Social Welfare Services & Issues - Lecture 3

Social Welfare Services & Issues - Lecture 3

• Social welfare institutions are established by policies and laws, with programs and services provided by voluntary (private) and governmental (public) agencies.
• Social policy is a government's actions directly impacting citizens' welfare by providing services or income, improving the welfare of the civil population.
• In a broad sense, social policy is a purposeful act to promote human life quality.
• Social policy formulation is made for specific purposes:
  • Realizing desirable social goals through service programs (e.g., social security).
  • Addressing social problems of alarming proportions (e.g., pollution, domestic violence).
  • Introducing social concern into non-welfare realms.

Multiple Levels of Policy Practice

• Macro-level policy: Broad laws and values forming the framework for service provision (e.g., white papers, five-year plans, long-term housing policies).
• Mezzo-level policy: Administrative policies created by organizations to guide their operations, responding to macro-level policy.
• Micro-level policy: Practitioners translating macro and mezzo-level policy into client services, operating as "street-level bureaucrats."

Different Models of Policy Planning

• Rational Planning Model:
  • Driven by logic and aimed at optimal strategies for achieving goals.
  • Emphasizes logical steps: goal setting, identifying alternatives, evaluating means, and implementing decisions.
• Power Elite Model:
  • Suggests policies are shaped by the powerful few (powerful economic interests, rich).
  • Decisions are influenced by the distribution and application of power.
• Pluralist/Group Model:
  • Policies are the result of competition among groups.
  • Interest groups and bureaucracies influence the agenda and implement policies.
• Incremental Model:
  • Policy evolves through small, incremental changes.
  • Agreement is easily achieved when changes are minimal.
• Process Model:
  • Stresses institutions and socioeconomic-political environments.
  • Includes inputs, outputs, outcomes, and policy environments.
• Schmidt, Shelley & Bardes (2005): 5-step policy making process
  • Agenda Building: Identifying problems.
  • Agenda Formation: Public debate.
  • Agenda Adoption: Strategy selection.
  • Agenda Implementation: Policy administration.
  • Agenda Evaluation: Assessing impact.
• Heffernan (1992): 6-stage policy process
  • Problem definition
  • Policy formation
  • Policy selection
  • Policy implementation
  • Policy evaluation
  • Policy adjustment
• Gilbert & Terrell (2002): 8-stage policy process
  • Problem identification
  • Problem analysis
  • Informing the public
  • Developing policy goals/objectives
  • Building public support
  • Programme design
  • Implementation
  • Evaluation & assessment

Policy Planning Process Details

• Problem Identification: Awareness of a problem drives policy change:
  • Politically significant problem impacting a large number of people, or with significant people, capable of being improved by the government.
• Problem Analysis: Gathering detailed information about a problem, including its magnitude, severity, and affected population.
• Informing the Public: Cultivating broad support for desired change through engagement and communication.
• Development of Policy Goals/ Objectives: Establishing specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound goals, such as self-reliance of the employable poor
• Building Public Support & Legitimacy: Mobilising political and stakeholder support for policies.
• Programme Design: Drafting concrete programmes, including operational guidelines and financial/staff structures
• Implementation: Executing the policy itself, clarifying policy objectives for broader application
• Evaluation & Assessment: Evaluating how successful the policies are. Determining whether the intended outcomes are realised and whether any adjustments are needed

Policy Choices

• Policy choices are made within an institutional context, involving multiple institutions and personnel.
• Understanding the rules of choice of each party (President, legislators, bureaucrats) is important.
• Policy is often a continuation of previous activity, shaping present considerations.

Actors Involved in Policy Making

• In Hong Kong: Executive Council (lays down general policy), Legislative Council (legislation), Different Panels of Legislative Council, Various Advisory Committees (e.g., Social Welfare), Different Bureaus (e.g., Labour & Welfare).
• Related Organizations: Commercial Chambers, NGOs, Hong Kong Council of Social Service, Professional bodies (e.g., social workers' associations), Pressure groups, political parties, and citizens/service users.

Methods of Policy Analysis

• Content analysis
• Choices analysis
• Process analysis
• Historical analysis
• Comparative analysis

Key Elements of Consideration in Social Policy Planning

• Social needs, wants, preferences
• Social problems
• Equality, equity, adequacy
• Right and liberty
• Efficiency, effectiveness
• Social justice

Defining Needs

• Taxonomy of need (Bradshaw):
  • Felt need
  • Expressed need
  • Normative need
  • Expertly defined need
  • Comparative need

Wants and Preferences

• Wants are more inclusive than needs.
• Needs are more basic and essential than wants.
• Preferences are revealed when choices are available. Preferences represent actions associated with need or want.

Equality, Equity, and Adequacy

• Equality: Numerical equality – equal distribution to all. Benefits equally distributed to equalize resources and outcomes. However, egalitarianism may undermine work incentives. A distinction between outcome and opportunity equality exists.
• Equity: Fair share proportional to merit or need. Principle of less eligibility (consideration of least eligible).
• Adequacy: Standard of living, physical and spiritual well-being. Varying standards according to time and circumstances (horizontal vs vertical adequacy).

Rights

• Legitimacy of individual claims to social benefits/services.
• Need-based claims (basic needs) or deserve-based claims (contributions).

Liberty

• Freedom from unnecessary force, ability to act according to one's will.
• Individualist vs collectivist views on liberty (balance between individual freedom and societal interests).
• Positive liberty (possibility of acting), negative liberty (absence of constraints or barriers).

Efficiency vs Effectiveness

• Efficiency: Making the most of resources, considering both benefits and opportunity costs.
• Effectiveness: Achieving desired outcomes from the service process.

Social Justice

• Different interpretations of social justice based on distinct philosophical schools of thought (e.g., Utilitarianism, Liberalism, Communitarianism).

Frameworks of Policy Analysis

• Framework of policy analysis: The framework outlines policy choices considerations involving theories, alternatives, finance, delivery, provision, and allocations.
• Dimensions of policy choice: Factors including to whom benefits are offered, the benefits offered, and methods of delivery and financing.