Social Workers and Policy Practice: The Role of Social and Professional Values

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Social Workers and Policy- PracticeThe Role of
Social and Professional Values

• John Gal Hebrew University of Jerusalem
• Idit Weiss-Gal Tel Aviv University

9th UK Joint Social Work Education Conference
with the 1st UK Social Work Research Conference,
Swansea, July 2007
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Policy-Practice

• Policy-practice as an integral part of social
  works intervention strategies
• Efforts to change policies in legislative,
  agency and community settings whether by
  establishing new policies, improving existing
  ones or defeating the policy initiatives of
  others (Jansson, 2003, p. 10)

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Goal of the Study

• To what extent do social workers professional
  views and values play a role in their attitudes
  towards, and engagement in, policy-practice?
• Goals of the social work profession
• Political and socio-economic orientation
• Perceived causes of poverty
• Attitudes towards the welfare state

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Instruments

• Independent Variables
• Socio-economic and political orientation
• Causes of poverty
• Support for the welfare state
• Goals of social work

• Dependent Variables
• Support for policy-practice
• Engagement in policy-practice

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Findings Support for, and Engagement in
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Findings Socio-Demographic Characteristics and
Engagement
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Findings Support for, Engagement in
plt.001
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Discussion

• Support for, and engagement in, policy-practice
  is linked to
• Egalitarian values
• Attribution of poverty to structural causes
• State responsibility for welfare
• Social justice as an important professional goal
  of social work

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Discussion

• Marked gap between support for policy-practice
  and actual engagement in it
• Impact of gender, ethnicity and religiosity upon
  engagement in, though not support for,
  policy-practice

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Implications for Social Work Education

• Furthering involvement of social workers in
  policy-practice requires
• Emphasis on relevance of social justice to social
  work
• Emphasis on structural understanding of poverty
  and role of state