The involvement of Israeli welfare departments in policy practice: The perspective of department managers

Israel as a welfare state faces many social challenges. Social workers who are closely familiar with the needs of disadvantaged populations are expected to engage in policy-practice in order to improve their condition and quality of life. Although social workers are witnessing the positive and negative effects of social policy, very few actually engage in policy making.

Studies that examined this issue showed that one of the factors influencing the involvement of social workers in policy making is the support of managers in the social welfare departments and the legitimization they give to their employees’ engagement in policy practice.

The purpose of this study was to examine how managers of social welfare departments perceive the role of departments and the social workers in policy practice. Only few studies have already examined the factors that influence these perceptions and the involvement of their employees in policy practice.

The study is based on in-depth semi-structured interviews, with 13 managers of social welfare departments in Israel. The transcribed interviews were subjected to content analysis in three stages: open coding, axial coding and finally integrative analysis.

Findings: Most managers indicate the importance of policy-practice in social work, but most of them do not consider it a part of their own role nor as the role of their social workers. The managers cited many reasons for their absence from the policy making processes, including factors related to themselves, to the workers, to the local authority, and to the state of the profession. They had suggestions for increasing the involvement of the departments in this field. In particular, the managers emphasized the responsibility of the Ministry of Social Welfare for the lack of involvement in policy practice. In the managers' statements there was a sense of despair regarding the state of the profession, with an emphasis on low wages work, overload and the public image of the profession.

Conclusion: The managers do not see policy-making as a clear part of the welfare departments’ roles, and believe that introducing it to the departments is a complex process that raises many challenges both locally and nationally.

This study sheds light on the challenges faced by managers in the social welfare departments when it comes to policy making. Tus, it allows better understanding of the complexity of the profession. It particularly sheds light on some problems emanating from the departments subjection to both the local government and the Ministry of Welfare.