receives a service" (Evans & Harris, 2004, p. 889) and putting them at risk of being accused of favoritism (Evans, 2013). Finally, the narratives of the local social workers point to the challenge of realizing reintegration support within a program of a foreign government that disregards the structural conditions returnees face in their country of origin.…”

Section: A Challenging Positioning Within Migration Policy and A Tranmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transnational knowledge in social work programs: Challenges and strategies within assisted voluntary return and reintegration support

Lietaert

2017

Transnational Social Review

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The nexus between migration research and social work research led to interesting impulses to study transnational social work practices. However, the practical terms of being involved in crossborder programs are understudied. This article aims to transcend the preserving national and western-centric orientation in social work research by investigating assisted voluntary return and reintegration (AVRR) support. Drawing on interviews and group discussions with social workers supporting returnees in host countries and countries of origin, I set out to reveal the challenges that this practice poses within the Belgian AVRR program. The findings showed that the Belgian social workers were confronted with a lack of transnational knowledge to fulfill their roles, resulting from a division between different practitioners within the support chain and the localization of the main focus of the support across borders. Furthermore, the data shed light onto the struggles with regard to social workers' positions within the program and towards its goals. For the Belgian social workers, this is related to their place within a restrictive migration policy. For the social workers in the countries of origin it was mainly linked to the transnational character of the program. Viewing these findings, I reflect on their implications for the provision of AVRR support and transnational support practices.

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“…Furthermore, they did so without explicit guidance on what constituted a need. In Oakeshott's (1975) terminology, they were 'teleocratic' rather than 'nomocratic' (Evans, 2012) because the end of keeping people in their own homes had priority over pre-defined eligibility criteria. Instead, workers were expected to maintain a 'flexible' approach to need, so long as meeting it helped avoid a costly admission to residential care.…”

Section: The Context Of Assessment Visitsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This makes them de facto policymakers (Ellis, 2007;Evans, 2012). According to Lipsky, street-level bureaucrats are perennially short of resources, including their own time.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

‘The assessment is in the chat’: Analysing conversations in community care

Bolger¹

2013

Qualitative Social Work

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Home visits are a key method in social care but little is known about how they are conducted. This study analyses transcripts of audio-recordings of visits made by social care workers to their clients and contributes to an understanding of how such interactions are performed.Attention was paid to how the agenda for home visits was set through topic shifting, asking questions, interrupting and telling stories. This allowed the visits to be compared with a number of theoretical models of assessment. Variations in how workers asked questions and responded to clients' stories suggested that they had some discretion to act as street-level bureaucrats.

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Organisational Rules and Discretion in Adult Social Work

Cited by 119 publications

References 16 publications

Reconsidering critical appraisal in social work: choice, care and organization in real-time treatment decisions

Reconsidering critical appraisal in social work: choice, care and organization in real-time treatment decisions

Transnational knowledge in social work programs: Challenges and strategies within assisted voluntary return and reintegration support

‘The assessment is in the chat’: Analysing conversations in community care

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