Exit, loyalty and focus. Dutch social workers’ responses to swing-of-the-pendulum policies

Abstract

ABSTRACT Many social workers are confronted with tidal waves – cyclical or swing-of-the-pendulum policies – in the course of their career. Policies oscillate between harsh and lenient, emphasising safety and family unity, equality and tailor-made arrangements. In addition, social work organisations are being organised and reorganised in recurrent modes as well: from large-scale to small-scale, with or without team coordinators, from a generalised to a specialised division of tasks. In this article, we pose the question how social workers respond to cyclical changes in policy and management. We use a dataset of 35 interviews with Dutch social workers – trained in the early 1990s, early 2000s, and early 2010s – about their careers. We found that some social workers respond to cyclical changes in policy and management by exiting their profession or contemplating exit. Others adjusted to the policy circles and management fashions, sometimes grudgingly, sometimes because they endorsed the new policies, and sometimes because they just went along. Yet other social workers practised focus, that is: they sought refuge in the core of their profession, delivering the best possible social work, ignoring the tidal waves as far as possible. The latter response seems to be based on a strong professional identity