Suchergebnisse

State and local governments have an increasingly important role in the solution of complex domestic problems. Despite improvements in many services and increasing tax efforts, urban-related problems are growing even more rapidly, and greater financial efforts must be made. State and local governments probably cannot bear this burden alone; federal assistance must be increased above already high levels. Im proved state and local decision-making and administration may accrue if less emphasis is placed on narrow categories of federal grants. Block grants, tax sharing, and tax credits are possible methods of providing greater flexibility in grant-ad ministration. The state and local governments must improve their own fiscal and administrative systems, and strong efforts are now being made in this direction throughout the nation.

In this paper we examine the experience of one poor country, Guatemala, that provided childhood immunization partly through a major national campaign, and provided pregnancyrelated services through government health facilities, during the 1980s. Specifically, we compare the breadth of coverage of these two types of services using national sample survey data collected in 1987. We then draw upon results of previous qualitative studies to explore the social, cultural, and organizational factors that may account for differences between the use of immunization and the use of pregnancy-related health services.

The Great Recession increased public debts across the globe and has thus reinvigorated the debate over social safety nets. Provision of social safety nets is often cited as one of the main reasons for the recent growth in public debt. In "Formal and Informal Social Safety Nets", Ashraf analyses the role of social safety nets in a time when our global economy threatens our way of life, as entire cities such as Detroit are declared bankrupt. By dividing safety nets into two major categories, 'informal social safety nets' and 'formal social safety nets, ' in conjunction with empirical evidence based on in-depth statistical analyses of data, Ashraf argues that government-provided, tax-funded formal social safety nets are not only essential for a modern economy, but may even promote innovation and economic growth and development

AbstractThis evaluation study examined a Family Services Centre (FSC) operating in a socio‐culturally deprived suburban area of Southern Italy to explore how promoting innovative practices to meet increasingly complex family needs. The research used a case study approach and a mixed‐methods design: the service's documents underwent a documentary analysis; users' trends and satisfaction levels were examined using quantitative data; service's identity and changes in the perceptions of professionals were analysed by qualitative techniques. Overall, the data highlighted the fact that the FSC can be considered an effective prevention instrument: its family support practices, oriented to the ASPIRE model, ensure accessibility, empowerment and a strengths‐based approach. Thanks to its strengthened mediator role, client participation and caseworkers' ideas, it represents an environment conducive to the development of innovation in social practices, influencing local social policies regarding child and family welfare. Despite its changes, the FSC still promotes family well‐being and social cohesion within the community with its innovative multilevel and multimethod approach. Considerations and lessons learned by this case study could stimulate decision makers and social practitioners to reflect on innovative models to meet families' needs.

The proposed Symposium is related to the Special Interest Group on Social Work and Extreme Events and is proposed by the Group initiators. Over the past year, we witnessed an almost unprecedented movement of people due to political conflict. Based on the figures by the EU Border Agency (Frontex), more than 500,000 refugees were detected at EU external borders in the first eight months of 2015. In the Spring of 2014, large scale and repeated flooding in South-East Europe (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia) caused damage similar to that experienced during the political conflicts in the same region in the early 1990s. The purpose of the Group and the proposed Symposium is to explore how and whether the impact of political conflicts and/or national disasters on social work can be explored through a joint title of 'extreme events'. This is relevant not solely because many countries experience one or even both types of extreme events, as noted above. The relevance and parallels are also encapsulated in the impact of such events on the variety of social work resources (from infrastructure to loss of life and limb) and the difference between the urgent/immediate responses during the extreme events and during long-term recovery. Recently, a group of social work academics from a variety of countries affected by political conflicts and/or natural disasters in Europe and Asia (Australia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Greece, UK/Northern Ireland, Slovenia and Sri Lanka) initiated a network to explore this theme. In parallel, the network also explores the frequently contested and difficult relationships between the local social work practices and traditions with those of international development organisations, frequently active in countries affected by extreme events. It is hoped that the work within the network can inform and improve the emergency protocols and subsequent post-extreme event reconstruction and development practices in relation to vulnerable groups (e.g. women, children without parental care, people with disabilities, older people), as well as contribute to the growth of social work disciplinary knowledge on this theme. The Symposium is to help outline some of the thinking and work within the network to date, based on the studies conducted by the participants in their own contexts and as a group. The focus of the Symposium will be on the methodological challenges this theme poses for research, both within particular countries, as well as through cross-national and/or comparative research. The current group is comprised of scholars from the countries affected by extreme events who hope to build on their current studies, explore them within the wider framework of extreme events and to initiate future joint research. The rationale for local scholars' participation stems from the need to enable mutual learning process, not aiming for a single, unified, outcome or finding – based on the lessons learnt to date from cross-national action research (Matthies et al., 2000). The key findings from group discussions to date indicate concerns whether and how international, cross-country methodology can be developed which would allow for more meaningful knowledge sharing between social workers and development practitioners in different countries. Possibilities to use 'green social work' and critical theory as relevant theoretical frameworks for international collaboration on this theme will be outlined. The findings to date also highlight a range of roles that social workers do or should employ during and after the extreme events, from targeted assistance to vulnerable groups to involvement in peace building and reconciliation.

Argues that there has been mistaken public policy and ballot choices made in California with regard to illegal immigration, expanded imprisonment, and affirmative action. If California (and by implication, the nation as a whole) is to maintain its status as a competitor in the global economy, significant increases in social expenditures and public services will be needed. (Original abstract-amended)

Social policy is often constructed and implemented by people who have little experience of its impact as a service user, but there has been a growing interest in greater public, patient and service user involvement in social policy as both political activity and academic discipline. Social Policy First Hand is the first comprehensive international social policy text from a participatory perspective and presents a new service user-led social policy that addresses the current challenges in welfare provision. A companion volume to Peter Beresford's bestselling All our welfare, it introduces the voices of different groups of service users, starting from their lived experience. With an impressive list of contributors, this important volume fills a gap in looking at social policy using participatory and inclusive approaches and the use of experiential knowledge in its construction. It will challenge traditional state and market-led approaches to welfare

Il apparaît aujourd'hui évident que la protection de la santé mentale des agents publics est dans l'intérêt d'un fonctionnement régulier et continu du service public. L'étude du contentieux administratif relatif aux risques psychosociaux des agents conduit cependant à remarquer que la notion juridique « d'intérêt du service » se retrouve systématiquement opposée aux arguments des agents qui contestent, devant le juge administratif, leurs conditions de travail ou des mesures individuelles. Dans ce contexte, cette notion apparaît utile mais également ambiguë et fuyante. Elle permet tout d'abord de délimiter de manière négative le harcèlement moral. La mesure prise dans l'intérêt du service exclut qu'il puisse s'agir de harcèlement. L'intérêt du service suppose de rechercher la volonté de l'administration alors même que la jurisprudence réfute, par principe, toute démarche subjective dans la caractérisation du harcèlement moral. Cette notion contribue ensuite à l'identification des sanctions disciplinaires déguisées. Il s'agit cependant d'un critère d'identification relativement instable au point de se demander s'il ne serait pas simplement plus simple de s'en passer.

""--Provided by publisher.