Street-level bureaucracy in the pandemic: the perception of frontline social workers on policy implementation

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the strategic role of social care policy to minimize the effects of this health crisis and its consequences on the poorest and most vulnerable population. This article analyzes the perception of street-level bureaucrats in the Brazilian social care network on how the pandemic has affected their performance and professional routine. The research was based on a survey, consultations with representatives of municipal social care services, and analysis of government regulations. The results show that social workers feel unprotected and unable to provide adequate responses to the pandemic’s increasing and urgent demands, revealing a lack of institutional support to act appropriately. The professionals also reported substantial changes in their working dynamics, particularly in their relationship with the attended population, one of the main pillars of the Brazilian social care network. These elements directly affect the provision of social care services and their potential to combat the adverse effects of the crisis.

The Public Servants’ Response When Facing Pandemic: The Role of Public Service Motivation, Accountability Pressure, and Emergency Response Capacity

“…The behaviors of public servants are critical in an epidemic. For the state, their behaviors are related to the (in)ability to deliver policies, achieve goals [ 4 ], and improve efficiency [ 5 ], as well as the public trust in the government [ 6 ]. Trust in the government was correlated with decisions to abide by public health policies, restrictions, and guidelines [ 7 ].…”

“…With nursery and school being closed, public servants need to balance work and duties even during working hours. Moreover, the crisis has created higher ambiguities [ 4 ]; influenced the discretions of public servants [ 18 ]; and reduced public servants’ compound knowledge of task-specific intelligence, scientific knowledge, and policy rules, which made them doubt about how to make the best professional judgments in encounters with families and citizens [ 13 ]. In the light of job demands–resources theory (JD-R theory), job demands are positively associated with burnout, whereas job resources are positively related to engagement [ 19 ].…”

A Turning Point? Responses to COVID-19 Within the Homelessness Industrial Complex

“…During the pandemic, service providers were required to interpret and enforce rapidly changing health guidelines, which introduced new power dynamics and ambiguity to their work, initially with very few resources (Davidovitz et al, 2021;Gofen & Lotta, 2021). For many service providers, the added role of enforcing public health rules contradicted their personal ethics of care or the stated objectives of their job (Davidovitz et al, 2021;Lima-Silva et al, 2020). This added additional constraints to service providers who were required to function as street-level bureaucrats, transforming health policy into action on the ground through daily tasks such as micromanaging the use of face masks in emergency shelters.…”

Emergence and Development of Health Risk Communication Networks Among Street-Level Health Bureaucrats During the COVID-19 Pandemic Crisis in Myanmar

“…Consequently, street-level bureaucrats have a substantial degree of discretion in their treatment of their citizens and develop their own coping mechanisms to adaptively respond to diverse citizens' demands and local circumstances where a certain policy or program is actually carried out (Walker and Gilson 2004). In particular, the severe challenges that the ongoing unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic situation poses for street-level health bureaucrats-including increased demand for healthcare services, insufficient resources, and a lack of scientific knowledge and the resultant ambiguity-grant more discretion autonomy to them (Dunlop et al 2020;Lima-Silva et al 2020;Carlitz et al 2021;Davidovitz et al 2021;Mojica Méndez et al 2021). Therefore, their attitudes toward patients and efforts to decipher policy directions from policymakers clearly become more critical for implementing COVID-19 policies and achieving policy goals.…”

“…Myanmar's military has also collaborated in the committee's COVID-19 prevention, control, and treatment measures, with several local military hospitals and streetlevel military health functionaries offering support (MWD 2020a). Several recent studies have reported the behaviors and psychological, physical, and administrative burdens of street-level health bureaucrats during the pandemic (Lima-Silva et al 2020;Brunetto et al 2021;Meza et al 2021;Van Roekel et al 2021), but the military healthcare setting has not been investigated, even though military personnel usually live and work within a closed group and are more vulnerable to infectious diseases (Heo et al 2020). Furthermore, as the Myanmar military has deeply penetrated Myanmar public policy and disaster management (Zaw and Lim 2017;Myomin and Lim 2022), street-level military health bureaucrats are substantially involved in the implementation of COVID-19 policies through the treatment of patients in military hospitals.…”