Dealing with risk in situations of poverty. When complexity in frontline practice becomes wallpaper for organisational policy.

Autor/inn/en	Dewanckel, Lore; Decoene, John; Beveren, Laura Van
Titel	Dealing with risk in situations of poverty. When complexity in frontline practice becomes wallpaper for organisational policy.
Quelle	In: European journal of social work, 26 (2023) 1, S. 160-172 PDF als Volltext Link als defekt meldenVerfügbarkeit
Beigaben	Literaturangaben
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	online; gedruckt; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1369-1457; 1468-2664
DOI	10.1080/13691457.2021.1977253
Schlagwörter	Empirische Untersuchung; Soziale Ungleichheit; Kindeswohl; Armut; Belgien; Kindeswohl; Soziale Ungleichheit; Kinderschutz; Kinderschutz; Armut; Soziale Arbeit; Institution; Belgien
Abstract	A recent body of research draws on the concept of child welfare inequality and shows that social inequalities, such as poverty, are reproduced in and through child welfare and protection interventions. We therefore examine how the recent preoccupation with risk relates to ways in which frontline social workers in child welfare and protection deal with poverty. Our contribution is based on a qualitative research project in a governmental organisation in Flanders (the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium) that implements the Australian risk assessment method Signs of Safety (SofS). We explore how frontline social workers who implement Signs of Safety in Flanders deal with risk in situations of poverty, and identify four strategies of discretion in dealing with poverty: (1) poverty as a complicating factor, (2) poverty as a concern, (3) poverty as an undercover concern for social workers, and (4) poverty as a social problem that requires structural responses. Our research findings particularly show that the interaction of frontline social work with organisational policy is crucial. Rather than framing poverty as 'the wallpaper of frontline practice', we argue that the complexity and struggle at stake in frontline practice becomes 'wallpaper' for child welfare and protection organisational policy in Flanders.
Erfasst von	Deutsches Zentralinstitut für soziale Fragen, Berlin
Update	2023/1