1: What is social policy? Flashcards
(17 cards)
Domains of Practice
Work with individuals
Groupwork
Social policy practice
Organisational practice, management, and leadership
Work with families and partnerships
Community work
Research and evaluation
Education, training, and consultancy
Fields of Practice
Addiction (AOD)
Adolescent services
Adoption/Out of Home Care
Advocacy
Aged care
Community corrections
Child and family work
Community development
Community health
Child protection
Disability
Disasters
Environmental practice
Domestic and Family Violence
Relationship counselling
Family Court counselling
Housing and homelessness
Hospitals and healthcare
Family therapy
Forensic social work
General counselling
Immigration and refugees
Income support
Loss and bereavement
LGBTIQA+
Mental health
Prisons
Severe trauma, torture
Sexual violence
Tertiary education
Youth justice
and many more
Human Service is:
A way of responding to human need
A contribution to human well being
A set of social institutions and organisations designed to achieve social stability, cohesion and/or social control
A field of professional education, research and practice
A set of roles within an industry – the social and community services industry
Social Justice is:
At the heart of human service and social work
Combating injustices – because of oppression, violence, exploitation or denial of basic human needs.
Concerned with the way society distributes social and material resources to meet human need
A just society requires all its citizens to have the same basic rights. There should be equality of opportunity and no inequality in power, income and other resources (Chenoweth & McAuliffe, 2020).
Social Policy is:
A process of authoritative allocation of material and human resources according to certain theories and values for the purposes of achieving certain social, economic, cultural and political outcomes in society (Jamrozik, 2005)
A range of public interventions intended to address social issues (Carson & Kerr, 2014)
Social policy will be influenced by the cultures, values and beliefs of the society that the policy is developed in and as these change, so will social policies.
What is critical thinking?
Thinking with a purpose (Facione & Gittens, 2012)
Thinking that uses clarity, fairness, precision, accuracy, logic and relevancy (Gambrill, 2018)
Critical thinking involves virtues relating intellectual integrity, intellectual humility, intellectual empathy, an intellectual sense of justice and a confidence in reasoning (Foundation for Critical Thinking, 2017)
You can see from the definitions above that critical thinking is more than just knowledge, it is about values, attributes and ethics.
What’s the problem represented to be?
There are particular analytical frameworks, ways of thinking, that have been developed to help people think through problems. In the human services, one such framework is the What’s the Problem Represented to be? approach, or ‘WPR approach’ for short. Developed by Professor Carol Bacchi (2012), the WPR approach helps us examine the implicit representations of the ‘problem’.
“…what one proposes to do about something reveals what one thinks is problematic…” (Bacchi, 2012, p21).
The first part of the WPR approach is to apply six questions to the social policy (including programs, services, funding, etc.):
What’s the ‘problem’ represented to be in a specific policy or policy proposal?
What presuppositions or assumptions underpin this representation of the ‘problem’?
How has this representation of the ‘problem’ come about?
What is left unproblematic in this problem representation? Where are the silences? Can the ‘problem’ be thought about differently?
What effects are produced by this representation of the ‘problem’?
How/where has this representation of the ‘problem’ been produced, disseminated and defended? How has it been (or could it be) questioned, disrupted and replaced?
What’s the ‘problem’ represented to be in a specific policy or policy proposal?
Question one requires you to examine and reflect on what the policy ‘solution’ implies is the problem. You tackle this through research; looking at the detail of the policy, who it effects, who were the ones that implemented it, what ideologies do they hold.
If a policy aims to address gender inequities in pay by increasing the number of women in high-paying jobs through providing additional training and education to women, then we would say that the problem is not enough women are highly trained or educated.
What presuppositions or assumptions underpin this representation of the ‘problem’?
Question two gets you to look at the problem you’ve identified and figure out what the assumptions are of the people who made the policy.
Let’s use the example of a lack of training and education being the reason for gender inequities in pay. We might say that an assumption is that women are currently unqualified, or un-trained, for the higher status roles.
How has this representation of the ‘problem’ come about?
Question three makes us think about the practices and processes through which this understanding of the problem has come about.
Using our example again, we can look at embedded cultural ideologies that people get what they deserve in life; that effort reaps reward.
What is left unproblematic in this problem representation? Where are the silences? Can the ‘problem’ be thought about differently?
Question four asks us to examine gaps and limitations in this conceptualization of the problem, and to imagine alternatives.
So, continuing with our example, there are many instances of people not getting what they deserve. Why is this? Bad luck sometimes; but often bad players, e.g., corruption, vested interests maintaining wealth and power, playing favourites with friends.
What effects are produced by this representation of the ‘problem’?
Question five asks that we examine how the particular problem representation limits what we can talk about as relevant, how it shapes people’s understanding of themselves and the issues, and impacts on people’s lives.
With our example; folks are told they are not good enough; when their quality of work has no bearing on whether they can climb the corporate ladder.
How/where has this representation of the ‘problem’ been produced, disseminated and defended? How has it been (or could it be) questioned, disrupted and replaced?
Question six gets us to focus in on where we have seen this being played out before, what contexts, places and times, who is defending it and why; it also has us look at where this problem has been disqualified or replaced. Again this question can require research and broad exploration.
We could examine examples of countries where there are no disparities between the education and training of men and women, yet the gender pay inequities still exist.
Inherent tensions / fundamental debates
The form and direction a particular social policy takes is the result of historical, political, ideological, economic, and cultural forces. These forces are constantly in flux and moving in different directions. Therefore, there are inherent tensions within all social policies, representing the fundamental debates that occur between these forces.
This is what is meant by an inherent tension. That is, inherent to the policy or problem, there is a tension between two or more different ways of understanding a phenomenon and how to respond.
Some examples of common inherent tensions are:
Welfare state – Welfare safety net
Social care – Social control
Individualism – Collectivism
Institutional – Residual
Universal – Selective
Deserving – Undeserving
Charity – Entitlement
Anthropocentrism - Ecocentrism
Reading:
The Australian Policy Handbook (7th edition) by Catherine Althaus, Peter Bridgman, and Glyn Davis, titled “Why Policy Matters”,
Chapter 1: Why Policy Matters – Summary
This chapter introduces the importance of public policy in shaping how governments respond to societal needs, allocate resources, and define collective goals. It sets the foundation for understanding policy-making as a structured but political process central to democratic governance.
Main Points:
1. What is Public Policy?
Public policy is what governments choose to do or not do.
It includes laws, regulations, funding decisions, and strategies that affect people’s lives.
Policy is not just about outcomes, but about the process of decision-making and power.
- Why Policy Matters
It reflects the values and priorities of governments.
It shapes how resources are distributed and how rights are exercised.
It influences economic, social, and environmental outcomes.
Policy decisions can have long-term effects on national wellbeing and identity.
- Policy as a Political Process
Policy-making is not neutral — it involves choices, trade-offs, and competing interests.
Different actors (e.g. politicians, public servants, interest groups, media, and citizens) try to influence decisions.
The process is complex and often contested, especially in democratic settings.
- The Role of Public Servants
Public servants play a key role in advising governments, developing options, and implementing decisions.
They must balance neutrality, evidence-based practice, and responsiveness to elected officials.
- Policy in Practice
Policy-making must respond to real-world problems and be adaptable to changing contexts.
It’s not only technical (based on data and logic) but also value-laden and often guided by ideology.
Good policy should be practical, justifiable, and implementable.
- Policy and Governance
Public policy is central to how we are governed.
It determines how public institutions function and how citizens interact with the state.
Through policy, governments define social problems, allocate responsibility, and shape the future.
Key Takeaway:
Policy matters because it is the main tool governments use to govern, solve problems, and shape society. Understanding policy is essential for anyone involved in or affected by government — which means all of us.
How are social policy, social justice and human services connected?
- Social policy can be viewed as a primary tool
in achieving social justice. - Human service organisations aim to achieve
social justice, one method is administering
social policy (Carson & Kerr, 2014).
