bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Emerging public policy on dementia: the implications of a human rights-based approach for policy and practice
Authors: Cahill Suzanne
Published: September 2018

The purpose of this chapter is twofold. First it aims to explore the implications of a rights based approach for dementia policy development. Here it will be claimed that public policy on dementia is new and whilst in the past it lacked political and clinical ownership nowadays in many developed countries, dementia has been demarcated as a policy area in its own right. Those global and European forces, which have helped influence policy development in dementia will be outlined in the chapter. Picking up on the issues discussed in the two preceding chapters and with reference to countries’ evolving national dementia plans, it will be shown how with the exception of some few countries, a rights based discourse has to date failed to penetrate most iterations of national dementia policy plans across the Western world. Part two of the chapter will advance to addressing the implications of rights based approach in dementia care practice. In this section the need for dementia specific training which incorporates human rights principles will be reviewed and the synergies between elements of person-centred care and human rights principles will be drawn out.
Qualitative longitudinal research: researching fatherhood and fathers’ experiences
Authors: Miller Tina
Published: September 2018

This chapter focuses on a qualitative longitudinal (QL) research project, Transition to Fatherhood, and later episodes of fathering and fatherhood experiences. It begins by exploring the research design of this study and considers the inherent gendered and other assumptions made in it, which mirrors an earlier research project on Transition to Motherhood. Following an examination of some of the methodological issues that arose during this qualitative longitudinal study, the chapter turns to reflect on the important question of what adding time into a qualitative study can do. It considers what happens when narratives collected in later interviews are incorporated into earlier analysis and findings as lives and fatherhood experiences change, as well as the benefits of researching individuals over time.
Researching fatherhood and place: adopting an ethnographic approach
Authors: Wissö Therése
Published: September 2018

This chapter presents an ethnographic approach as a potential way of gaining knowledge about disadvantaged fathers, including poor fathers, fathers with insecure employment, and fathers from minority ethnic groups. In research about poverty and inequality, there is increasing interest in the neighbourhood as an influential factor for individual life circumstances. Neighbourhood effects can be studied using quantitative data, for example, to investigate and compare unemployment rates, income, health, educational level, and so on. The chapter aims to gain knowledge of what it is like to be a father in a neighbourhood that is known for its high concentration of social problems. The research design is characterised by an inductive approach and research questions formulated along the way.
Teleconference focus groups with fathers: ‘You’re on the line with …’
Authors: Burnett Simon , Gatrell Caroline
Published: September 2018

This chapter analyses methodological issues experienced in the employment of audio teleconference focus groups in fatherhood research. It cites a research project entitled ‘Work Life Balance: Working for Fathers?’, which explores how men with dependent children combine work and family commitments. As part of this research, when recruiting fathers for face-to-face interviews and focus groups proved difficult, scholars utilised the medium of recordable teleconferencing technology. In the context of research on fatherhood, the chapter evaluates the emergent complexities integral to the entire process of running ‘teleconference’ (telecon) focus groups. The first part of the chapter describes the technological and procedural challenges in the commissioning of telecon focus groups, while the second reflects on fathers' confession-like admissions.
Using visual technologies: young children’s perspectives on fathers
Authors: Milner Susan , Chawla-Duggan Rita
Published: September 2018

This chapter illustrates father–child interactions in early childhood development, which has been the subject of intense policy interest over the past two decades, but where the challenges for researchers are heightened by the difficulties of eliciting views from very small children. Father involvement in children's social and educational development during the early years is found to have a significant impact on developmental outcomes. Fathers are thought to encourage early years development through play and other action-based interactions that challenge children and expose them to the wider world. The chapter shows that fathers' observed behaviours stand in contrast with those of mothers, whose interactions with children are more often associated with care and routine ‘housekeeping’ tasks such as interactions with institutional settings.
Mixing methods in fatherhood research: studying social change in family life
Authors: Westerling Allan
Published: September 2018

This chapter reflects on the ways in which mixing methods allow empirical exploration of the impact of social change on family life and how this process opens up fathering and fatherhood as research themes. Forming the basis of this analysis is a Danish research project called Families and Social Networks in the Modern Welfare State (FAMOSTAT), which studies the consequences of ongoing modernisation for family life. A presentation of the research design and analytical approach illustrates how fathers and fatherhood emerged as an important research theme by focusing on everyday family life primarily from a social psychological perspective. Working with multiple methods facilitates a genuinely exploratory approach that unleashes both empirical sensitivity and theoretical creativity.
Is constructive practice still possible in a competitive environment? Findings from a case study of a community rehabilitation company in England and Wales
Authors: Burke Lol , Millings Matthew , Robinson Gwen
Published: September 2018

The Transforming Rehabilitation policy in England and Wales, involving the separation of the Probation Trusts into a publically National Probation Service (NPS) and 21 privately financed Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRC), was promoted as being an opportunity to stimulate innovation and develop new working practices within probation. Drawing on an ethnographic case study of the implementation of Transforming Rehabilitation the authors will consider some of the key challenges and opportunities for staff working in a Community Rehabilitation Company and what they might suggest in terms of the longer-term impact upon the working practices of probation staff as they move into a more competitively structured environment. Using Gorman et al’s (2006:21) assertion that constructive probation practice is ‘more artistic than technical, more creative than procedural, more collaborative than instrumental’, the authors explore what skills, qualities and values will be required in this new practice environment and whether or not it will lead to further deprofessionalisation?
Implementation uptake: organisational factors affecting evidence-based reform in community corrections in the United States
Authors: Rudes Danielle S. , Kras Kimberly R. , Meyer Kimberly S. , Magnuson Shannon
Published: September 2018

As community corrections organizations adapt to changing times, probation/parole agencies work to reform both organizational policy and practice. However, reform is much easier planned than implemented. With little or no formal training on strategic implementation, most community corrections agencies face a complex web of inter- and intra-organizational dynamics and contexts that make implementing reform challenging and sustaining reforms nearly impossible. Using survey and interview/observational data from both adult and juvenile probation in two U.S. states, this chapter examines organizational factors such as culture/climate, cynicism and commitment as key internal issues to consider prior to implementation of reform and during reform uptake. Using dual methods reveals while organizational actors respond similarly on organizational survey response measures, the observational data detail a more nuanced story for understanding implementation. Specifically, findings suggest a need for new training approaches, continued leadership development and improved communication at all organizational levels.
Promoting quality in probation supervision and policy transfer: evaluating the SEED1 programme in Romania and England
Authors: Sorsby Angela , Shapland Joanna , Durnescu Ioan
Published: September 2018

A key aspect for promoting quality in one-to-one probation supervision is to focus on what practitioners actually do with those being supervised during supervision sessions. The SEED initiative, developed by NOMS in England and Wales, aimed at promoting offender engagement in probation supervision. Through training and continuous development of experienced practitioners, it aimed to bring together practitioners’ skills in areas such as motivational interviewing, problem solving and cognitive-behavioural approaches, risk-need-responsivity and structuring and provide a framework through which they could respond to the individual being supervised over the course of the supervision, promoting desistance. This chapter provides some of the results from two evaluations of SEED training, one in England and one in Romania. Both evaluations included staff views, user views on their supervision and compliance measures. The chapter also reflects on the process of policy transfer needed and the experience of doing evaluations in the two countries, given the different histories and lengths of orders for probation supervision in England and Romania.
Supervision face-to-face contacts: the emergence of an intervention
Authors: Toronjo Heather , Taxman Faye S.
Published: September 2018

Face-to-face contacts are the cornerstone of community supervision. As community supervision in the United States and Canada emerges into a new behavioral management approach, new training curricula have emerged to conceptualize the techniques of supervision and develop the skill sets of officers. This chapter reviews five such curricula--Proactive Community Supervision (PCS) (Taxman, Shephardson, & Byrne, 2004; Taxman, 2008), Strategic Training Initiative in Community Supervision (STICS) (Bonta et al., 2011); Staff Training Aimed at Reducing Rearrest (STARR) (Robinson et al., 2012); Effective Practices in Community Supervision (EPICS) (Smith et al., 2012); and Skills for Offender Assessment and Responsivity in New Goals (SOARING2) (Maass, 2013). The comparison reveals similarities but major differences in an emphasis on the operational components for client-level change. The question remains as to which supervision intervention components are mechanisms facilitating client level change.
Staff supervision in youth justice and its relationship to skill development: findings from Australia
Authors: Pereira Charlene , Trotter Chris
Published: September 2018

This chapter presents the findings of a systematic review of the literature on supervisory practices for supporting criminal justice staff. It reviews the key approaches to professional supervision within the helping professions; paying particular attention to supervisor competencies associated with ‘what works’ in enhancing practitioner skill development within youth justice. The findings indicate that supervisory practices motivated by a performance management agenda could undermine reflective practice, skills development and service-user engagement.
Can the recruitment of ex-offenders enhance offender engagement? An assessment of the London Probation Trust’s engagement worker role
Authors: Hosking Nigel , Rico John
Published: September 2018

Research has long established that the most effective strategy for reducing reoffending is to develop collaborative relationships with service users. Practitioners need to exhibit empathy, mutual respect, and an appreciation for the life, perspectives, and needs of service users. However, the balance between trusted confidante, and enforcer is a difficult one to achieve. With this in mind, the London Probation Trust (LPT) developed the role of engagement worker in order to provide practitioners with another resource to be utilised towards their attempts to establish successful working relationships with their service users. The engagement workers are former users of the Probation Service themselves - a life experience that allows them to successfully engage current service users, in a way that practitioners are not always able to do. Furthermore, in addition to supporting individuals to change, the experience of being an engagement worker may contribute to the engagement workers’ own desistance. Following a year of the engagement worker experiment, the project was evaluated by the LPT (now London CRC) research analyst. This chapter asks whether employing ex-offenders in this way can enhance engagement and improve outcomes.
Collaborative family work in youth justice
Authors: Trotter Chris
Published: September 2018

Structured family interventions can be a powerful factor in reducing offending among young people, however, they are rarely offered in youth justice settings. This chapter reports on a project in which youth justice workers in NSW, Australia, provided collaborative family work to young people and their families. The chapter outlines the collaborative family work model and the responses from workers and family members to the intervention. It provides information which may assist youth justice services to provide similar structured interventions for client families.
The ambiguity of therapeutic justice and women offenders in England and Wales
Authors: Annison Jill , Auburn Tim , Gilling Daniel , Santos Gisella Hanley
Published: September 2018

This chapter reviews the application of therapeutic jurisprudence at a local Magistrates’ Court in England and Wales, specifically in relation to women offenders. Drawing on data from a 2-year research project a case study approach is used to investigate some of the challenges that had arisen within this setting. The cases relating to ten women are explored in depth, revealing much more complex situations than might have been anticipated given the court’s remit of dealing with low-level crimes. The conclusion outlines the importance of a sound theoretical and organisational framework to underpin the operationalisation of such a court, with the need for further development of evidence-based practice and the full integration of gender-sensitive interventions for women defendants.
What kind of book is this?
Authors: Campbell Elizabeth
Published: September 2018

This chapter prepares the reader for a more unusual reading experience in the following chapters, as influenced by developments in experimental ethnography and community literacy. It describes this volume as something like the experimental texts that began to emerge in ethnographic and related literatures in the 1960s and 1970s, and burst onto the scene in the 1980s. This text also fits within the very broad range of disruptive, multi-vocal, and hybrid texts that have emerged out of community literacy. However, the chapter asserts that an ‘intercultural conversation’ may be the best way to think about this book. Its collaborators hail from different histories, universities, ethnicities, professions, disciplines, neighbourhoods, classes, religions, and context. Although all share an experience of Rotherham, those experiences are very particular, and can be both similar and different.
Policy, practice and racism: social cohesion in action
Authors: Rasool Zanib
Published: September 2018

This chapter considers some questions related to policy development, as policy impacts all areas of community life. In particular, it explores the concept of social cohesion in neighbourhoods, which is currently a key policy issue. The context for this includes internal conflicts between groups competing for the same scarce resources, structural inequality, housing and environment neglect, crime, and disorder, creating segregation and a culture of ‘us and them’. Moreover, this chapter finds that arts methodology is a tool for ethnic minority women and young people to negotiate boundaries and hostile territories and to engage in policy questions on community cohesion through photography, portraits, and poetry.
Some poems, a song and a prose piece
Authors: Hearne Ray , Bramley Ryan
Published: September 2018

This chapter showcases some literary pieces centred around Rotherham, and are based on the authors' own experiences growing up in the area as well as observations on the socio-economic conditions of Rotherham. Some of the poetry articulates the smoke-choked experience of South Yorkshire of the 1960s and 1970s, and one sets the tone for life to be lived on the periphery: in a contested space between working-class pride, and middle-class aspiration; between belonging and rootlessness. The chapter also contains a prose piece detailing ‘Rotherham's hellish underworld’ which reveals the price paid by dint of economic survival. A song is also included alongside the poetry and prose pieces.
Tassibee: a case study
Authors: Luqman Khalida
Published: September 2018

This chapter present excerpts of writing and reflections by three participants who regularly attended the Tassibee (a local charity) programmes: Nasim Bashir, Fazelat Begum, and Mukhtar Begum. They detail the previous lives of the first generation of women who came to the UK from Pakistan in the 1960s. These women's writing reflects memories of life prior to arriving in the UK, at which point everything changed for them. The different cultural lifestyle in the UK was not something that the women could ever have imagined. They found it hard to adapt to the British weather, and experienced difficulties with accessing services, including health and dental services, and social support in terms of provision (available only if you had the skills to access it).
Identity
Authors: Rasool Zanib
Published: September 2018

This chapter focuses on the identities of British Muslim young women from a writing group, and shares some of the themes that emerged during these writing sessions. Three specific themes related to identity came out of the girls' writing group: place and globalisation; religion; and language. In the UK, there is an increased focus on social cohesion and integration. Young people from minority ethnic communities experience a great deal of pressure in order to fit in with the national narrative of ‘Britishness’, and often feel that they should conform outwardly in their dress and physical appearance, and adopt British sociocultural practices. Those individuals who maintain their faith, language, and cultural identity are seen as segregating themselves and living parallel lives.
Methodology: an introduction
Authors: Campbell Elizabeth
Published: September 2018

This chapter introduces the research methodology underpinning this book. It first defines the terms of ‘research’ and ‘methodology’ and discusses the implicit — and often unspoken — ideas about what research is and how it should operate. Academically situated researchers undergo long training and socialisation processes that involve learning the forms, practices, traditions, theories, and languages of their disciplines. As they move through those processes, they gain an expertise presumed to uniquely qualify them as researchers in that discipline. When these experts then produce knowledge, that knowledge is often endowed with a special authority; indeed, it is usually regarded as wholly different from the knowledge that those without academic credentials produce.
Collaborative ethnography in context
Authors: Campbell Elizabeth , Lassiter Luke Eric , Pahl Kate
Published: September 2018

This chapter is a collaborative piece about doing collaborative ethnography. It primarily draws on the authors' ethnography over many years in establishing and developing the field of collaborative ethnography through their published work. The chapter introduces collaborative ethnography as a methodology, but also describes the encounter that led to writing this book. In the Rotherham project, collaborative ethnography became a way of closing the distance between those who write about people and those who are written about. It made explicit the discussions and debates that happen when we learn together, but it also went further. As such, this chapter is a multi-voiced piece of writing, which begins with a discussion about the nature of research itself, and then moves on to describe the research encounter.
Emotions in community research
Authors: Rasool Zanib
Published: September 2018

This chapter argues that emotions help people with ‘meaning making’, and offer different experiences of the world through a different lens. It does so in the context of women's writing, as writing connects ordinary women and gives them the opportunity to articulate feelings not expressed or shared before. In academic social science, emotions have historically been associated with the irrational and quite opposed to the objective scientific search for knowledge. However, in the last decade or so, sociologists have recognised that ethnographic research cannot be clinical and detached from human emotions. We can say ‘emotions do things’ — they move us but also connect us with others.
What parents know: a call for realistic accounts of parenting young children
Authors: Evans Tanya , Hackett Abigail , Magagula Joanna , Pool Steve
Published: September 2018

This chapter attempts the question: how can one re-imagine provision for parenting and families with young children in Rotherham through the knowledge that exists in these families and communities? It does so by detailing a series of family den-building events, with community partners, in order to think through how children learn and have experiences in places. By foregrounding and valuing these everyday lived experiences of families and children, the chapter offers more realistic accounts of what it means to parent young children, which should inform policy and practice regarding how young children should be cared for and should participate in communities.
Where I come from and where I’m going to: exploring identity, hopes and futures with Roma girls in Rotherham
Authors: Bullivant Deborah
Published: September 2018

This chapter discusses the ‘I come from’ project, one of the strands within the ‘Imagine’ project, which set out to work with a group of Rotherham's young women, defined as Roma by their school and the communities around them. The project aimed to explore their experiences and visions of an imagined future and their fused identities and shared sense of belonging. In the very midst of the project's creative activities, however, the Jay Report into child sexual exploitation was released, letting loose formerly suppressed fears and anxieties about the population growth and perceptions of Roma communities in parts of Rotherham, especially around the town centre. Immediately upon the report's release, Rotherham's once suppressed racial and cultural tensions came to the surface. Perspectives across the communities changed quickly and significantly, and the growing differences between ethnicities and cultures became the focus of both individual actions and media attention.
Introduction to artistic methods for understanding contested communities
Authors: Pahl Kate , Pool Steve , Hurcombe Marcus
Published: September 2018

This chapter articulates an approach to knowing through art, in that we recognise the need for artists as individuals to intervene and change the world. It also argues that the process of making involves a process of change, and art includes a huge diversity of practice and a commitment to knowing together and making together. Art as knowing can be developed through conversations, walks, in moments of interaction that create spaces for more things to happen. Art is a process, and here we think about how things emerge — stuff comes from stuff: trying, helping, working, making, talking — new ideas come from doing.
What can art do? Artistic approaches to community experiences
Authors: Rafiq Zahir , Pahl Kate , Pool Steve
Published: September 2018

This chapter draws on a conversation held in Rotherham central library café between the artist Zahir Rafiq, Kate Pahl, and Steve Pool. All of the quotations from Zahir in this chapter come from the transcript of this conversation. The chapter explores with Zahir Rafiq his lived experience of Rotherham, and how he has used art to create a space for conversations and for the articulation of experience. In doing so, this chapter asks the question, ‘What can art do?’ and in this process, it argues for the arts as a mode of enquiry as well as an articulation of experience.
Using poetry to engage the voices of women and girls in research
Authors: Rasool Zanib
Published: September 2018

This chapter considers poetry as a creative or arts-based method within social research. It argues that poetry as a research methodology can elicit thoughts, feelings, and emotions, and can give a platform for marginalised voices, such as women and girls, as it enables those silenced voices to be heard — and heard loudly. Poetry offers one way to capture the knowledge held in communities, particularly among those whose voices have been traditionally marginalised, like young people and women. Poetry provides us with a different lens for making sense of everyday interactions, contradictions, and conflicts. Poetry allows us to express different perspectives of our lived experiences — a mosaic of autonomous voices freed through poetry.
The Tassibee ‘Skin and Spirit’ project
Authors: Limb Cassie
Published: September 2018

This chapter discusses the Tassibee ‘Skin and Spirit’ project. The objectives were to work with a group of girls, aged between 7 and 19, with a focus on building their identity and confidence. The aim was to explore anti-bullying strategies through a range of group and individual art and creative activities for a three-month period. The project was able to meet its aims through the exploration of the perception of what our cover of skin is holding ‘within’, by creatively exploring what is valued and ‘precious’ and what is ‘perceived’, and through facilitating safe and open spaces to explore the girls' experiences, both negative and lovely.
‘The Rotherham project’: young men represent themselves and their town
Authors: Gibson Nathan , Rasool Zanib , Pahl Kate
Published: September 2018

This chapter turns to ‘the Rotherham project’, in which participants aged between 12 and 16 were involved in youth projects at Rotherham United Community Sports Trust. The project aimed to use photography as a means of exploring identity and to investigate themes related to the ethics of representation, informed by the participants' first-hand experience of living in Rotherham. The young men explored the town on foot and by minibus, visiting the town centre, the surrounding countryside, and places of special interest, such as a local castle. During the photography sessions, the young men highlighted the things they liked about Rotherham, the challenges they found concerning, and their hopes for the future.
What this book can teach us
Authors: Campbell Elizabeth , Pahl Kate , Pente Elizabeth , Rasool Zanib
Published: September 2018

This chapter offers a sense of the legacy of this book and identify its key features, in order to provide a summary of what the authors have learned from doing the book. The central goal in writing this book has been to demonstrate that communities produce their own forms of knowledge, and that those forms are valid — and valuable — ways of knowing. The chapter articulates the value of this kind of research for community knowledge production that is emergent, situated, and future oriented. As such, this chapter identifies four key themes: thinking across difference, the arts as a mode of inquiry and as an agent of change, rethinking knowledge production practices, and hope and the importance of transformational change. The chapter then reflects on these themes.
Opportunities and challenges of a global profession: an international perspective
Authors: Lyons Karen
Published: September 2018

This chapter presents material about the international context within which social work has developed. Social work is a global profession but one which shows considerable variation in its history, education and practices between countries, posing particular challenges for transnational social workers. The chapter questions the extent to which the global definition and international ethical code and education standards are widely understood or applied, weakening their possible utility for transnational social workers. The chapter goes on to acknowledge that many social problems are international in nature and that social workers would recognise the issues and client groups common across national borders. However, the way that services are organised and the expected responses of social workers show significant variations between countries, with implications for local practices. Finally, the chapter identifies some of the commonly reported strengths of transnational social workers but argues that these are often undervalued due to their positioning as incomers to a system and, therefore, as learners.
A complicated welcome: social workers navigate policy, organisational contexts and sociocultural dynamics following migration to Canada
Authors: Brown Marion , Sansfaçon Annie Pullen , Éthier Stephanie , Fulton Amy
Published: September 2018

Canada is promoted as a land of opportunity, with its natural beauty purportedly matched by the generosity of its people. Since 1994, Canada has been ranked in the top 10 places to live in the world, and in 2013 it placed third in the global ‘better life index’, recognised for its comfortable standard of living, low mortality rate, solid education and health systems, and low crime rate (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development [OECD], 2013). It is a promising option for migrant professionals looking to leave their home countries for a variety of reasons related to social, political and economic conditions. This chapter reports on the experiences of 44 social workers who undertook their social work education outside Canada and migrated to Canada with the intent of continuing to practise social work. We bring analysis to three key areas experienced as problematic: policy, including immigration, recognition of foreign credentials, and registration with the licensing body; organisational context, including issues related to the search for employment and process of hiring; and socio-cultural dynamics, the more subtle relations required to ‘fit in’ and feelings of ‘difference’ in relation to one’s colleagues. The findings for each of these are discussed in detail below, drawing on Bourdieu’s concept of cultural capital (Bourdieu, 1986).
The experience of transnational social workers in England: some findings from research
Authors: Hanna Sue , Lyons Karen
Published: September 2018

This chapter is based primarily on the findings of a qualitative study conducted over 2011/12, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, which investigated the post-arrival integration, professional practice and development of transnational ‘Social workers’ (TSWs) that is, social workers who trained and qualified outside the UK, but who are now involved in delivering statutory child protection/safeguarding services in London and SE England. These workers are used primarily as a reserve labour force by local authorities to ‘plug gaps’ in statutory child protection services which are frequently characterised by high levels of staff turnover. The experiences of these TSWs are relatively under-researched and, despite austerity measures severely affecting the public social care sector, England remains a receiving country for TSWs, although more frequently now from inside the European Union. The wider national policy context, as presented in the literature, is described and reference is made to relevant findings from other research regarding the experiences of TSWs themselves. Evidence from this study demonstrates the challenges associated with entering a professional environment characterised by a far higher degrees of formalism, regulation and, risk-aversive practice than TSWs have encountered in their home countries. Findings will be discussed thematically and conclusions will be drawn to address how, for TSWs, regulation has come to illustrate the salient feature of statutory child protection social work in England
Transnational social workers in Aotearoa New Zealand
Authors: Beddoe Liz
Published: September 2018

While much has been written about social worker migration to the northern hemisphere, prior to the current decade little was known about the experiences of social workers, with professional qualifications gained elsewhere, who were practising in Aotearoa New Zealand. The cultural context of Aotearoa New Zealand brings particular challenges to transnational social workers, and their professional perspectives were little understood. Both qualitative and quantitative strategies were used in a three-phase project to gain greater insight. The findings provided understanding into the nature of the transitional experience for migrant professionals and new vantage points on views of social work as practised in different contexts. We identify perceptions reflecting ‘enduring professional dislocation’ arising from limits to the portability of any ‘universal’ constructs of social work and demonstrating the need for structured support and education for transnational social workers.
Transnational social workers and the Australian labour market
Authors: Harrison Gai
Published: September 2018

This chapter focuses on the position of overseas trained social workers and international graduates of Australian social work programmes in the Australian labour market. It draws on the broader literature on skilled migration, diversity management and labour force trends to examine these dynamics in relation to how they may mediate the employment experiences of transnational social workers. Attention is drawn to the importance of, not only formal recognition of qualifications, but also informal recognition in the labour market in order to optimise employment outcomes for transnational social workers. The chapter concludes by outlining a research agenda to address the paucity of data on transnational social workers in Australia and to build understanding of employers’ perspectives on recruiting social workers from overseas.
Readiness and regulation: perspectives of Canadian stakeholders on the labour mobility of internationally educated social workers
Authors: Brown Marion , Sansfaçon Annie Pullen , Matheson Kate
Published: September 2018

This chapter synthesises the data from two knowledge exchange fora where the findings of a four-year research study funded by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) were shared with, and subsequently responded to by, social work employers and provincial regulators as well as internationally educated social workers. The key themes of knowledge, values, and skill transfer, cultural adaptations, and understanding of the Canadian social welfare system align with the priorities of migrant social workers themselves (Pullen Sansfaçon et al, 2014), suggesting a congruence of central concerns. At the same time, tensions exist between the actual, lived experiences of the social workers and the expectations and practices of the stakeholder group. In this chapter we analyse these points of convergence and divergence, shaped as they are by Canadian social welfare’s prevailing neoliberal ideology and its structural manifestations brought to bear on social work service employers, supervisors, and regulatory bodies.
Recognising transnational social workers in Australia
Authors: Papadopoulos Angelika
Published: September 2018

Analysis of the Australian policy and professional approach to migrating social workers shows how recognition of qualifications across borders both enables, and is constitutive of, internationalised social work practice, with processes governing recognition also serving to define what is acknowledged as social work practice. Enfolded in procedural requirements are standards and practice modalities that comprise the Australian understanding of what ‘legitimate’ social work looks like, and against which migrant social workers’ experience and knowledge are compared. Recognition by receiving countries of the capabilities of transnational social workers is a key dimension of the development of internationalised practice and a process that has significant ethical import. Policy and practice challenges arising from the current processes are identified.
Conclusion
Authors: Beddoe Liz , Bartley Allen
Published: September 2018

This chapter summarises the recurring themes and lessons from the preceding substantive chapters and reflects upon their implications. It draws together the different issues, laws and culture in social work across the five countries examined, and compares the country-specific challenges raised in the chapters. The editors make recommendations for how the social work profession can take a more active role in the transition of Transnational Social Workers, and highlight good practice in preceding chapters. Finally, they comment on the need for more research in the area, including with service users.
Policy analysis in the United States
Authors: Weimer David L.
Published: September 2018

Four demands have driven the development of policy analysis in the U.S. First, reformers have sought evidence to support their efforts. Beginning with the municipal bureaus of the Progressive Era, advocacy groups have sought supportive policy analysis, resulting in the proliferation of ideologically differentiated think tanks that produce policy research. Second, politicians have recognized the need for specialized expertise to address pressing problems. Operations research grew out of efforts to solve problems facing the U.S. in World War II and led to subsequent efforts to improve bureaucratic decision-making capacity. Third, the growing scope and complexity of government have led to a demand for information to support routine decision processes. Fiscal offices support state budgeting and the Congressional Budget Office, Government Accountability Office, and Congressional Research Service support the routine business of Congress. Fourth, politicians have sought to discipline their own (and especially others’) future actions by mandating that analyses be applied to certain classes of decisions. Legislative requirements that the Army Corps of Engineers consider the benefits of investment projects were introduced at the beginning of the last century, legislative requirements for the completion of environmental impact statements were imposed in 1970, and beginning in 1981, executive orders have required cost-benefit analyses be completed for major agency rulemakings. Higher education has responded to these demands by supplying persons trained specifically in policy analysis.
Reflections on 50 years of policy advice in the United States
Authors: Lynn Laurence E.
Published: September 2018

In 1965, U.S. President Lyndon Johnson directed all federal departments and agencies to use a Planning-Programming-Budgeting System (PPBS) to ensure that their annual budget requests were based on the systematic analysis of and justification for their policy and budget recommendations. From America’s earliest days, its political leaders have sought policy advice from experts. In this chapter, Johnson’s mandate will be shown to have been path-breaking in that it initiated the gradual institutionalization of policy planning, analysis, and evaluation at all levels of American government. Policymakers can now draw on the intellectual resources not only of their own organizations but, as well on those of universities, think tanks, consultancies, and non-profit organizations. Rational analysis has not displaced political calculation in policymaking, but it has greatly improved the bases on which public policy is made and implemented in the United States. The challenge to the policy analysis profession now is to vitality, unintellectual diversity and originality, and political relevance that are the basis for the respect it has earned over the years.
The practice and promise of policy analysis and program evaluation to improve decision making within the U.S. federal government
Authors: Maynard Rebecca A.
Published: September 2018

This chapter draws on a 40-year history of patchwork efforts to use data to inform the development of public policy and shape its implementation. I begin with a description of the evolution of the policy process, drawing largely on experiences within the U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services, Education, and Labor. All three agencies have been major supporters of and contributors to advances in the methods of policy analysis and the use of program evaluation to guide decision making. The chapter draws on the roles of these agencies in laying the groundwork for the current emphasis on evidence-based policymaking, in part because of their leadership roles and in part because of the author’s first-hand experience working with these agencies. Of particular note is its attention to the lead up to the present context in which policy analysis and program evaluation are central to both the policy development and monitoring processes. The chapter ends with a discussion of the current movement to create and use credible evidence on the impacts and cost-effectiveness of programs, policies and practices as the foundation for more efficient and effective government and, where evidence is lacking, for integrating a knowledge-building agenda into the roll-out of strategies for change.
Policy analysis in the states
Authors: VanLandingham Gary
Published: September 2018

State governments have been called the ‘laboratories of democracy’ due to their high level of policy innovation. A great deal of policy analysis occurs at the state level to support this experimentation, including internal legislative and executive branch research offices, university think tanks, and private and nonprofit organizations that generate studies to influence state policymaking. Given the diversity among the states, it is not surprising that their policy analysis organizations and activities also vary widely. While state-level policy analysis has grown rapidly, it has also fragmented, and many policy analysis organizations face important challenges. This chapter discusses these trends and the future of policy analysis in the states.
Policy analysis and evidence-based decision making at the local level
Authors: Mossberger Karen , Swindell David , Parkhurst Nicholet Deschine , Tai Kuang-Ting
Published: September 2018

Local governments in the U.S. have many policy responsibilities and relatively more autonomy in decision making than in many countries. Yet, there is a gap in recent research on the use of policy analysis and data-driven decision making in local governments. Historically, the use of data and evidence has influenced change at the local level, from municipal reform in the 20th century to reinventing government. Currently, there are calls for more evidence-based policymaking, and we offer some recent survey evidence on the use of policy analysis and data at the local level, as well as case studies that further demonstrate how evidence gets used. Given great variation in government size, capacity, governance and policies at the local level, along with the potential for experimentation and comparison, greater research attention to local use of analysis and data could contribute to both scholarship and practice.
Committees and legislatures
Authors: Joyce Philip
Published: September 2018

The United States Congress, despite its poor reputation for policymaking, has substantial analytical capacity. While congressional committees possess some of this capability, most of the expertise resides in its three support agencies—the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the Congressional Research Service (CRS). Within their relative portfolios each of these three agencies has provided the Congress with the ability to make policy, challenge policy proposals coming from the president, and hold the executive branch accountable. All of these agencies face the challenge of providing thorough and credible analyses within the confines of the legislative process and timetable. Further, they must maintain their credibility for nonpartisan analysis in the midst of a political environment that is only growing more polarized. These agencies supply a great deal of high quality information. The challenge for the Congress is how to make better use of this analysis in crafting more effective public policies.
Policy advisory committees: an operational view
Authors: Holland Michael , Lane Julia
Published: September 2018

Advisory committees are part and parcel of policy-making in every government agency. Their input is used at many levels, ranging from high level strategic initiatives and planning to very specific input into narrowly defined decisions. This chapter describes an operational overview of the different approaches used by science agencies in the United States and documents the heterogeneous way in which they are used. It suggests that some of the principles that motivated the establishment of advisory committees are not always fully served in practice. It also finds that that the financial structure and incentives of some entities, might usefully be reviewed. The chapter concludes by observing that the structure of committees might be improved by developing a more scientific approach to their constitution.
Policy analysis by corporations and trade associations
Authors: Godwin Erik , Godwin Kenneth , Ainsworth Scott
Published: September 2018

Corporations and trade associations engage in economic, legal, political, and scientific policy analysis. They employ more lobbyists, file more comments on proposed regulations, and sit on more government advisory committees than other categories of interest organizations. These efforts to influence government make extensive use of policy analysis. Routine business decisions by corporations involve of many of the tools used in policy analysis such as calculating the net present value, discount rate, and benefits and costs of alternative investment decisions. We examine the effectiveness of corporate policy analyses in three ways: (1) comparing the success of different interest organizations comment letters concerning a proposed regulation, (2) conducting case studies of three major government decisions involving policy analysis, and (3) examining the use of waivers to improve profits. The chapter ends with recommendations concerning how policy analysts can improve our understanding of American democracy.
The status of the profession: the role of PhD and masters programs in public policy education
Authors: Rubaii Nadia
Published: September 2018

This chapter traces the evolution of graduate level public affairs education in the United States in terms of focus, mission, curriculum, institutional locus, and enrollments, with attention to similarities and differences at the masters and doctoral levels. It highlights the role of two key professional associations in the evolution of the field, NASPAA and APPAM. It also examines some persistent challenges regarding how broadly or narrowly to define the field, how clearly to differentiate among the related fields of study, and how to define and ensure quality.