This paper examines the relationship between social policy and social work practice, arguing that an understanding of public social policy is essential for social workers to effectively uphold core professional values. The paper explores how contemporary trends — including managerialism, evidence-based practice, and instrumental rationality — have shifted social work away from its foundational mission. It compares diverse social welfare models across the United States, Canada, and Europe, highlighting structural differences and lessons that may transfer across systems. The paper concludes that social workers must engage actively in policy practice to promote social justice, equality, and human progress on behalf of service users.
Although social agencies and social work professionals can help shape policies and practices, the nature of the service delivery system and the legitimacy of social work as a profession are established by public social policy. In many ways, current policy is antithetical to social work values. An understanding of social policy is vital for engaging practically with those values and for dealing with political and ethical questions about responsibility and rights as a society. Though social justice is a central goal of the social work profession, the actual involvement of social workers in social change remains very limited. Moreover, training in social policy and policy practice in schools of social work is minimal. As a result, practitioners lack the tools needed to analyze existing social problems and policies, and to enable them to intervene in the policy process in order to better serve the needs of service users (Weiss & Katan, 2006).
Many have argued that, in this process, social work has gradually been drained of its core foundations and turned into an administrative and managerial practice. The trend in contemporary societies is toward the reinforcement of an instrumental rationality focused on competitiveness, efficiency, efficacy, and result-oriented practice. This rationale is not alien to social work, which is increasingly influenced by this kind of logic. The consequences have been diverse, and topics such as the de-professionalization thesis, managerialism, and evidence-based practice are firmly on the social work agenda.
In this sense, new influences in social policy carry strong implications for social work. Conversely, the ways in which social workers engage with the mission of the profession strongly condition the horizons toward which social policy can aim. The new directions in social policy — toward activation, individualization, contractualization, and so forth — are key elements for understanding today's social work practice.
"U.S., Canada, and Europe compared across welfare systems"
Having the tools needed to analyze existing social problems and policies will enable social workers to intervene in the policy process to better serve the needs of service users. To promote social justice effectively, social workers must understand the impact of social structures and policy upon service users and must be actively involved in policy practice. Social work and social policy are not mutually exclusive.
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