Ethics and the Street-level Bureaucrat: Implementing Policy to Protect Elders from Abuse

Abstract

As an independent researcher, registered social worker and erstwhile long-term, long-distance carer, the care of older people and protection of elders from abuse had been constant professional and personal foci for me for many years. Commissioned to review a case involving the serious abuse of an elder where official safeguarding procedures had not been used, I puzzled why this had been managed ‘informally’ by social services and partner agencies (i.e. outside adult safeguarding procedures), with vague unspecified ‘monitoring’ (AEA 2006). Why was there this apparent gap between policy intention and implementation? That question led to research on which this essay is based.

Keywords:

• Elder abuse
• Ethic of care
• Lipsky
• Older people
• Policy implementation
• Social work
• Street level bureaucracy
• Tronto

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Angie Ash

Angie Ash is a principal of the research consultancy Angela Ash Associates. She completed her doctorate at the School for Policy Studies, University of Bristol in 2009