Defining Social Welfare Policy

chapter 2
PowerPoint Presentation
by : Teena Hutson
Lydia Sanchez
Cornell Robinson
Veronica Gales

SOCIAL WELFARE POLICY

There are many different ways to define social welfare policy because the term is used in
many different ways by many different people to refer to different things.
Social welfare policy refers to as societal response to specific needs or problems
CHILD MALTREATMENT
SUBSTANDARD HOUSING
POVERTY
Social welfare policies are policies that can affect the distribution of resources and the overall
quality of life.
SOCIAL POLICY
Social policy refers to the efforts used to shape the overall quality of life in a society
Improving living conditions of its members
Building and improving their relationship to one another and to society as a whole
Collective struggle to seek enduring social solutions to social problems . When used in this
sense social policy is equated with the struggle for equality in social and economic life.
Social policy can be defined as those principles, procedures, and course of action established
in statue, administrative codes, and agency regulation that effect peoples social well-being.
Social Welfare Policy as an Academic Discipline and a Social Work
Curriculum

Social Welfare Policy as an Academic Discipline and a Social Work Curriculum
In the academic are social welfare policy is a subfield of sociology, political science, history,
economics, and social work.
o In these disciplines social welfare policy is used to refer to nearly exclusively the activities of
the government.
Social welfare policy refers to a specific are of the professional social work curriculum; it is not
uncommon to find courses with the titles such as The Social Work Profession or Social Welfare
History included as part of the social welfare policy curriculum.
The accrediting body of the social work programs is the Council of Social Work Education
(CSWE).
In the social work curriculum, social welfare policy often refers to a practice method.

Social Workers are Interested in Social Welfare Policy in All Sectors of the
Economy

Many social welfare services are provided by private nonprofit, many times
religious, agencies.
During the course of the last century, the government assumed a larger and larger
role in the provision of social welfare services.
Private social service agencies have policies that affect their employees and clients
in much the same manner as government policies.
The private, for-profit sector is becoming increasingly important in the social
welfare enterprise.
Policies of profit-making agencies present a special concern to the social work
profession because of the high potential for conflict between the providing services
that are in the best interest of the client and services that are most profitable for the
organization.

The multiple levels of social welfare policy
Macro level policy- Macro level social welfare policy involves the broad laws, regulations or
guidelines that provide the basic framework for the provision of services and benefits. Most
macro level policy is generated by public and the private non profit sector. they take the form
of laws and regulations. The private for-profit sector responds to, attempts to influence, macro
level policy more than it generates such policy on its own.


Mezzo level policy- Is the mid level policy is an administrative policy that organizations
generate to direct and regularize their operations. For example supervisor that works for state
social services department will be responsible for setting up the personal policy manual,
which sets all the rules and regulations for the department.


Micro level- Micro level policy is what happens when individuals such as a social workers
translate macro and mezzo level policy into "actual" service to clients. The way a direct
service social worker interprets and implements a policy is as important in understanding the
policy as in the intention of the policy makers. The most effective means of developing these
internal controls is through professional training and socialization in certain values and a code
of ethics.


Social Welfare Policy A Working Definition

`There is no clear cut Definition of just what is a Social Welfare Policy is ,one
thing that is for sure is there must be a clear understanding on how the term is used.
Social Welfare policy concerns those with problems of dependency in our society.
Polices can be laws, public or private regulations, formal procedures, or just simple
normatively sanctioned patterns of behavior. Social welfare policy is a subset of
social policy.
Social Welfare polices start at the federal level and then throughout the States, the
guidelines and procedures varies from state to State, so that is one reason no one
can define, or give just one example just what Social Welfare policy is. That why it
states its a working definition it has to fit the situation at hand.