Realising a responsive social work practice in a non-responsive context

ABSTRACT

Public welfare actors struggle with the question how they can guarantee children’s wellbeing. The answer to this question depends on the countries’ perspective concerning its responsibility for the care of its citizens. In the Flemish context, a maximalist child protection logic – with a focus on the realisation of rights – is adopted. In this article, we focus on the so-called ‘bottleneck cases’ and use the case of Zoë as a concrete application of the legislative framework that regulates the bottleneck case system. By analysing the case of Zoë, we show that a maximalist policy discourse that is based on commitment towards complex situations sometimes masks a minimalist policy logic. The issue that prompts itself is that this does not mean that a maximalist practice is not realised, but that it is realised because social practitioners deviate from the policy plans, while pretending ‘as if’ they follow them.

KEYWORDS:

• Child welfare
• social work practice
• qualitative research
• case records
• child protection

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Notes on contributors

Jochen Devlieghere

Jochen Devlieghere is a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Social Work and Social Pedagogy at Ghent University in Belgium. His main research interest lies in the use of pedagogical concepts in working with families and children at the intersection between child welfare, family pedagogy and Early Childhood Education and Care. He is also Editor in Chief of the European Journal of Social Work.

Karel De Vos holds a PhD in social work from the Department of Social Work and Social Pedagogy at Ghent University in Belgium. For a long time he was active as director of CIDAR, a youth care organisation aiding young people and families living in complex situations.

Griet Roets is associate professor of social work at the Department of Social Work and Social Pedagogy at Ghent University in Belgium. Her research interests include theoretical and practical conceptualisations of citizenship and social rights, and intersections and concentrations of social inequalities such as poverty/class, gender, and dis/ability. She has also a vital interest in socio-spatial perspectives in social work and in interpretative research methodologies, and more specifically in biographical and ethnographic research methods.

Rudi Roose is associate professor of social work at the Department of Social Work and Social Pedagogy at Ghent University in Belgium. His research interest is the development of socially just social work in managerial contexts. He is also Editor in Chief of the European Journal of Social Work.

Karel De Vos

Karel De Vos holds a PhD in social work from the Department of Social Work and Social Pedagogy at Ghent University in Belgium. For a long time he was active as director of CIDAR, a youth care organisation aiding young people and families living in complex situations.

Griet Roets

Griet Roets is associate professor of social work at the Department of Social Work and Social Pedagogy at Ghent University in Belgium. Her research interests include theoretical and practical conceptualisations of citizenship and social rights, and intersections and concentrations of social inequalities such as poverty/class, gender, and dis/ability. She has also a vital interest in socio-spatial perspectives in social work and in interpretative research methodologies, and more specifically in biographical and ethnographic research methods.

Rudi Roose

Rudi Roose is associate professor of social work at the Department of Social Work and Social Pedagogy at Ghent University in Belgium. His research interest is the development of socially just social work in managerial contexts. He is also Editor in Chief of the European Journal of Social Work.