The research project relates to an important and often overlooked aspect of social enterprise: the impact of participation (Defourny, Pestoff & Hulgård, 2014; Brandsen, Pestoff & Vershuere, 2014). One avenue for social enterprises to improve healthcare and social care is to develop new solutions to acknowledged challenges within care institutions. Such institutions invest in competence development, generating markets where social entrepreneurs compete with academic institutions and private consultants. Social entrepreneurs typically offer solutions based on clients’ experiences, giving less consideration to empirical research or theoretical coherence. The potential of improving care through interplay between entrepreneurs, clients and employees should be investigated. Such interplay is relevant also to professional education.
One acknowledged challenge is children’s participation in deciding on care from child welfare services (Vis & Thomas 2009). Although such participation is emphasized in the “Convention on the Rights of the Child” (United Nations, 1990) and mandated by law in Norway, research has documented that child welfare officers often make decisions without the child’s participation. This is problematic not only from a judicial point of view, but also because research has documented that participation can contribute positively to children’s mental health (Vis, Strandbu, Holtan & Thomas 2011). Child welfare officers see themselves as protecting children by not allowing them to participate, basing their practices on previous laws and outdated academic knowledge (Vis, Holtan & Thomas 2012). The challenge becomes one of educating and motivating them to change their practices.
Two of the social entrepreneurs offering solutions to lack of child participation in child welfare services in Norway are “Listen to me!” and “My life”. “Listen to me!” is a 45 minutes semi-professionally produced documentary, including dramatization of emotionally charged situations where children experience not being listened to. The documentary is shown to child welfare officers as an introduction to systematic reflections on their own existing practices and potential for improvements. “My life” aims at changing attitudes and practice in child welfare services by providing a combination of collaboration with children currently receiving mandatory services, educational materials and supervision.
This research highlights compares the two social entrepreneurs, in order to explore the following research issues:
1. How do child welfare officers respond to criticism from people currently or previously receiving mandatory services? Do they become more or less motivated to change existing practices depending on the entrepreneurs’ approaches?
2. How is increased participation achieved by agents involved in the provision of child welfare services?
3. How flexible are the two social enterprises in tailoring their approaches to specific contexts and demands?
4. Are the entrepreneurs’ approaches relevant to professional education? If so, how?
The methodological approach combines participant research, documentation of guidance and educational activities, and interviews. Data are gathered regularly in 2014-2015.
Preliminary analyses will be presented at the conference. Analyses will be fairly conclusive on research issues 1 and 2, and tentative on research issues 3 and 4. The results will broaden scientific understanding of quality, relevance and applicability of social enterprise in social care and higher education.
If not accepted for paper, poster can be an alternative.
Keywords:
Social enterprise
Social care
Child welfare service
Children’s participation
Mental health
References:
Brandsen, T., Pestoff, V. & Verschuere,B (2014). Co-production and the third sector: The state of the art in research. In Defourny, J., Hulgård, . & Pestoff, V. (eds.) (2014). Social Enterprise and the Third Sector. Changing European Landscapes in a Comparative Perspective. London and New York: Routledge.
Defourny, J., Hulgård, . & Pestoff, V. (eds.) (2014). Social Enterprise and the Third Sector. Changing European Landscapes in a Comparative Perspective. London and New York: Routledge.
United Nations (1990). Convention on the Rights of the Child. Read 13.02.2015 at http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/ProfessionalInterest/crc.pdf
Vis, S., & Thomas, N. (2009). Beyond talking – children’s participation in Norwegian care and protection cases. European Journal of Social Work, 12(2), 155–168
Vis, S., Strandbu, A., Holtan, A., & Thomas, N. (2011). Participation and health–a research review of child participation in planning and decision‐making. Child & Family Social Work, 16(3), 325-335.
Vis, S., Holtan, A. & Thomas, N. (2012). Obstacles for child participation in care and protection cases—why Norwegian social workers find it difficult. Child Abuse Review, 21(1), 7-23.
