Local Social Services Departments Research Articles

BUILDING THE RESEARCH PRACTICE PARTNERSHIP TO PROMOTE CONTINUOUS QUALITY IMPROVEMENT IN ADULT PROTECTIVE SERVICES

Abstract Maryland’s Department of Human Services, Office of Adult Services developed a multiyear plan to strengthen Adult Protective Services. This plan included the development of a partnership between OAS and the University of Maryland School of Social Work to develop, implement and sustain a Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) review process for Adult Services Programs (APS) to improve outcomes for vulnerable, elderly, and disabled adults. This paper focuses on partnership development between state government and university researchers to engage collaboratively in continuous quality improvement and intervention efficacy evaluation. Challenges and strategies for building logic models, developing performance measurement strategies, translating existing administrative data into research ready formats, and engaging stakeholders at the state level and in local departments of social services will be discussed. Key challenges included, staffing issues, technology, access to administrative data, and inadequate system resources to engage in research. Strategies for overcoming these challenges will be discussed.

Team Managers in Local Social Service Departments in Israel as Bottom-Up Social Policy-Makers

Following on Felice Perlmutter's work on the managerial role of social workers in social services, this article contributes to the still limited knowledge on the role of social workers in middle-management positions in formulating new policies ‘on the ground‘. The study expands knowledge about policies determined by team managers in local social service departments in Israel. It occurs in the nexus between street-level bureaucracy, professionalism and managerial positions. Semi-structured interviews with 28 team managers revealed that they formulated ‘new‘ policies with regard to the provision of psychosocial services and material assistance (who gets what, when and how). This occurs when they resist official policy, when it is vague or non-existent. Most of their policy decisions are not documented and draw upon consultations with colleagues and superiors though not with clients. The team managers perceive these policies as a means for achieving balance between clients’ well-being and budgetary constraints. Yet their decisions lack transparency, are decided upon without public discourse and may lead to greater inequity between clients

Characteristics of Organizational Resilience during a Security Crisis

Abstract In light of the crisis situations the world over, resilience of organizations has become an increasingly important practical and theoretical issue. This research examines the characteristics of resilience in public organizations during the early stages of a security-related crisis. Based on personal interviews with 32 managers and employees in local social service departments and community centers who experienced the crisis as part of their jobs, the most prominent characteristic that contributed to resilience was the propensity to act. Characteristics that undermined resilience were also identified. The article discusses the characteristics of resilience identified and their implementation, as well as the need during a crisis to break away from routine organizational patterns and the planning that can develop organizational resilience.

People with intellectual disabilities at the end of their lives: The case for specialist care?

People with intellectual disabilities have a shorter life expectancy, but healthcare improvements mean that they are beginning to live longer, with associated health difficulties. This means that there is an urgent need to focus research on ageing as well as end-of-life care. This study aimed to explore a specialist intellectual disability service for older people who are dying and how it related to their quality of life and to costs associated with care provided. Data were collected for nine residents and 15 staff members of the specialist service. A single case study design with mixed methods including observations, interviews, standardized questionnaires and costs analysis was utilized. We found positive results regarding overall quality of life, although individuals had limited social networks. Placement fees paid by local health trusts and social services departments were slightly higher than the estimated cost of care reflecting good financial management by a small voluntary sector organization. Whilst the philosophical arguments around "specialist" care persist, this service fills a gap in intellectual disability care provision.

Family involvement meetings: Engagement, facilitation, and child and family goals

Family Group Decision Making (FGDM) is a strategy to engage family members and social service professionals in child welfare to make decisions for the child and family (Olson, 2009). Family Involvement Meeting (FIM) is a mid-Atlantic state implementation of FGDM in the United States. The current study sample is comprised of 460 participants who attended FIMs at local Departments of Social Services (DSS). The objectives of this study are to examine relations among participants' engagement, facilitators' practices, and child and family service planning outcomes during the FIM. Results of ANOVA tests show that family members, DSS workers and supervisors, and other professionals have significant differences in engagement levels and evaluations of facilitators' practice; and facilitators' practice also varied significantly based on reasons for FIM meeting. Logistic regression results indicate that participants' engagement and facilitators' practice are significant predictors of service planning on achievement of family's goals and protection of child's safety. Results imply that facilitators should improve facilitation performance and make more efforts in engaging family members to improve FIM outcomes and child well-being.

Looking for an emergency door

Purpose – The paper investigates the role of information asymmetries and sensegiving processes of citizens claiming for social services. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the relevance of applicants’ agency, since it has been generally neglected in the analysis of social services provision. On the contrary, the paper proposes an alternative view, considering applicants as actors who are able to develop dialectic strategies for claiming specific forms of social assistance. Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on a qualitative research, conducted following an inductive approach. The data have been collected in three different Italian municipalities, where the researcher has been the opportunity to perform a period of observation of the interviews between the social workers of the local social services department and the citizens applying for social assistance. Findings – The findings of the research point out that informational asymmetries play an ambivalent role in the definition of applicant’s strategies, since they represent an ambivalent and dynamic factor, rather than a mere source of disadvantage for the user. From this viewpoint, the citizens’ possibilities to access to social assistance are shaped by both institutional and dialectic factors: on the one hand, access to social assistance relies on specific criteria of eligibility (institutionally defined), but on the other hand the access is the outcome of situated sensegiving processes, performed by both the applicants and the gatekeepers of social services during their encounters. Research limitations/implications – The research is based on the analysis of a small number of cases, within a context that is characterized by a high level of organizational and professional discretion in the regulation of the provision of social assistance. Practical implications – The findings of the research urge policy maker to re-consider applicants as strategic actors and opens the space for the development of new options of regulation of the delivery of social services. Social implications – The paper suggests to consider the applicants for social services as people who, although in a condition of need, are capable to identify specific forms of assistance. From this point of view, informational asymmetries are not be considered as a stigmatic issue, but as a space which calls for further and less superficial investigation. Originality/value – The paper challenges some of the most taken-for-granted theoretical assumptions in the analysis of the regulation of the access to social assistance. First, it proposes a dynamic interpretation of the notion of informational asymmetries, considering them as a space for action, rather than a binding factor; second, it emphasizes the relevance of user’s agency in the access to welfare services, that is generally neglected since most analyses focus on professional discretion disregarding the hypothesis of the user as a strategic actor.

Diversion and Kinship Care: A Collaborative Approach Between Child Welfare Services and NYS's Kinship Navigator

This article suggests that kin are engaged as a resource by local departments of social services and diverted into informal kinship care, outside of foster care, and that these families often are not connected to services. The authors offer a procedure for insuring that kin who are diverted are connected to kinship navigators and direct services.

The criminal injuries compensation scheme

PurposeThis paper seeks to provide an analysis of historic and current criminal injuries compensation schemes in Great Britain.Design/methodology/approachThe paper aims to explain the nature of the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA) that administers the present scheme and to identify the qualifying criteria to establish eligibility for awards of compensation and obstacles to success. It deals with the nature and amounts of the awards available, the evidence gathering process, causes of delay and impediments to the achievement of fair outcomes. In the context of cases of serious injury, including acquired brain injury, it examines specific problems that are likely to be encountered and a perceived inadequacy of the compensation available to victims of such injury. The paper considers the involvement of the National Health Service in cases where applications for compensation are made and the possibility that medical professionals might inadvertently hinder the chances of a fair award. The position of local authorities and social services departments is also addressed, as is the danger that proper claims for injured victims might not be identified.FindingsFrom the point of view of the victim of crime who is faced with making an application to CICA, the problems that they face lie with the process, the possibility of being refused on technical grounds, limits on compensation, gaps in the scheme – which might leave victims or their relatives going uncompensated or under‐compensated, and finally the lack of financial support with the cost of representation where it is needed. Of equal concern is the fact that the description of the circumstances of the assault and the injuries suffered can be crucial to ensure that full, proper, and relevant evidence gathering is undertaken. Without suitable skills, it is very easy for the lay applicant inadvertently to mislead, or to give the CICA the opportunity to reject or under‐compensate.Originality/valueThis paper provides a detailed analysis of CICA and reflects upon what the future might hold for injured victims of crime.

Varieties of organizational learning

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the learning dynamics in the local level public organizations due to a policy intervention in collaboration with university. This study aims to identify the existence of four different types of organizational learning in different localities and to explain their implications to public sector organizations as well as private firms.Design/methodology/approach – The paper used both the secondary data collected for over a period of more than four years and quantitative analysis for parameter estimation. It also collected the primary data by deploying a semi‐structured survey instrument for their collection. Two sets of data were triangulated to derive the learning types.Findings – The study measured the presence of a learning environment that was hypothesized to influence the degree of organizational learning and evaluated learning variations as approximated by the penetration rate in local departments of social services. Evidence was found of differential, di...

A step in the right direction: people with learning difficulties moving into the community

It is more than a decade since the government announced that Regional Health Authorities (RHAs) should close their long-stay mental handicap hospitals. The North West Regional Health Authority's (NWRHA) commitment to the resettlement of people with learning difficulties into ordinary housing in the community pre-dated the government's cost-driven initiative. In 1982 the Region published A Model District Service, a strategy document supported by both the District Health Authorities (DHAs) and the local social services departments, in which it set out a user-centred philosophy for community services for people with learning difficulties. This paper is based on an evaluation of the impact of that strategy, the central part of which was an examination of the experiences of 102 people who moved out of three large mental handicap hospitals between March 1990 and March 1991. The research team's primary concern was to obtain information from the people with learning difficulties who had moved into the community. Unstructured interviews were conducted with those with an adequate level of communication, photographs were used to assist those with very limited communication; Observations were made over a period of time of those without any communication skills at all. Interviews were also conducted with the formal care worker in the community and, where there was one, a relative who had meaningful contact with their learning disabled relative. The research found that the move into the community offered the people concerned a much improved quality of life, with greater independence and choice in everyday living. However, there is a need to build on this so that people's life experiences are not merely better than those offered by the already discredited institutions, but so that they can become fully integrated and respected members of society.

Carers can ask for a social services needs’ assessment

In response to Alison Jenkins’ article ‘Who’s looking after the carers?’ (reflections January 11), I suggest the nurse contacts his or her local social services department, with the permission of the carer, to ask for a carer’s assessment. Assessment of their needs is the right of any carer and they may be offered a variety of practical and emotional support.

Coping with sight loss: Getting used to glaucoma

The author gives an account of the onset of glaucoma while he was still at work, of the medical treatments and surgical operations aimed at saving his sight, and of how he learned to accept that he would no longer be able to work and to continue with some of the pastimes and activities that had been part of his and his family's daily life. The support of the staff of his local Social Services Department is described and praised, and he shows how his ongoing rehabilitation is equipping him to cope with life during his retirement years.

Constructing management practice in the new public management: the case of mental health managers.

There has been a growth in managerialism of professionals in the Public Sector. This paper contributes to this debate by examining perceptions of senior managers in mental health services within Health Authorities, NHS Trusts and Local Authorities' Social Services departments in Wales. The paper explores how different professions responded differently to the growth of managerialism. The results suggest important differences and similarities between management in health and social services settings.

Inter-Organizational Collaboration among Social Workers: The Case of Community Mental Health Centers and Local Social Service Departments in Israel

Journal Article Inter‐Organizational Collaboration among Social Workers: The Case of Community Mental Health Centers and Local Social Service Departments in Israel Get access Varda Amir, Varda Amir Correspondence to Gail K. Auslander, DSW Associate Professor, Paul Baerwald School of Social Work, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mt. Scopus, Jerusalem, Israel 91905. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Gail K. Auslander Gail K. Auslander Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The British Journal of Social Work, Volume 33, Issue 4, 1 June 2003, Pages 557–566, https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/33.4.557 Published: 01 June 2003

The European Court of Human Rights and removal at birth

The article by Robinson (2002) and the letter by Baldwin (2002) about the removal of a baby from its mother at birth make interesting reading in that they bring to the attention of the profession a case at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) with serious implications for all midwives. However, I do urge a substantial amount of caution in taking the decision as set out in either or both articles. Only a full reading of the report of the Court itself will permit a proper understanding of the case and the issues it raised. In particular, it will not only allow the reader to understand the workings of the Court's mind, which was not entirely unanimous, but also will permit an overview of the facts giving rise to the involvement of the local social services department which led it to take care proceedings.

On the link between different combinations of Negative Affectivity (NA) and Positive Affectivity (PA) and job performance

Despite the assumed orthogonality of Negative Affectivity (NA) and Positive Affectivity (PA), the effects of the different combinations of NA and PA on work-related outcomes such as job performance have been neglected. The present study among 42 employees of a local social services department in the Netherlands was conducted to fill this gap. The results show that a negative link between NA and job performance (as assessed by the immediate supervisor) exists only when PA is low. This finding elucidates the role of dispositional affect in organizational research and emphasizes that the interaction between both affectivity dimensions should be included when studying how affect relates to job performance and other work-related outcome variables. # 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Primary Care Partnerships — Progress and Problems

Primary care groups and trusts, social services and wider local authority departments are making good progress in developing partnerships in a rapidly changing policy environment. These partnerships are developing at different levels (strategic planning, operational service delivery), both with social services departments and with a wider range of local authority functions. This paper draws on the latest round of the three‐year national Tracker Survey of Primary Care Groups and Trusts. The partnerships developed by PCG/Ts are considerably broader than the original key collaboration required with local social services departments; this raises questions about the role of the social services representative on the PCG Board/PCT Executive Committee. Some of the traditional obstacles to partnerships ‐ particularly differences in organisational boundaries ‐ and the imperatives of national policy priorities are continuing to shape local collaborative activity.

Combining key elements in training and research: Developing social work assessment theory and practice in partnership

This paper is based on a joint project between staff from a university department of social work and a local social services department and is jointly written by the four people involved. It reports on the development of a package of training and research over the past 5 years designed to improve standards of assessment in the work of child and family social workers employed by the authority. It analyses the positive reception given to the project both from practising social workers and from management. It contends that this model of combining theory, training, research and practice can and should be used more widely as a basis for supporting and developing professional social work. It discusses the introduction of a theoretical framework which anticipated the new national framework for assessment, but which has been used to critically assess it (as well as other models of assessment), and has involved experienced workers in their evaluation.

Progress in partnerships

This is the fourth in a series of five articles Partnership—between organisations, services, and frontline staff—is widely promoted as an alternative to large scale structural reorganisation of the relation between...

Outcome of referral to social services departments for people with cognitive impairment.

The objective of this study was to determine how the entry into long term care of people assessed by their local social services department (SSD) under the National Health Service and Community Care Act 1990 is predicted by the severity of their cognitive impairment, care provided by family members, and the receipt of community care services. The design involved a cohort study of people over one and a half years following referral (min-max: 1-2 years) from three SSDs (county council, metropolitan and inner London boroughs). Consecutive recruitment of 141 people with cognitive impairment aged 65 and over took place over a 4 month period. The main outcome measure was survival analysis of time taken from referral to entering long term care at follow-up. The receipt and intensity of community care services increased the probability of remaining at home. People with mild or moderate cognitive impairment were more likely to remain at home if they had a spouse or daughter carer. Analysis of the interaction between three main effects predicting entry to long term care (severity of cognitive impairment, access to a carer, and the receipt of home care or day care) suggests that while carers are central in determining whether older people with cognitive impairment are able to remain living in the community, there are limits to the care they can provide.