Conclusion
-
Peter Beresford
Abstract
Editing this book has been a major project. Two things directly encouraged us to embark upon it. First, our own personal experience of the inadequacy of traditional social policies and services and second, our experience as activists that people’s participation could make possible a more hopeful alternative. We felt both that conventional social policy has lost its way and that participatory social policy had something very helpful to offer instead. The work we have done in putting the book together, the contacts we have made and the developments we have discovered mean that our own understanding has expanded, rather than remained static. We have learned so much – especially internationally – and we hope that this book also offers that opportunity to readers. Editing it has opened our eyes to just how much is going on to advance participatory social work in theory and practice globally. It has confirmed our and other people’s growing concerns that traditional social policy, whether of the political left or right, may be set on a road to nowhere, the two cancelling each other out. Proposals either continue to be prescriptive and therefore politically weak or backward looking, cutting welfare, turning to the market, deluding us that this offers a way forward. In our view, the Grenfell Tower tragedy in the UK, in which so many died unnecessarily, is likely to have reverberations for social policy much more widely and for much longer than could ever have been imagined. It has given the lie to previously unchallengeable arguments that public spending is wasteful and damaging, that spending cuts are synonymous with ‘efficiency savings’ and that only the private sector can ensure that the ‘consumer is king’, rights and social responsibility secured and the voice of the citizen heard (Walker, 2017).
Abstract
Editing this book has been a major project. Two things directly encouraged us to embark upon it. First, our own personal experience of the inadequacy of traditional social policies and services and second, our experience as activists that people’s participation could make possible a more hopeful alternative. We felt both that conventional social policy has lost its way and that participatory social policy had something very helpful to offer instead. The work we have done in putting the book together, the contacts we have made and the developments we have discovered mean that our own understanding has expanded, rather than remained static. We have learned so much – especially internationally – and we hope that this book also offers that opportunity to readers. Editing it has opened our eyes to just how much is going on to advance participatory social work in theory and practice globally. It has confirmed our and other people’s growing concerns that traditional social policy, whether of the political left or right, may be set on a road to nowhere, the two cancelling each other out. Proposals either continue to be prescriptive and therefore politically weak or backward looking, cutting welfare, turning to the market, deluding us that this offers a way forward. In our view, the Grenfell Tower tragedy in the UK, in which so many died unnecessarily, is likely to have reverberations for social policy much more widely and for much longer than could ever have been imagined. It has given the lie to previously unchallengeable arguments that public spending is wasteful and damaging, that spending cuts are synonymous with ‘efficiency savings’ and that only the private sector can ensure that the ‘consumer is king’, rights and social responsibility secured and the voice of the citizen heard (Walker, 2017).
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents iii
- List of figures and tables vii
- Foreword viii
- Introduction 1
-
Service users and social policy: an introduction
- Challenging injustice: the importance of collective ownership of social policy 14
- Participation and solidarity in a changing welfare state 22
- Social policy in developing countries: a post-colonial critique and participatory inquiry 33
- Advancing sustainability: developing participatory social policy in the context of environmental disasters 43
- Social policy and disability 51
- A case study of children’s participation in health policy and practice 62
- Who owns co-production? 74
-
Critiquing and reconceiving Beveridge’s ‘five giant evils’: key areas of British post-war social policy from a lived experience perspective
- Rethinking disabled people’s rights to work and contribute 86
- Talking policy as a patient 95
- ‘We don’t deal with people, we deal with bricks and mortar’: a lived experience perspective on UK health and housing policy 98
- Education (ignorance) addressing inclusive education: the issues and its importance from a participatory perspective 103
- “For work, we came here to find work”: migrant Roma employment and the labour of language 107
-
The contribution of service user knowledges
- Disability policy and lived experience: reflections from regional Australia 120
- Renewing epistemologies: service user knowledge 132
- Pornography, feminist epistemology and changing public policy 142
- Making social policy internationally: a participatory research perspective 147
-
An inclusive life course and developmental approach to social policy
- Disabled children’s lives: an inclusive life course and developmental approach to social policy 163
- Troubled youth and troubling social policy: mental health from a Mad Studies perspective 172
- Disability: an inclusive life course and developmental approach to social policy 181
- Independent living from a Black Disabled Woman’s perspective 188
- Food poverty and the policy context in Ireland 195
- Implementing race equality policies in British health and social care: a perspective from experience 205
- Participatory approaches to social policy in relation to ageing 211
- Death, dying and digital stories 223
-
Transforming social policy
- People acting collectively can be powerful 233
- Their participation and ours: competing visions of empowerment 243
- A participatory approach to professional practice 251
- Dreams of justice 257
- Sustainable-participatory social policy 262
- Participatory social policy in a large EU research project 277
-
Campaigning and change
-
Approaches to activism
- ‘What is strong, not what is wrong’ 292
- Participatory social policy and social change: exploring the role of social entrepreneurship linked to forms of social and micro enterprises in the field of social care 297
- Public duty, whistleblowing and scandal: influences on public policy 306
- ‘Informed gender practice in acute mental health’: when policy makes sense 311
- Making the case for single sex wards 314
- #JusticeforLB: in search of truth, accountability and justice 319
-
The role of online platforms and social media
- Guerilla policy: new platforms for making policy from below 323
- A Magna Carta for learning disabled people 327
- Pat’s Petition: The emerging role of social media and the internet 332
-
Breaking down barriers
-
Inclusion and difference in the formulation and operation of social policy
- “LGBT History Month is a thing!” The story of an equal rights campaign 338
- Progressing gender recognition and trans rights in the UK 343
-
User-led approaches to social policy
- Transforming professional training and education – a gap mending approach: the PowerUs European partnership 349
- Grassroots tackling policy: the making of the ‘Spartacus Report’ 355
- Involvement for influence: developing the 4Pi Involvement Standards 362
-
Participatory research and evaluation
- From expert to service user: challenging how lived experience is demeaned 369
- Participatory methodologies involving marginalised perspectives 376
- Developing the evidence to challenge ‘welfare reform’: the road to ‘Cash Not Care’ 389
- Service user-controlled research for evidence-based policymaking 394
- Participatory citizenship, gender and human trafficking in Nepal 406
- Experiential knowledge in mental health policy and legislation: can we ever change the agenda? 418
- Conclusion 427
- Notes on contributors 435
- Index 447
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents iii
- List of figures and tables vii
- Foreword viii
- Introduction 1
-
Service users and social policy: an introduction
- Challenging injustice: the importance of collective ownership of social policy 14
- Participation and solidarity in a changing welfare state 22
- Social policy in developing countries: a post-colonial critique and participatory inquiry 33
- Advancing sustainability: developing participatory social policy in the context of environmental disasters 43
- Social policy and disability 51
- A case study of children’s participation in health policy and practice 62
- Who owns co-production? 74
-
Critiquing and reconceiving Beveridge’s ‘five giant evils’: key areas of British post-war social policy from a lived experience perspective
- Rethinking disabled people’s rights to work and contribute 86
- Talking policy as a patient 95
- ‘We don’t deal with people, we deal with bricks and mortar’: a lived experience perspective on UK health and housing policy 98
- Education (ignorance) addressing inclusive education: the issues and its importance from a participatory perspective 103
- “For work, we came here to find work”: migrant Roma employment and the labour of language 107
-
The contribution of service user knowledges
- Disability policy and lived experience: reflections from regional Australia 120
- Renewing epistemologies: service user knowledge 132
- Pornography, feminist epistemology and changing public policy 142
- Making social policy internationally: a participatory research perspective 147
-
An inclusive life course and developmental approach to social policy
- Disabled children’s lives: an inclusive life course and developmental approach to social policy 163
- Troubled youth and troubling social policy: mental health from a Mad Studies perspective 172
- Disability: an inclusive life course and developmental approach to social policy 181
- Independent living from a Black Disabled Woman’s perspective 188
- Food poverty and the policy context in Ireland 195
- Implementing race equality policies in British health and social care: a perspective from experience 205
- Participatory approaches to social policy in relation to ageing 211
- Death, dying and digital stories 223
-
Transforming social policy
- People acting collectively can be powerful 233
- Their participation and ours: competing visions of empowerment 243
- A participatory approach to professional practice 251
- Dreams of justice 257
- Sustainable-participatory social policy 262
- Participatory social policy in a large EU research project 277
-
Campaigning and change
-
Approaches to activism
- ‘What is strong, not what is wrong’ 292
- Participatory social policy and social change: exploring the role of social entrepreneurship linked to forms of social and micro enterprises in the field of social care 297
- Public duty, whistleblowing and scandal: influences on public policy 306
- ‘Informed gender practice in acute mental health’: when policy makes sense 311
- Making the case for single sex wards 314
- #JusticeforLB: in search of truth, accountability and justice 319
-
The role of online platforms and social media
- Guerilla policy: new platforms for making policy from below 323
- A Magna Carta for learning disabled people 327
- Pat’s Petition: The emerging role of social media and the internet 332
-
Breaking down barriers
-
Inclusion and difference in the formulation and operation of social policy
- “LGBT History Month is a thing!” The story of an equal rights campaign 338
- Progressing gender recognition and trans rights in the UK 343
-
User-led approaches to social policy
- Transforming professional training and education – a gap mending approach: the PowerUs European partnership 349
- Grassroots tackling policy: the making of the ‘Spartacus Report’ 355
- Involvement for influence: developing the 4Pi Involvement Standards 362
-
Participatory research and evaluation
- From expert to service user: challenging how lived experience is demeaned 369
- Participatory methodologies involving marginalised perspectives 376
- Developing the evidence to challenge ‘welfare reform’: the road to ‘Cash Not Care’ 389
- Service user-controlled research for evidence-based policymaking 394
- Participatory citizenship, gender and human trafficking in Nepal 406
- Experiential knowledge in mental health policy and legislation: can we ever change the agenda? 418
- Conclusion 427
- Notes on contributors 435
- Index 447
