Social workers' attitudes to privatization in five countries

Abstract

European welfare states have been subject to significant restructuring including a general trend towards downsizing the role of the state, and to a greater extent engaging other actors in social policy and social services. While comparative welfare research often overlooks the distinction between for-profit and non-profit actors, third sector research emphasizes the different logics underlying these two types of non-state actors. The purpose of this article was to analyse Nordic and Italian social workers' attitudes towards a greater involvement of for-profit and nonprofit actors in social work. The empirical base for the study is nation-wide surveys among social workers in four Nordic countries and in Italy answered by a total of 8,272 social workers.Findings: In general, social workers perceived privatization in terms of for-profit organizations more critically than privatization through voluntary sector actors. Their attitudes towards privatization were only partly connected to which welfare model they worked within. Age and working sector of the respondents were other factors of significance. An important finding was that there are different explanatory factors behind positive attitudes towards for-profit and non-profit privatization, which indicate that social workers do not interpret the role of for-profit and non-profit organizations in the same way.Application: The article shows that reforms involving subsidiarization, privatization and marketization of social welfare services should take account of the different logics

Under the delusive wings of the welfare state: engagement in the policy process among social work faculty members in Sweden

“…There have been many signs of increasing marginalisation and segregation (Evertsson & Magnusson, 2014;Ferrarini et al, 2013;Galloway et al, 2015;Gustafsson et al, 2016;National Board of Health and Welfare, 2010;OECD, 2014). Signs of a re-formulation of the welfare state characterised by retrenchment, fragmentation, and marketisation have also been described (Johansson & Hvinden, 2007;Kallio et al, 2015;Meagher & Szebehely, 2013). Growing long-term unemployment, income inequality, segregation and less coverage from social security schemes have also been reported (Bäckman & Nelson, 2017;Cingano, 2014;Cowell et al, 2018).…”

“…The policy-making process and the role of social work academics From an international perspective, Sweden has a welfare system with several social protection systems (Esping-Andersen, 1990). However, in the last few decades there have been signs of re-formulations of the welfare state with signs of retrenchment, fragmentation, and marketisation (Kallio et al, 2015;Meagher & Szebehely, 2013). Despite the signs of welfare state changes, this development is still not much debated among most social work academics in Sweden.…”

Care coordination in adult social care: Exploring service characteristics within the non-statutory sector in England

“…This may also link to the government’s prevention agenda, particularly in relation to the requirement under the Care Act (2014) for local authorities to provide information and advice (Department of Health, 2014b), with some of these services being commissioned from the non-statutory sector. However, since the non-statutory sector is now being permitted to take on a larger role within adult social care this may signal a continuing reduction in the responsibilities of the statutory sector, and reflects similar changing roles for social workers across Europe (Kallio, Meeuwisse, & Scaramussino, 2016).…”

Attitudes of staff members towards development of elder care organizations

“…This is especially true for the post-Soviet countries, like Lithuania. Kallio et al (2016) argue that European welfare states are undergoing significant restructuring. Privatization and diversity of welfare services are encouraged.…”

“…Still, the attitudes of social workers receive little attention of scholars. Research shows that social workers as 40 IJPL 13,1 well as other welfare professionals tend to perceive diversity of welfare services, privatization processes, and other developments rather negatively (Kallio et al, 2016). This might have a negative impact not only upon organizational success, but also on the quality of provided welfare services.…”