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There is a renewed interest in third sector organizations with hope for contributions to systems of new public governance and welfare services. This study is based on a survey to the local authorities in Sweden and aims to analyze how collaboration between public and third sector organizations occurs at the local level. A special focus for the study is idea-driven public partnerships (IOPs). The results indicate that collaboration mainly occurs outside of the core fields of welfare and also that the national level agreements set standards to be used in especially the larger local authorities who are more in need of formalized policies to handle the local relations. The institutionalized collaborative relations are diverse and mainly meant to promote a thriving third sector for its democratic values, but there are also certain welfare fields with less local remit such as sports, leisure time activities, and homelessness where NPOs are not crowded out by the public sector. Collaboration with IOPs are more common in larger local authorities and places with a larger proportion of immigrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Welfare bureaus constitute a safety net for the dispossessed Arab minority in Israel who are partially excluded from the state social services. The welfare bureau reforms discussed in this article are consequently crucial to improve welfare services for the underprivileged minority service users. This article partially fills a lacuna in the relevant literature by adopting a critical approach to assess the reforms' actual contributions to improving the organizations' performances for minority population social services. It did this by investigating Arab social workers' views on the outcomes of different welfare services reforms for them. An exploratory study drew data from two tools: content analysis of official documents and in‐depth semi‐structured interviews with 19 Arab welfare bureau managers. The documents indicated that the 'Change Program' (1977) produced minimal to no positive outcomes for Arab welfare bureaus. Also, the respondents indicated that the 'Reform in Local Welfare Services' (2017) produced insufficient achievements, detailed in five themes. Two Arab representatives were consulted for the proposed 'Right to Quality Welfare' program (June 2023), which aims to offer a 'uniform welfare basket' to all citizens. The findings indicate that the concept of up‐down comprehensive organizational reforms should be re‐examined, considering instead small but incremental down‐up modifications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Even though welfare states aim to address citizens' social care needs, disparities in benefit distribution persist, leading to "non-take-up." Non-take-up is the phenomenon in which people who may be eligible for a benefit fail to apply for it or forgo it after applying. Based on a qualitative approach, this study explores reasons for the non-take-up of social-security benefits and services in a convenience sample of 34 Israeli adults. The findings show that the reasons for non-take-up of social benefits and services may be divided into several interrelated levels. Four of the levels identified were identical to those suggested by the socio-ecological model: intrapersonal, interpersonal, organizational, and cultural, with multiple subthemes included in most of them. The policy level, which is integral to the theoretical model, does not emerge in this study. Theoretically, the findings show that the economic "rational trade-off model" does not suffice to explain the non-take-up phenomenon. Future research should expand the study of non-take-up of social benefits and services to potential, rather than actual, claimants of particular benefits or services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate-related risks, vulnerabilities, and impacts are increasing in cities, illustrated by precipitation-driven pluvial floods. Post-event analyses can aid in reducing urban flood risks, but knowledge gaps exist regarding how welfare services and premises are impacted and can be adapted. This study analyses an extreme precipitation-driven event generating extensive flooding in Gävle, Sweden, in 2021. The objective is to increase knowledge about how municipal welfare services are vulnerable to pluvial floods, and of appropriate actions towards improving the response capacity and building more resilient welfare premises and operations. The study shows that the Swedish weather warning system generally worked well, but the analysed property companies lacked strategies and equipment to evade flooding in their properties. Flood damages in 60 analysed buildings were generated by different causes, demonstrating the importance of contemplating the vulnerability of welfare buildings when conducting flood risk assessments. Although the flood event did not cause deaths or serious personal injuries, the study identified impacts on welfare service operations in both the short and long terms. The event increased learning on climate adaptation but did not trigger adaptive action. Identified keys for adaptation include prioritizing premises to protect, knowledge of flood protection equipment, insurance company requirements, and updated emergency plans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to investigate decision-makers' views on changes that robotics will create in welfare services. The purpose was also to discover what the opportunities and challenges are in human–robot interaction during these changes and how to manage these changes. As a research method, an online survey was used. The survey was sent to Finnish decision-makers (N = 184). They were divided into three groups: Techno-positive (n = 66), Techno-neutral (n = 47), and Techno-critical (n = 71). According to the results, more than 80% of the respondents saw that robots can offer support in existing work tasks, and more than 70% saw that the robots can do existing tasks. The most often mentioned challenges were the reduction of interaction and the reduction of human touch. Further, there are various knowledge needs among the respondents. Most of the knowledge needs were not based on the technical use of the robots; rather, they were quite scattered. The results suggest that successful use and implementation of robots in welfare services require a comprehensive plan and change agents. This study suggests that techno-positive people could act as change agents, assisting in implementing the changes. In addition, to manage change in the welfare services it is essential to improve the quality of the information, solve the resistance to change, create organizational awareness, and understanding, and establish a psychological commitment to change the processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social entrepreneurship in social work is vital to finding innovative, creative, and long-term solutions to complex and persistent social problems. Among all social workers, community social workers are the ones who are most expected to be innovative and entrepreneurial. This study explored the motivations for engaging in social entrepreneurship, as well as the action strategies adopted by community social workers who successfully implemented social innovations within the social services where they work. Research findings revealed five action strategies that have the potential to promote successful social ventures; a combination of individual and organizational characteristics motivates entrepreneurial behavior in social work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the impact of NPM reforms on two prominent welfare state professions; medical doctors and teachers. The case study context is Sweden, where the impact of NPM led to a series of reforms in health care and education after 1990. The focus in the paper is on professional autonomy, which can be seen as a core trait in professional work. The findings in the article point to both medical doctors and teachers having lost professional autonomy as a result of NPM-reforms, particularly with regards to the dimensions of work organization and evaluation. Autonomy in individual decision-making seems to have been least affected, even if there are indications of this being infringed upon as well. Despite these broad similarities, the loss of autonomy is found to be more pronounced in the case of teachers. One reason behind this difference, which manifests itself in teachers having become subject to higher level of direct administrative control by school managers while at the same time experiencing a more distinct loss of autonomy to evaluate their work, appears to be that medical doctors have been more successful in establishing themselves as experts in relation to new public audit agencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents empirical findings about the distinctiveness of smaller voluntary sector organisations (VSOs) involved in welfare service provision, based on in-depth, qualitative case study research. We identify a series of organisational features and practices which can mean that smaller VSOs are distinctive from larger organisations. These include how they are governed and managed, their approach to their work, and their position relative to other providers. To explain our findings, we draw on the concept of stakeholder ambiguity. This idea was posited by Billis and Glennerster (1998) and is commonly cited in relation to distinctiveness. We identified several manifestations of stakeholder ambiguity and confirm the concept's explanatory importance, although we argue that our understanding of distinctiveness is enhanced when stakeholder ambiguity is considered alongside other closely related features, such as being embedded in a local geographic community and informal familial care-based organisational cultures. Our findings also highlight the fragility of smaller VSOs. We argue that this combination of distinctiveness and fragility creates a tension for social policy makers, many of whom recognise the value of smaller VSOs and the risks that they face but must weigh this against a requirement to allocate resources for statutory services as effectively as possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to investigate the attitudes of decision-makers toward the use of care robots in welfare services. We investigated their knowledge regarding the use of care robots in welfare services as well as their attitudes toward using robots in their own care and in the care of various user groups, for example, children, youths, and older people. We conducted an online survey with a range of Finnish decision-makers as respondents (N = 176). The respondents were divided into two groups: service actors (n = 104) and research and development (R&D) actors (n = 72). The respondents did not regard themselves as having much knowledge about robotics; however, the results showed that the R&D actors had more overall knowledge of the use of robots than the service actors. The R&D actors were found to be more willing to accept a robot as part of their own care as well as part of the care for various user groups. The contribution of this study is a better understanding of the views of the decision-makers who are or will be in charge of the acquisition of technological devices in welfare services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interprofessional collaboration among welfare services is a policy objective promoted to ensure successful service provision to people with complex needs. In the Nordic region, people who are not in education, employment, or training often have challenging life situations requiring help from a multitude of services. In Norway, significant political and institutional efforts focus on implementing policies that support collaboration. However, we know little about how service workers formalize joint efforts. In this study, I used institutional ethnography to explore how interprofessional collaboration was constructed through negotiations of collaborative agreements among leaders of welfare services and how such negotiations are consequential for collaborative practices. I explored two cases of negotiations initiated by the leader of the Norwegian Labor and Welfare Administration. The negotiations were with the local child welfare and protection services and Refugee services, focusing on the transition of care regarding youth and refugees. The data includes two collaborative agreements between the services, an observation of the negotiation of one agreement, and 10 interviews with leaders and staff. Results show that collaboration is constructed based on holistic service provision. The negotiations, however, do not result in such collaborative practices, but are characterized by the demarcation of responsibilities and work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spanish legislation on gender quotas in electoral candidate lists implies the effective incorporation of women into politics. This measure has created interest in the impact of this law on public service management (substantive representation), especially welfare services. This is due to the influence these services have on work‐life balance. Hence, the objective of this research is to determine the impact of women politicians on the efficiency of municipal welfare services. We estimate efficiency levels in public social service management using non‐parametric techniques over the last three local government legislatures in Spain. We then use truncated regression models to estimate the impact of women's substantive representation on these efficiency levels. The results confirm that more women in local government and female leadership in the opposition result in better levels of efficiency through reduced spending. In contrast, female leadership in the government and many women in the opposition reduce efficiency by supporting spending without increasing welfare services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The arrival of unaccompanied minors from Africa in Spanish territory has been a constant since the last decade of the twentieth century. This migratory phenomenon has forced the child welfare system to attend to thousands of migrant children. The transition to adult life is a decisive stage in overcoming the situation of social exclusion. This research aims to analyse which socio‐educational intervention strategies are effective during the process of transition to independent living with unaccompanied minors of African origin. We designed a qualitative research according to the grounded theory, which we divided into two phases. Twenty‐nine young people (26 men and 3 women) participated. In phase 1, we performed two focus groups (N = 11), and in phase 2, we conducted longitudinal follow‐ups (N = 18) for 24 months through 180 interviews. The results indicate the effectiveness of designing socio‐educational accompaniment, prioritizing spaces of trust from which to attain the goals of emancipation. Young people consider effective those strategies that favour their knowledge of the social, labour and legal reality of the host society, designed considering each minor's individualized situation. We concluded that professional involvement acts as a buffer, reducing the bureaucratic obstacles implemented by the Spanish government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The process of transition to adult life of youth with a record of protection is crucial to overcome the difficulties to achieve an independent life. Objective: This research aims to analyze the conditions under which protected youth are emancipated, as well as the factors that facilitate emancipation. Method: A qualitative study was performed with three samples: longitudinal follow-ups with youths when they exit the system and during 12 months (N = 24); life stories of youths who have exited the child welfare system at least 2 years ago and a maximum of 5 years ago (N = 22); interviews with professionals conducting their intervention in adolescent protection resources (N = 18). Results: The results indicate that protective action is not enabling youths' learning in normalized contexts, which negatively affects the conditions under which emancipation occurs. The experience of the protective action conditions the tendency to benefit from the post-majority socio-educational accompaniment. Conclusions: The importance of socio-educational intervention continuing during the first moments of emancipation, providing professional accompaniment to the entire collective, is highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many studies have explored the impact of child removal on both children and professionals, but there is limited research on the experiences of mothers whose children social services had removed from their homes, particularly within Arab society. This study focused on Arab mothers from East Jerusalem—an ethnic minority in Israel's society, that faces unique challenges—whose children removed from home. The study examines, from the mothers' perspectives (1) reasons for the removal, and (2) relationships with welfare services. 15 Arab mothers from East Jerusalem, aged 25 to 49 who had at least one child removed through a court order participated in the study. Nine of the mothers were divorced, separated, or widowed. The mothers described several reasons for their children's removal, including domestic violence and lack of support from their own families after leaving abusive husbands, poverty leading to what social services interpreted as neglect, the child's challenging behavior, and false accusations. The second theme reveals a lack of cooperation between social workers and the mothers, and social workers' negative perceptions of the mothers hindering reunification. The study sheds light, for the first time as far as we know, on the perspectives of Arab mothers concerning their children's removal. Early support could avert removal, and social workers should make greater efforts to promote child reunification. It is paramount that professionals build trust with these mothers, through culturally sensitive and empowering engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on in-depth interviews with 44 parents in Israel the study presents factors that inhibited fathers from applying for help from welfare services. The findings show the effects of "gender shame". Apparently, both genders consider fathers' appealing for welfare services as an indication of failure to fulfil their role as breadwinners, a view that undermines their male identity. This view led many of the mothers to take the responsibility of seeking help from the welfare services and encourage fathers to focus on their main role as breadwinners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes the course of a psychotherapy with a depressed encopretic boy, using a psychoanalytic approach. The therapy was administered in a public welfare clinic in Israel. Based on an understanding of how the boy's developmental needs had been neglected, an appropriate intervention programme was constructed and implemented. The principal insights determining the course pursued by the psychotherapist included the understanding acquired of the dysfunction and absences within the mother-child relationship during the boy's early years, and the need for the therapist to provide corrective and containing maternal emotional experiences, together with insight regarding the repercussions on the boy's emotional life. Additional understanding was gained about the role of the boy's encopresis, which comprised a symptom, and seemed to be a response to the repressed, unmodulated regressive anger towards the internal maternal figure, owing to the parents' difficulties in meeting the boy's primary developmental needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This evaluation study examined a Family Services Centre (FSC) operating in a socio‐culturally deprived suburban area of Southern Italy to explore how promoting innovative practices to meet increasingly complex family needs. The research used a case study approach and a mixed‐methods design: the service's documents underwent a documentary analysis; users' trends and satisfaction levels were examined using quantitative data; service's identity and changes in the perceptions of professionals were analysed by qualitative techniques. Overall, the data highlighted the fact that the FSC can be considered an effective prevention instrument: its family support practices, oriented to the ASPIRE model, ensure accessibility, empowerment and a strengths‐based approach. Thanks to its strengthened mediator role, client participation and caseworkers' ideas, it represents an environment conducive to the development of innovation in social practices, influencing local social policies regarding child and family welfare. Despite its changes, the FSC still promotes family well‐being and social cohesion within the community with its innovative multilevel and multimethod approach. Considerations and lessons learned by this case study could stimulate decision makers and social practitioners to reflect on innovative models to meet families' needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the article we discuss the increased use of open tenders in the public procurement of welfare services in Norway in order to determine if this implies standardization, professionalization, and/or innovation among civil sector providers and if this differs between welfare areas. The study is based on a review of public documents over the last 40 years and interviews with both purchasers and providers of welfare services in two welfare areas: SUD treatment and vocational rehabilitation. We emphasize the systemic and in part organizational levels, focusing on what the purchaser and management of the provider perceive as the result of these changes in the procurement regime. In light of neo-institutional theory and theories on innovation, we find that the increased use of public procurement and tenders have professionalized and standardized non-profit organizations while also providing room for innovations, according to our informants. We find a kind of dual process, where organizations become more alike in structure, administration, and – to some degree – treatment while also becoming more specialized and, in some cases, arriving at new and innovative solutions regarding content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Joint efforts among welfare services are often needed to provide help to people with complex needs. Interprofessional collaboration is believed to play an important part in successful service provisions. In Norway, a strong political will and significant efforts are focused on financing and implementing policies to support interprofessional collaboration. Despite this, empirical literature on the topic is fragmented. An overview of interprofessional collaboration in Norway is internationally relevant since the complexity in social service provision is experienced as challenging in different contexts. A scoping review was performed to investigate the facilitators of and constraints on interprofessional collaboration by Norwegian welfare services. After screening the relevant literature, 12 empirical studies were synthesized and analyzed using four dimensions of interprofessional collaboration (sharing, partnership, interdependence, and power). The results suggest that interprofessional collaboration by Norway's welfare services has not been fully actualized. This is partly due to the individual services' autonomy and segregation, which are reflected in laws and regulations, the funding system, and different ideological goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the dynamics of the emerging care robotics innovation ecosystem in the Finnish welfare services. Innovation ecosystems have both evolutionary nature as well as aspects of purposeful design, and we study the relevant actors, their roles, the accelerators and the barriers, by conducting a survey among relevant stakeholders in the innovation ecosystem. An online survey was conducted with a range of Finnish stakeholders (N = 250): service actors (n = 148) and research and development actors (n = 102). The responses of the two groups were analyzed with a pairwise t-test. The results show that a variety of stakeholders are needed in ecosystem. The role of micro-level actors, such as workmates and professional and private robot users, were considered as important. Service actors should also play a stronger role in the ecosystem. In particular, research and development actors seemed to be open to new stakeholders entering the ecosystem and highlighted the importance of collaboration between actors. The culture of piloting in Finland is accelerating the ecosystem, but attitudinal factors, such as fears and resistance to change are hindering its development. The ecosystem is dynamic, and the dynamics in the ecosystem seem to be largely based on social and cultural issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People who use illicit drugs frequently become targets for welfare intervention, often positioned both as complicit in the reproduction of intergenerational poverty and marginalisation, and as sources of hope for interrupting such patterns. This article draws on empirical research exploring the experiences of highly marginalised people with histories of illicit drug‐use to investigate how they negotiate service encounters in the context of the participants' previous experiences with welfare interventions. In doing so, the article seeks to texture the conception of the support and control nexus, drawing out the systemic and service level factors of welfare services which inhibit people who use drugs from benefitting from available support. We conducted 12 in‐depth interviews with participants subject to interventions by health, social or legal services between July and September 2018. All interviews were audio‐recorded, transcribed verbatim and coded in NVivo. Transcripts were analysed using a grounded theory approach where data were subject to an iterative process of constant comparisons to identify emergent themes and theoretical concepts. The findings suggest that the blending of welfare services and systems of control has unintended and often negative consequences for highly marginalised people. In effect, the drug treatment programme's aims of assisting people to reduce harm and increase stability are significantly undermined by control mechanisms such as mandatory reporting policies. A better understanding of the ways in which welfare service processes alienate marginalised people from seeking support, as well as from benefitting from the support available, might provide a way to address these concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marketization can be viewed as a potential response to the economic challenges of the public sector. The present study is focused on the development of marketization in serviced housing for the elderly in municipalities within Finland. Marketization is approached by asking the question: What kind of municipality‐level factors are associated with marketization and its development? The data consist of 290 municipalities and cover the years 2000–14. According to the study, the size of the municipality, the political distribution of the municipality council, and the economic situation of the municipality are found to be associated with marketization. More preciesly, the municipality size was found to be a kind of prism, which creates two different realities when it is linked with political distribution and transfers. In the case of big municipalities, the big share of Green‐Left council members on municipality councils has been associated with a low level of marketization. However, in the case of small‐ and medium‐sized municipalities, the low level of marketization has been associated with the government statutory transfers between the state and municipalities, which has helped smaller municipalities to avoid fiscal stress. In a policy context, the present study suggests that the marketization process can be slowed down by supporting the economically weakest municipalities to avoid fiscal stress. On the other hand, the marketization process can be supported by creating bigger municipalities which are then attractive enough to create an effective market mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Many offenders struggle when attempting to reintegrate into society after release from prison, and the conditions they face after release often lead to reoffending. The purpose of this paper is to present a conceptual model on reintegration after prison. The model has the potential to guide practitioners in their understanding of the relationships between welfare services and the agency of the offender.Design/methodology/approach: The model was developed from a small-scale study in the Norwegian Criminal Justice system, which is well known for its emphasis on rehabilitation and crime prevention. Data collection aimed to explore the reintegration process from the perspective of the hard-to-reach and vulnerable population of serial offenders. Nine prisoners in two different prisons were interviewed. A thematic analysis identified two main themes that related, first, to the personal challenges the offenders faced in the rehabilitation and reintegration process and, second, to the factors in the welfare services that interacted with the prisoners' psychosocial issues in the reintegration process.Findings: Findings suggest that the interaction between the psychosocial needs of the prisoners and the organization of the welfare services is complex and does not harmonize. The findings underpin the argument that the current reintegration strategies for certain groups of inmates need to be questioned and challenged.Research Limitations/implications: The model is a conceptual model intended to provide a lens from which to reinterpret offenders' experiences of reintegration and applied to only the small and exploratory study described in this paper. As such, it requires further testing and substantiation, and the model and the study's findings should be regarded as tentative and cannot be generalized to a larger population. The prisoners were selected by the first author for convenience, and it is possible that this also influenced the findings. Other inmates may have presented other experiences.Originality/value: There are few studies looking into reintegration from the reoffenders' perspective, and this study also presents a model that serves as a reflective and analytical tool to developing new approaches to supporting offenders in their reintegration into society from prison in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses the article including right to asylum, immigrants and welfare services.

Limitations in access to welfare services for noncitizens of a host country are structured through conditional entitlements, which require benefit claimants to meet certain conditions to access welfare services. This article explores the conditions and regulations determining access to state-organized accommodation facilities for non-removed rejected asylum seekers in Austria, the Netherlands, and Sweden and the way in which these conditions are implemented. Based on qualitative interviews with stakeholders and analysis of policy documents, I argue that qualities of deservingness, such as vulnerability and performance, determine noncitizens' access to state-provided accommodation, which strengthens the logic of migration control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sami people experience a wide range of challenges in their dealings with health and social services (Blix 2016). However, little is known so far about the circumstances for disabled people of a Sami background (Huuva 2014). Since previous research has shown that people with disabilities have poorer living conditions and fewer opportunities for social participation than the general population (Kittelsaa, Wik & Tøssebro 2015; Söderström & Tøssebro 2011), it would be reasonable to assume that disabled people of a Sami background may risk marginalisation along both dimensions or have a 'double disadvantage' (Wehmeyer 2007). Through narrative analysis of interviews with disabled Sami people, we discuss marginalisation processes faced by this category in their dealings with welfare services. We argue that research based on experiences from ethnic minorities are not sufficient analytical tools to understand the experiences of the Sami people. Rather than experiencing culturalisation (Fuentes 2015), disabled people of a Sami background still experience assimilation mechanisms when communicating with welfare services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This study examines the emotional labour of social workers serving families living in poverty. Based on in‐depth interviews and focus groups, the study concentrates on frontline social workers' emotions when faced with increasing levels of poverty, growing caseloads, and neoliberal social policies in Israel. Findings highlight 3 interrelated aspects of the emotional labour of social workers involved with impoverished families: (a) the emotional flooding social workers experience in their professional routines, (b) the various practices of emotional labour they use to cope with the emotional backlash of their encounters with these families including emotional numbness, emotional Othering, and emotional splitting, and (c) confirmation of the harmful influence of institutional policies on their emotional well‐being and ability to respond effectively to the increasing demands of their clients. Based on Hochschild's theory of emotional labour, we maintain that social workers' emotions should be studied in the context of a specific social, institutional, and political background. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The Mothers Unit is a reunification and treatment programme in a welfare emergency centre in Israel. The unit is the only one in Israel offering joint residence for mothers at risk of abusing or neglecting their children. The unit provides an alternative to out‐of‐home care for young children suffering from maltreatment in order to enable them and their mothers to return to the community together at the end of the treatment. The current qualitative study examines the lived experiences of the women and their children from the subjective perspective of the women currently or previously involved in the programme and of the professionals working with them. Thematic analysis of 36 in‐person semi‐structured interviews reveals the multiple meanings they attribute to life in the Mothers Unit and its perceived effects on their children and themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on a multi-sited qualitative research study, this article applies a service user perspective when exploring how young service users with mental health problems experience the everyday relationship with service providers. Utilizing theoretical aspects from Institutional Ethnography, the article illustrates how different ruling 'texts' coordinate the everyday interactions between service users and professional frontline workers. The article argues that the institutional practice of distinguishing between the formal and informal sphere clashes with the study participants' individual needs for a symmetrical relationship built on lasting and more personal care relations. The article further discusses the dilemmas of implementing a service relationship that requires the street-level bureaucrat to step outside the bureaucratically and formally defined work assignment to build informal and individual relations to the service users as an official part of their everyday work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The question of declining membership of non-profit organizations (NPOs) has been central in academic discussion and research has indicated changes in the way people volunteer. Less emphasis has been on the functions of volunteers as a resource for NPOs and how changes such as increased reliance on professionals in their operations can influence the volume and type of volunteering. This paper examines the value of volunteers as a resource for Icelandic NPOs in the field of welfare services. It is based on a study of the majority of active Icelandic NPOs in the welfare field, as well as an analysis of their respective websites. The findings show that volunteer contributions do not constitute a significant part of the activities of most Icelandic NPOs in welfare services. Apart from membership of boards, volunteers seem to be used primarily as a means of supplementing other resources, such as temporary fundraising efforts. However, the level of volunteering varies according to the size and operational type of organization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considering the importance of mother’s support in the adaptation of a sexually abused child, it is relevant to determine if the mothers and children involved in an intergenerational cycle of child sexual victimization differ from dyads in which only the child has been abused. The purpose of this study was to compare mother–child dyads with sexually abused children according to whether the mother had herself been victim of child sexual abuse. The sample included 87 dyads with sexually abused children aged 3–18 years old and their mothers (44 reporting maternal and child abuse), followed by social welfare services of the province of Quebec (Canada). The two groups of mothers were compared on their past family abuse experiences and past family relations, their mental health history, their current psychological distress, their parenting behaviors, and their current levels of family functioning. Children were compared on their adaptation. Multivariate analyses indicated that mothers reporting child sexual abuse were more likely to report more other maltreatments in their childhood and greater prevalence of lifetime history of alcohol abuse disorders, dysthymia, and panic disorder compared with mothers who had not experienced CSA. Compared to children whose mothers had not experienced CSA, those whose mothers had experienced CSA showed higher rates of problems behaviors and were more likely to report having been sexually abused by a trusted person. These results highlight the specific clinical needs for the assessment and treatment for sexually abused children whose mothers experienced child sexual abuse. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article investigates the impact of school to work transition support for young disabled adults. We specifically examine the claims of what we have termed the ‘hurdle theory’ of transition support, which dominates Norwegian disability research. The fundamental assumption of this theory is that there is a negative relationship between transition support and employment outcomes. We use a cross-sectional sample of 245 young disabled Norwegian adults to examine this assumption, and find that transition support in the form of labour market programme (LMP) participation is negatively associated with employment outcomes, even when we control for other significant background variables. However, due to limits in our data and the non-arbitrary nature of transition support, we cannot rule out that there might be other explanatory variables that account for this association. Therefore, we also point to other potential explanations of the negative association and research designs better suited to investigate these claims. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In our study we investigated the motivational and ideological correlates of the approval of welfare services in postsocialist Central Eastern and Western Europe. In the centre of our inquiry stood how the motivations of selflessness and conventionality, along with distributional justice principles, are related to our welfare preferences beyond our rational self-interest, furthermore, how these associations depend on social-cultural circumstances. We have found that the motivational background of egalitarian economic and welfare attitudes are substantially different in the two regions. While beside of the rationalisation of self-interest, it seems to be related to selflessness-driven solidarity in Western Europe, pro-welfare and egalitarian distributional views are primarily motivated by conventionality-driven norm adherence in postsocialist countries in the form of the mechanism of postsocialist economic system nostalgia. Our results highlight the benefits of a context-specific 'motivated social cognition' approach to ideological and political attitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discourses on children and what is considered to be proper parenting have been accentuated by the processes of globalization. In Norway, we study current discourses on children and parenting, based on a particular case: Norwegian Child Welfare Services' interaction with and intervention in immigrant families with children. We use a discursive analytical framework to analyse a sample of 80 newspaper texts, reflecting on and debating this allegedly problematic meeting. The texts are derived from regional and country-wide Norwegian newspapers in the period 1 January 2011 to 30 April 2013. Distinct discourses located in the texts concerned: (1) No-tolerance for parenting practices implying violence and force; (2) Every child is a subject of individual – and equal – rights; (3) Good parenting is child-focused and dialogue based and (4) Norwegian Child Welfare Services – authoritative as well as contentious in family matters. The discourses indicate the presence of two important subject positions, first, the child as the pivot. This implies that children are given a superior moral status, and are to enjoy human dignity and values such as individuality, equality and justice, individual rights and an obligation for the state to oversee and ensure this position also for the child. The other important subject position concerns parents as guarantors for children developing proper skills. This compels processes toward standardization and homogenization of parenting which positions some groups of parents as deficient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our study investigates the assumption that citizens expect the democratic institutional system to operate in accordance with values and norms that are deeply embedded in public thinking of their country. As individual-level trust towards the institutional system is built mainly on these norms and values, our results show that differences between Eastern and Western European public thinking lead to asymmetries regarding the bases of institutional trust. Specifically, degree of income inequalities and perceived quality of welfare services seem to be more important factors in the postsocialist region in comparison with Western Europe. Furthermore, in accordance with the approach of motivated social cognition, we could also confirm that those with a higher level of conventionality motivation lean on normative ideological elements to a greater extent when they are indicating their personal level of institutional trust. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interdependencies and conflicts between civil society and welfare states are of continuing interest and controversy among civil society researchers. Particularly, issues of motivation, collaboration, management, and institutional contexts have been subject to extensive scrutiny. Less prominent on this research agenda, the issue of public perceptions and legitimacy is highly relevant to the conversation on welfare state and civil society. This study contributes on this topic by investigating the public legitimacy of volunteer involvement in public welfare services. The article presents findings from a qualitative interview study of perceptions of welfare institutions conducted in 2013-2014 among 115 participants from Sweden and Denmark. The hypothesis investigated is that the Nordic model of welfare is legitimized by its public nature to a degree which excludes volunteers from legitimately contributing as part of public welfare institutions. Findings suggest that volunteers are held in high regard among Swedes and Danes, but the involvement of volunteers in public welfare provision is deemed both a threat to the Nordic model of Welfare and matter-out-of-place in regards to the role the interview participants ascribed to volunteers and civil society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to recognize the obstacles that limit the Palestine refugees' benefit from social welfare services provided by the UNRWA. Defining the roles of the professional practice specialist for the international social work vis-à-vis confronting obstacles that limit the Palestine refugees' benefit from the social welfare services provided by the UNRWA. This study belongs to the evaluative studies. The researcher depended on the scientific method through the social survey by the probability sample of the Palestine refugees, also, the researcher depended on the scientific method through the social survey by the comprehensive inventory system of the social workers in order to define the roles of the professional practice specialist for the international social work vis-à-vis confronting obstacles that limit the Palestine refugees' benefit from social welfare services. The researcher applied this study to a selected sample chosen in a systematic random manner using the method of proportional distribution. The sample consisted of (600) Palestine refugee families in Nablus of different geographical distributions. Also, the researcher applied this study to the social workers on the relief and social services program affiliated to the UNRWA in the West-Bank, with the total number of (121) social workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A recent thread of debate in social policy research has been the 'discovery' of welfare services. Previous comparative studies in this field have been largely erratic and have led to different results. This ambiguity is mainly due to flaws inherent in the data sets. In order to overcome these problems, this article uses an alternative approach of operationalizing welfare services. Employment patterns in the welfare sector provide a holistic picture of welfare services regarding quantity, kind, and organization. Cluster analysis leads to a four-cluster structure that bears high resemblance to the conventional welfare regime typology by Esping-Andersen and its subsequent advancements. These findings are set in the context of the welfare regimes literature in order to enhance our understanding of the functioning of welfare regimes. The study suggests that the ideological orientation of the welfare state is a good starting point for a holistic framework of welfare regimes combining the transfer and the service component. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes a decision model designed to help the Centrelink branch of the Australian Government Department of Human Services target investments in case coordination for high-need customers. The model uses a technique called multiple criteria analysis to score the investment priority of more than 1,000 geographic regions across Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rehabilitation in Finland is a good example of functions divided among several welfare sectors, such as health services and social services. The rehabilitation system in Finland is a complex one and there have been many efforts to create a coordinated entity. The purpose of this study is to open up a complex welfare system at the upper policy level and to understand the meaning of coordination at the level of service delivery. We shed light in particular on the national rehabilitation policy in Finland and how the policy has tried to overcome the negative effects of institutional complexity. In this study we used qualitative content analysis and frame analysis. As a result we identified four different welfare state frames with distinct features of policy problems, policy alternatives and institutional failure. The rehabilitation policy in Finland seems to be divided into different components which may cause problems at the level of service delivery and thus in the integration of services. Bringing these components together could at policy level enable a shared view of the rights of different population groups, effective management of integration at the level of service delivery and also an opportunity for change throughout the rehabilitation system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Jensen C. The forgotten half: analysing the politics of welfare services Int J Soc Welfare 2011: 20: 404-412 © 2010 The Author(s), International Journal of Social Welfare © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and the International Journal of Social Welfare. This article discusses the welfare state and argues that the service component has been neglected in the mainstream literature. A main reason for the neglect is the lack of theorising on the distinction between the politics of welfare services and the politics of transfers. An analytical framework that may help overcome this problem is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last decade, the labour migrant population, especially from East European countries, has significantly increased in Scandinavia. Among the Scandinavian countries, Norway stands as the largest recipient of labour migrants from new European Union (EU) countries. This article focuses on the reception conditions for labour migrants from new EU member states during the period 2004—2009. The article also explores, contextualizes and relates the perspectives of the service providers to the Nordic welfare system, including, for example, eliciting their views on whether and why they think there is a need for a recalibration of existing practice and policies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Jensen C. Determinants of welfare service provision after the Golden Age Int J Soc Welfare 2011: 20: 125-134 © 2009 The Author, International Journal of Social Welfare © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and the International Journal of Social Welfare. The welfare state literature exhibits a 'transfer bias' in the sense that very little research exists on welfare services or benefits in-kind. This article presents one of the first systematic studies on the determinants of welfare service provision since the end of the Golden Age of welfare expansion. The article concludes that partisan factors do not drive change, although historically they may have been pivotal. Instead, new factors, including deindustrialisation, female labour force participation and rising public attention appear to be highly significant. It is argued that new studies need to take seriously both the individual characteristics of services as well as the changing social demands that the services are supposed to meet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores pathways into working life for Norwegians with mobility disabilities through a life span approach. Semi-structured interviews were used to gather data from 15 employed individuals with mobility disabilities to gain an insight into their interpretation of events and conditions over the course of their life as either obstacles or facilitators for entrance into employment. We identified three categories of narratives: the 'straightforward', the 'supported' and the 'barrier-prone' path narratives. Higher education appears to be the main facilitator to a smooth transition into employment while certain aspects of welfare service provision are the main impediments. The analysis also demonstrated that barriers to employment do not pertain to isolated events but rather are obstacles that the interviewees experience recurrently over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improving outcomes for children is a major concern in developed countries. This article examines the Every Child Matters (ECM) policy in England that seeks to integrate strategies for tackling a range of risks in relation to children, both risks of harm to themselves and harm they may pose to society. The emphasis is on early identification and intervention to reduce the numbers who go on to experience serious problems. The government cites research as providing the evidence to permit screening and targeting of 'at risk' children. However, 'at risk' refers to a range of adverse outcomes with different, though overlapping, causations. This article questions whether the research base permits an acceptable level of screening for individual children at risk in some general sense and raises concerns about potential harmful consequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current research is a pilot study that included 87 single women who responded to an announcement placed in one of the national newspapers and then filled out interview questionnaires. The study hypothesized three groups of variables for predicting elderly single women's appeals for help from health and welfare services: (a) demographic variables, (b) intrapersonal variables, and (c) interpersonal variables. The research tools were (a) a demographics questionnaire constructed specifically for this study; (b) a personal assessment of single life: chosen or unchosen, including a question regarding what single people think about bachelorhood/spinsterhood; (c) an approach to the institution of bachelorhood/spinsterhood; (d) self-evaluation questionnaire; (e) a sense of mastery over life questionnaire; (f) informal support networks questionnaire; and (g) an assessment of the appeal to health and welfare services for help. A special questionnaire was constructed, which included a list of health and welfare services. The research findings indicate connections among all the research variables. All the research hypotheses were confirmed. Special attention should be given to this one tenth and more of the elder population. It might improve the lives of those women and save Western governments a lot of money. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Background: In the dominant health-care policy, commonly referred to as New Public Management, primary emphasis is placed on the reduction of costs in health care. This development threatens to increase inequality in society based on levels of health or impairment and on gender. Aim: The aim of this paper is therefore to raise awareness among nurses about the impact of New Public Management and explore how they might develop services that meet the diverse needs and wishes of those being served. Theoretical approach and method: Although this policy has been criticised by nurses, it has also been observed that they are key players in its realisation. This discussion paper explores the impact of different discourses upon the practice of home-nursing care. It was developed within the post-structural tradition, where discourses are considered of key importance in shaping practice. Discourses represent different viewpoints and interests, and determine what can be considered meaningful and possible. The empirical studies which form the base for many of the main arguments presented were identified through an extensive review of published ethnographic research of home care in the years 2000–2008. Results: A review of studies conducted in a number of countries both in North America and Europe showed that home-care services have in many ways been diminished. Clients and their caregivers experience insecurity and wish for more assistance. With New Public Management the focus has shifted from an ethical discourse to an economic one, although this shift has not been clearly articulated and critiqued. By understanding the impact of New Public Management, nurses can better focus their practice to meet the diverse needs of patients and their caregivers. Conclusion: In order to be able to respond to retrenchment in health services, nurses need to understand the complex ethical and political issues of New Public Management. A number of practices can be developed for working with patients and their families in such a way that their needs and wishes are respected. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Childcare services have experienced a sudden surge in the level of public provision since the late 1990s. There is a rising awareness of the benefits of childcare services, not least in terms of the human capital they generate. These recent changes - and especially the country variation therein - are vaguely covered by existing literature, which tends to focus on effects rather than the causes of policies. In this article, three competing hypotheses on the institutional conditions of change are derived and tested. The article shows that change is determined by curriculum traditions and not by the size of vested interests or ceiling effects. Countries belonging to the readiness-for-school-curriculum tradition have expanded their provision considerably more than countries belonging to the socialpedagogical-curriculum tradition; the reason is argued to be that the former conceptually matches the political preference for generation of human capital much better than the latter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The discussion on the existence and nature of the welfare regimes of Western democracies has been ongoing for more than 15 years, and many significant contributions have been made. The scholarly work has, however, had a tendency to focus on the transfer component of welfare states, thereby losing sight of the welfare service component. This article argues two aspects. First, the transfer component and welfare service component are two distinct dimensions of welfare regimes. Second, great differences exist between health care and social care services; health care is characterized by very uniform levels of expenditure across countries, while expenditure on social care services conforms to the regime typology of Esping-Andersen. This is taken to indicate that the welfare service component consists of two different types of services distinguished by the importance of the two ideological dimensions of familiarism and statism during the formative years of these welfare service sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]