Social workers’ policy engagement: A review of the literature

Abstract

The notion that social workers should engage in the policy process to further social justice is embedded in the professional discourse. However, little is known about social workers’ actual engagement in policy processes. This article presents a scoping review of the research literature published in English in order to understand the nature of current research and ascertain what is known about three modes of social workers’ policy involvement: voluntary political participation, holding elected office, policy practice. The review identified 51 studies published between 1964 and 2015. The studies focus mainly on social workers’ levels of involvement, their activities and the factors associated with the level of engagement. The review describes the main findings emerging from the research and underscores some methodological limitations in the existing studies and the continuing gaps in our knowledge on the policy engagement of social workers. Implications for future research, practice and education are presented. Key Practitioner Message: • Social workers’ engagement in policy processes in order to further social justice and the well‐being of service users is a core mission in the social work profession. However, it is much less clear whether and how social workers, both as citizens and professionals, have heeded this call; • The article offers a scoping review of the research on three modes of social workers’ policy involvement: voluntary political participation, holding elected office, policy practice; • The review identifies 51 studies that shed light on the levels of engagement, the wide range of policy activities undertaken by social workers and the individual, organisational and macro factors associated with the level of engagement.

Explaining the policy practice of community social workers

“…Despite its apparent importance, policy practice is still a neglected area in social work research (Weiss-Gal, 2017b), not least with regard to community social workers. While there are case studies that describe the role of community social workers in social policy change (Bowen, 2015; Burghardt, 2013; Mendes, 2008; Staples, 1999), there is only limited knowledge pertaining to the degree to which community social workers actually engage in policy practice in the context of their workplace and to the factors associated with this.…”

Applications of Theory to Social Policy: Civic Engagement Theory

“…In this issue I put the spotlight on Civic Engagement Model (also known as Civic Voluntarism Theory) developed by Verba et al (1995). Many have used the theory or some variant in their work but there is much yet to learn (for good examples of scholars using the Civic Engagement Model in their research, out of the many possible, see Berklau Halvor, 2016;Ostrander, et al, 2017;Ritter, 2008Ritter, , 2013Rome & Hoechstetter, 2010;Safadi & Lombe, 2012;Weiss-Gal, 2016;Witt et al, 2020). Some research questions are wonderful resources for constant tinkering, thinking, and transformations.…”

The DNA of social work as a human rights practice from a frontline social workers’ perspective in Flanders

“…In light of the first, social workers aim to realise rights for their users on an individual level in daily situations. It concerns the so-called social-administrative assistance and services whereby individual access to social services is realised (Oosterlynck, 2017;Weiss-Gal, 2017):…”