Social Welfare Department Research Articles

Beyond dependency or beyond capitalism? A critique of New Zealand's drive towards workfare

This paper attempts to critique, from a Marxist standpoint, the move towards workfare in New Zealand by examining the neo‐liberal assumptions underlying the concept of ‘welfare dependency’. Its focus is the Beyond Dependency Conference organized by the NZ department of Social Welfare, among other organizations, in April 1997, to promote the ideology of ‘well‐being’ resulting from work. The Beyond Dependency Conference brought a number of ‘overseas’ experts to NZ as part of the Coalition Government's drive towards the Community Wage, which is designed to replace the Unemployment Benefit. The paper concludes that this is a clear move to provide an ideological justification for forcing the unemployed into the reserve army of labour, in order to reduce the labour costs facing NZ employers who must now compete in an open, deregulated market. The paper also critiques the most common market‐liberal responses to the market‐liberal policies and finds that the Keynesian assumptions on which welfare‐liberalism rests, while always deficient in their grasp of how capitalism works, have been outmoded by the demands of the global economy on the NZ state. It concludes that a revolutionary transformation of the social relations of production will be necessary in order to go beyond dependency, and beyond poverty.

Setting the Agenda: The Impact of the 1977 Israel Women's Party

Although the Yizug Shaveh [Equal Representation] women's list eventually dropped out of the Spring 1999 elections to the Knesset, it is clear that separate women's lists represent a potent political option for Israeli feminists. Yizug Shaveh marks the fourth time since statehood that Israeli women have attempted to gain electoral representation in a separate political framework. (Pnina Rosenblum ran a list that was concerned with small business and women's rights, although she did not call it a women's list .) The tradition of separate women's lists dates further back, however, than 1949 and the First Knesset. They have been part of the Israeli political scene since 1918, when the first women's list, the Women's Society, was elected to the first Representative Assembly with the goal of securing the formal recognition of women's suffrage as a fundamental principle of Jewish autonomy in the Yishuv. The Women's List, later called the Union of Hebrew Women for Equal Rights (UER), elected representatives to each of the four Representative Assemblies and, in 1931, sent one of its representatives, Henrietta Szold, to the Va'ad Leumi in order to head the establishment of the Department of Social Welfare. The UER, in conjunction with the Women's International Zionist Organization (WIZO) and the Zionist Women's Organization (HNZ) [the Histadrut Nashim Zionot], elected a representative, Rachel Kagan, to the Knesset in 1949. 1

Accountability for Outputs : A Case Study of the Department of Social Welfare

Accountability for Outputs : A Case Study of the Department of Social Welfare

UNRELATED ADOPTION IN HONG KONG: PROFILE AND EMERGING ISSUES

This is the first systematic study of adoption in Hong Kong. It examines the changing profile of non-relative adoption in 1987 to 1993 as shown by the files of 486 successful non-relative adoption cases that were analysed. Characteristics of the adoptive parents, the birth parents and the adopted children are presented in descriptive statistics and their inter-relationships are pointed out. The findings are discussed in the light of the changing scene of adoption work against the socio-economic-political background of Hong Kong. A series of recommendations, based on the findings of the study, to the Social Welfare Department are made. 这是香港第一个对领养作有系统的研究。本文分析了486个文件夹，并勾划出1987至1993年间非亲属领养在转变中的剪影。 本文更发表了有关领养父母、生父母及被领养儿童的特徵和描述性统计数据，更指出了其间的关系。就研究所得结果，以社会、经济和政治作背景，本文讨论了领养工作在香港的改变，也向社会福利署作出了连串的建议。

Preschools in Singapore: A Historical Overview

As early as 1942, creches in Singapore, set up under the social welfare department, served a custodial function. By 1971, eleven creches had been set up. The postwar period witnessed the development of early childhood programs along two main dimensions: Kindergartens and child care centers. Political parties, church groups, private schools, and the Ministry of Education offered kindergartens as an aspect of community service. By 1993, over 60,000 children were enrolled in kindergartens. The development and growth of child care centers is even more dramatic. In 1980, there were only eighteen child‐care centers, but by 1996, there were 497 centers.

Canadian Maternity Homes and the Young Adolescents they Serve

Background: the scope of maternity home services for pregnant teenagers across Canada is unknown. We sought to identify and describe ail of the group residential facilities for pregnant women admitting teenagers in Canada, and to develop a profile of the youngest adolescents living therein.Methods: we consulted the social welfare departments of the major cities in each province, enquiring as to the existence of local maternity homes. In turn, maternity homes that were contacted served to help locate additional similar facilities. After a systematic and exhaustive effort, a nationwide roster of maternity homes was assembled. An official at each maternity home was asked to provide information through a postal questionnaire. The collected data were then organized, tabulated, and analysed.Results: we found a total of 28 maternity homes admitting girls under the age of 18 years (range: Ontario 13; Alberta, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island (0), and 26 (93%) completed and returned our questionnaire. Licenses from regulatory agencies were held by 22 homes (85% of respondents), girls dependent on illicit drugs or alcohol were admitted by 13 homes (50% of respondents), and the Salvation Army sponsored a total of eight of the 28 maternity homes. Median values for some characteristics were: years in operation, 57; age of youngest current resident, 15 years; typical length of stay, seven months; bed capacity, 14; number of full-time employees, seven; annual deliveries, 16; annual adoptions, two. The most common funding sources were city or provincial public funds as reported by 25 homes (96% of respondents) and the least common was the federal government reported by three homes (12% of respondents). Benefits included: private rooms in 25 homes (96%) ; social work services from 22 homes (85%) ; classes by a certified childbirth educator provided by 16 homes (62%) ; accredited on-site schooling available in 13 homes (50%) ; and vocational training arranged by six homes (23%). Prenatal care through private physicians was reported by 19 homes (73%) and through hospital based prenatal clinics by 17 homes (65%). AH deliveries were conducted in hospitals. A sampling of 48 of the youngest pregnant teenagers served in the past year revealed: median age 15 (range: [13–18]; 32 were white [67%], 11 were Native American [23%], two were African American [4%], two were Hispanic [4%], and one was Asian [2%]). There were 25 alleged victims of sexual abuse (52%) ; 26 alleged victims of physical abuse (54%) ; seven exchanged sex for food and shelter (15%); five exchanged sex for illicit drugs (10%); 13 abused illicit drugs or alcohol (27%) ; 11 had been convicted of a criminal offense (23%) ; none sold illicit drugs. Independent living and parenting skills classes were taken by 44 of the girls (91%).Conclusion: in Canada, group residential placement and services are available to pregnant teenagers who face a variety of serious psychosocial risk factors.

Case management practices, participants' responses, and compliance in welfare-to-work programs

Dale Weaver , PhD, is lecturer and research associate, and Teheskel Hasenfeld , PhD , is professor ; Department of Social Welfare, School of Public Policy and Social Research, University of California, Los Angeles, 5313 Public Policy Building, Box 951656, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1656; e-mail: zekeh@ucla.edu. Mandatory central port forts the Job Act of feature the of Opportunities welfare-to-work 1988 past of decade. (P.L. the 100-485), welfare The and programs Family Basic reform through Skills are Supefa central feature of the welfare reform ef-

Public transport regulation through a government organized NGO: the Faisalabad experience in Pakistan

In Pakistan, public transport services in urban areas are suffering from poor quality and undue regulation. In order to alleviate the situation in Faisalabad, government officials founded a welfare organization which has assumed responsibility of public transport regulation. It is registered with the Social Welfare Department as the Faisalabad Urban Transport Society (FUTS), which organizes stage carriage services with the active participation of private minibus operators. This paper describes a unique experience of public transport operation under the new form of regulation and control. It provides an account of the organizational structure, objectives and operational characteristics of the society, and various aspects of planning and regulation are evaluated, with their impact on the performance and quality of services offered by the FUTS. It is concluded that the FUTS services are a measurable success, providing substantial improvements and commanding wide acceptance both by passengers and by the private operators participating in the scheme. The key factors involved in this success are realistic fares, the involvement of private operators in decision making, freedom from the constraint of government bureaucracy, and strict enforcement of service standards. Further investigation is needed into the sustainability and replicability of this regulatory model.

Morbidity and disability in elderly Zimbabweans.

the population aged over 60 years in Zimbabwe is expanding. Despite the likely increased demand on medical services that this will bring, little is known about the health needs of this elderly population. to record the prevalence of disability (impairment of activities of daily living), subjective morbidity (symptoms), the social circumstances and the utilization of health services in a group of elderly Zimbabweans. cross-sectional community survey. a remote rural area in North Eastern Zimbabwe and two urban townships located approximately 80 km from Harare. 278 subjects (154 women, 174 rural), aged > 60 years (range 60-92) living at home. subjects were selected by random cluster sampling. They were assessed in a structured interview and underwent physical examination including visual acuity, inspection for cataracts and assessment of mobility. less than 4% experienced difficulty with self-maintenance activities of daily living, but 30% had difficulty with instrumental activities. The former were all visually impaired and both visual and mobility problems contributed to the latter. Elderly people experienced many symptoms but had inadequate access to health services and used medication infrequently. Subjects were mainly self-sufficient for financial income and 60% still worked. They had declining resources with age and received little help from the social welfare department. Their health and functional abilities deteriorated with age but it was older subjects who had most difficulty getting to the clinic. Simple measures such as cataract surgery and analgesics were available only to the minority or not at all. this study highlights problem areas where simple, low-cost measures could make a difference to the morbidity and disability of elderly Zimbabweans.

Literature Review

Child Abuse ReviewVolume 5, Issue 5 p. 363-376 Literature Review Literature Review David Gough, David Gough Department of Social Welfare, Japan Women's University, Kanagawa, JapanSearch for more papers by this author David Gough, David Gough Department of Social Welfare, Japan Women's University, Kanagawa, JapanSearch for more papers by this author First published: December 1996 https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1099-0852(199612)5:5<363::AID-CAR293>3.0.CO;2-BCitations: 12AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Citing Literature Volume5, Issue5December 1996Pages 363-376 RelatedInformation

Welfare Reform

Journal Article Welfare Reform Get access Martha N. Ozawa, PhD, Martha N. Ozawa, PhD Bettie Bofinger Brown Professor of Social Policy George Warren Brown School of Social Work Washington UniversitySt. Louis, MO 63130-4899, e-mail: awazo@wuacn.wustl.edu Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Stuart A. Kirk, DSW Stuart A. Kirk, DSW Marjorie Crump Chair in Social Welfare Department of Social Welfare, School of Public Policy and Social Research University of California, Los Angeles, e-mail: kirk@ucla.edu Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Social Work Research, Volume 20, Issue 4, December 1996, Pages 194–195, https://doi.org/10.1093/swr/20.4.194 Published: 01 December 1996

Distribution of EE and Its Relationship to Relapse in Japan

Psychiatric rehabilitation in Japan faces a number of problems. Policies regarding support for the mentally disabled are unsatisfactory; and community services such as day care, sheltered workshops, and group homes that enable patients to return to the community are still inadequate. In fact, 80% of the patients who are discharged from hospitals return to their families. Families are defined as guardians under the Mental Health Act and are responsible for care of the Guardians are required to make the patient receive treatment, supervise the patient so he or she will not hurt himself or herself or others, and protect the financial interests of the patient. Families must fulfill many roles as caretakers. Despite these conditions, dissemination of information regarding mental illness, professional intervention techniques, and delivery of social services are lacking. The lack of information causes many families to live in a state of physical and emotional fatigue because of caring for the patient and worrying about such concerns as sudden changes in the illness, relapses, and the possibility of suicide. Thus, one of the most important tasks for clinical psychiatry in Japan is to provide appropriate support services for patients and their families. Expressed Emotion (EE) is a scale developed and validated in the West to predict the course of illness. EE studies have produced eviDr. Ito is associated with the Department of Psychiatric Rehabilitation, National Institute of Mental Health, Kohnodai 1-7-3, Ichikawa City, Chiba Pref. 272, Japan, and Dr. Oshima, with the Department of Social Welfare, Tokyo Metropolitan University. 23

Empowering employees through the performance appraisal process

Increasing demands are being placed on many public servants as civil service organizations seek to increase productivity and operate with fewer levels of management. Moves away from traditional bureaucratic organization structures are often accompanied by attempts to develop a more empowering culture. These typically involve leadership initiatives adapted from the private sector in areas such as vision, values, participation and trust. In order to be successful, however, such initiatives need to be supported by corresponding changes in the systems which underpin human resource management. One of the most important of these is the performance appraisal system. This article describes how performance appraisal can be used to assist in empowering employees, using as an example the Corporate Finance Office of the New Zealand Department of Social Welfare.

Have Child Protection Efforts Reduced Child Homicides? An Examination of Data from Britain and North America

Duncan Lindsey is an Associate Professor at the School of Public Policy and Social Research, Department of Social Welfare at the University of California, Los Angeles. He received his undergraduate training at the University of California and his doctorate at Northwestern University. He was a National Science Foundation post-doctoral fellow at Cornell University in the Social Systems Research Program. Recently he was a Pro fessor at the Faculty of Social Work at the University of Toronto and a visiting scholar at the Child Welfare Research Center at the University of California at Berkeley. He is Editor-in-Chief of Children and Youth Services Review (Pergamon Press), author of a recent book with Oxford University Press entitled The Welfare of Children, and editor of a book series entitled Child Welfare published by Oxford University Press.

Social Security and the Law of Dismissal

The sweeping changes made to social security law following the election of the National Government in 1990 have had major repercussions on employment law. This paper examines the developing law on matters such as the 26 week 'stand down' for workers dismissed for misconduct, in the light of decisions of the Social Security Appeal Authority and the Employment Court and policy guidelines formulated by the Department of Social Welfare and the New Zealand Employment Service.

"Second Class Citizens"?: Researching the Position of General Staff Women in New Zealand Universities

Historically, women in the workforce in New Zealand, like their counterparts in many other countries, have been disadvantaged vis-a-vis their male peers. They have been concentrated in relatively few (mostly low-pay) jobs, in lower rather than higher positions in occupations with promotional structures, and/or have been paid less than men for doing the same work. Even fairly recent studies of working conditions - in, for example, the banking industry (Neale, 1984), the Department of Social Welfare (Burns, Rutherford, Neale and Searancke, 1987), the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (Warren, 1988), and the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (Green, 1991) - document the persistence of these inequities. Women in certain minority groups (for example, Maori women, women with physical disabilities) have tended to be particularly disenfranchised in these respects (National Advisory Council on the Employment of Women, 1990).

Regionalisation Resuscitating or Restricting the Country?

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Additional informationNotes on contributorsBarry SmithBarry Smith is lecturer in the Department of Social Work and Community Welfare at James Cook University, Cairns and has written extensively on rural service delivery.

Alcohol consumption in a Danish cohort during 11 years.

A cohort living in Copenhagen County, originally consisting of 1198 persons, 577 men and 621 women, 40-years of age in 1976, was reexamined in 1981, and again in 1987. Of the original cohort 1052 (88%) participated in 1976, 992 (84%) in 1981, and 965 (85%) in 1987. The purpose of this study was to describe changes in alcohol consumption in the cohort, with the view of identifying subgroups, who have changed their alcohol consumption behaviour to a certain extent. Alcohol consumption was measured by the same questionnaire all three times as to the level of consumption and frequency. Alcohol consumption peaked in 1981 (45-year olds) with 10.4 drinks on average a week. Men increased their consumption by 8% and women by 37%. There was an overall downward tendency in the consumption frequency among men, whereas the opposite was the case among women. The two groups are converging toward a weekly consumption frequency. It seems now that women are leading the change toward a greater wine consumption in relative and absolute terms. It is therefore concluded that female consumption should be considered as a target in future preventive programmes.

Rural training in Vanuatu

AbstractVanuatu is a newly independent chain of South Pacific islands populated almost entirely by Melanesians living in isolated rural villages. Since its independence, the government has emphasized rural development to reduce hyperurbanization and increase the agricultural contribution to the GDP. While the Department of Social Welfare and Community Development has the major responsibility for coordinating and supporting rural training centres, it has so far had difficulty doing so because of inadequacies of staffing, budget, policy formulation, authority, and evaluation, among other problems.

Working with Older People P654 Individual Study Pack Department of Health and Social Welfare

Working with Older People is a distance-learning package intended for a wide range of healtli and social care professionals, including sheltered housing wardens and workers with voluntary organisations. Available also is an optional extra-assessment package, at an additional cost, which enables students to be assessed formally and their hard work acknowledged through the award of a statement of course participation.