Hostname: page-component-7bb8b95d7b-dvmhs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-09-13T06:00:16.798Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Social Inclusion and Individualised Service Provision in High Risk Community Care: Balancing Regulation, Judgment and Discretion

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 November 2012

Anne-Maree Sawyer  and
David Green
Anne-Maree Sawyer
Affiliation:
School of Social Sciences, La Trobe University E-mail: [email protected]
David Green
Affiliation:
School of Social Work and Social Policy, La Trobe University E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Since the late twentieth century, health and welfare policy in Australia and the UK has focused on enhancing the freedom, life choices and participation of service users. Public policy, based on the construct of social inclusion, requires greater individualisation of services, active engagement with service users, and innovative partnerships between different providers. At the same time, however, the management of risk through a range of compliance procedures can discourage the exercise of discretion by workers, limit the participation of their clients and reduce incentives for innovative cooperation between services. Drawing on in-depth interviews with community care professionals and their managers engaged in high risk social care in Australia, this article gives particular attention to the relevance of risk to social inclusion and individualised service provision.

Keywords

Community caresocial inclusionrisk managementindividualised careAustralia
Type
Themed Section on Risk, Social Inclusion and the Life Course
Information
Social Policy and Society , Volume 12 , Issue 2 , April 2013 , pp. 299 - 308
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ayres, I. and Braithwaite, J. (1992) Responsive Regulation: Transcending the Deregulation Debate, New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Braithwaite, J. (1999) ‘Accountability and governance under the new regulatory state’, Australian Journal of Public Administration, 58, 1, 90–7.Google Scholar
Burchardt, T., Le Grand, J. and Piachaud, D. (2002) ‘Degrees of exclusion: developing a dynamic, multidimensional measure’, in Hills, J., J. Grand, Le and Piachaud, D. (eds.), Understanding Social Exclusion, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 30–43.Google Scholar
Calnan, M. and Rowe, R. (2005) ‘Trust relations in the “new” NHS: theoretical and methodological challenges − taking stock of trust’, Taking Stock of Trust: ESRC Conference, London School of Economics, London, 12 December, available at http://www.kent.ac.uk/scarr/events/Calnanand%20Rowe%20paper.pdf [accessed 03.10.2012].Google Scholar
Carey, M. (2007) ‘White-collar proletariat? Braverman, the deskilling/upskilling of social work and the paradoxical life of the agency care manager’, Journal of Social Work, 7, 1, 93–114.Google Scholar
Department of Health (1989) Caring for People, White Paper, London: The Stationery Office.Google Scholar
Department of Health (2004) Choosing Health: Making Healthier Choices Easier, London: The Stationery Office.Google Scholar
Department of Health (2005) Independence, Well-being and Choice: Our Vision for the Future of Social Care for Adults in England, Green Paper, London: The Stationery Office.Google Scholar
Department of Health (2006) Our Health, Our Care, Our Say: A New Direction for Community Services, White Paper, London: The Stationery Office.Google Scholar
Department of Health (2007) Independence, Choice and Risk: A Guide to Best Practice in Supported Decision Making, London: The Stationery Office.Google Scholar
Evans, T. and Harris, J. (2004) ‘Street-level bureaucracy, social work and the (exaggerated) death of discretion’, British Journal of Social Work, 34, 6, 871–95.Google Scholar
Fine, M. (2005) ‘Individualization, risk and the body: sociology and care’, Journal of Sociology, 41, 3, 249–68.Google Scholar
Green, D., Sawyer, A., Moran, A. and Brett, J. (2010) ‘Managing risk in community services: a preliminary study of the impacts of risk management on Victorian services and clients’, unpublished (copies available on request, ).Google Scholar
Hood, C., Rothstein, H. and Baldwin, R. (2004) The Government of Risk: Understanding Risk Regulation Regimes, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Howe, A., Ozanne, E. and Selby Smith, C. (1990) Community Care Policy: New Directions in Australia, Melbourne: Public Sector Management Institute.Google Scholar
Lipsky, M. (1980) Street-level Bureaucracy: The Dilemmas of Individuals in Public Service, New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Munro, E. (2004) ‘The impact of audit on social work practice’, British Journal of Social Work, 34, 8, 1075–95.Google Scholar
Munro, E. (2010) ‘Learning to reduce risk in child protection’, British Journal of Social Work, 40, 4, 1135–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Power, M. (2007) Organised Uncertainty: Designing a World of Risk Management, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Redfern, J., McKevitt, C. and Wolfe, C. D. A. (2006) ‘Risk management after stroke: the limits of a patient centred approach’, Health, Risk and Society, 8, 2, 123–42.Google Scholar
Robertson, J. and Collinson, C. (2011) ‘Positive risk taking: whose risk is it? An exploration in community outreach teams in adult mental health and learning disability services’, Health, Risk and Society, 13, 2, 147–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rose, N. (1998) ‘Governing risky individuals: the role of psychiatry in new regimes of control’, Psychiatry, Psychology and Law, 5, 2, 177–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rose, N. (1999) Powers of Freedom, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, B. (2006) ‘Risk management paradigms in health and social services for professional decision making on the long-term care of older people’, British Journal of Social Work, 36, 8, 1411–29.Google Scholar
Taylor, B. and Donnelly, M. (2006) ‘Risks to home care workers: professional perspectives’, Health, Risk and Society, 8, 3, 239–56.Google Scholar
Yeatman, A. (2009) Individualisation and the Delivery of Welfare Services: Contestation and Complexity, New York: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar