Suchergebnisse

Summary Policy practice is a core element of social work practice. The rationale for this type of practice and its key strategies and methods has been discussed at length in the literature. However, insights from public policy theories have not been employed in order to better understand the ways in which social workers can influence social policy formulation. This article seeks to broaden and enrich the theoretical foundations of policy practice by incorporating knowledge from two leading frameworks of the policy process – the Multiple Stream Framework (MSF) and the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) – into the policy practice discourse. Findings This article underscores the potential contribution of these frameworks to the engagement of social workers in the policy process by discussing the practical implications of their theoretical insights upon the roles and tasks of social workers engaged in policy practice. It does so by employing the frameworks to better understand the roles and the tasks of social workers in three streams in the policy process: problems, policy and politics. It also underlines social workers' potential role of policy entrepreneurs. Applications The insights emerging from the MSF and the ACF can guide social workers in their efforts to influence the policy process. By drawing upon these frameworks, social workers will not only be able to see the wider policy picture but they should be better able to identify possible roles and relevant tasks for themselves in order to influence this process.

ABSTRACTThis paper seeks to further discourse concerning the implications of critical social work for direct practice with families and children. It presents and discusses a hypothetical example of how a social worker in a social care agency in Israel can incorporate critical social work notions into an official social work report. The paper begins by presenting key concepts in critical social work, their manifestations in practice and their implications for official social work reports. It then presents a mock report informed by critical social work ideas and discusses its structure and contents. The mock report provides an example of how abstract notions central to critical social work can be actualized. The paper thus offers practitioners the opportunity for a richer discourse on the contribution of critical social work to direct practice with families and children.

AbstractThis cross‐sectional quantitative study expands the knowledge on the level of involvement of social work academics (SWAs) in social policy formulation processes, and the factors associated with this. SWAs are an interesting case for exploring the academia–policy nexus because they are affiliated with a profession in which the discourse regards social policy as a target of intervention. The study took place in Israel, where social work is strongly embedded in academia and enjoys relatively high professional status. The study drew upon a sample, which consisted of 57 per cent of all SWAs in Israel, and employed questionnaires developed specifically for the study. The findings show that the highest levels of involvement were in activities characterized by more active, public sphere routes of influence within the policy arena that were undertaken in conjunction with traditional social work partners. Social work scholars engaged in these activities more during the initial stages of the policy process. These forms of policy involvement reflect the dual impact of academia and the social work profession upon SWAs. Associated with level of involvement were individual factors, which included academic rank, perception of the social role of academia, perceived individual policy role, and perceived policy competencies. By contrast, factors linked to institutional support for policy engagement were not found to be associated with policy involvement.

Bringing together international case studies, this book offers theoretical and empirical insights into the interaction between social work and social policy. Moving beyond existing studies on policy practice, the book employs the policy cycle as a core analytical frame and focuses on the influence of social work(ers) in the problem definition, agenda setting, policy formulation and implementation of social policy. Twenty-three contributors offer examples of policy making from seven different countries and demonstrate how social work practitioners can become political actors, while also encouraging policy makers to become aware of the potential of social work for the social policy-making process