Failure in welfare partnerships - A gender hypothesis: Reflections on a serendipity pattern in Local Safeguarding Children Boards

Dudau, Adina I. and McAllister, Laura ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2199-5230 2018. Failure in welfare partnerships - A gender hypothesis: Reflections on a serendipity pattern in Local Safeguarding Children Boards. Public Policy and Administration 34 (1) , pp. 84-103. 10.1177/0952076717751037

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Abstract

This article examines the roles that occupational segregation and gender bias in the welfare professions play in persistent failures in inter-agency and inter-professional collaborations. Drawing on case study evidence from a Local Safeguarding Children Board in England, a ‘serendipity pattern’ of gender dominance is identified within professions affecting inter-professional collaborations such as those prevalent in Local Safeguarding Children Boards. As we assign this pattern ‘strategic interpretation’, we suggest that policy measures taken to augment the effectiveness of welfare partnerships have, so far, paid insufficient attention to the critical variable of gender, due to over-emphasis on the organisations, rather than the professions, involved. The article’s contribution to practice is unravelling the potential of this oversight to contribute to failure to establish a collaborative mind-set. Our contribution to theory is highlighting specific cultural barriers to inter-professional collaborations, unravelling the power differentials rooted in gender inequity in public sector workforces and challenging professional and organizational traditionalism. In doing so, we offer empirical evidence of the ‘gender hypothesis’ in welfare partnerships and indicate how future investigations might be pursued in this area.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Department of Politics and International Relations (POLIR)
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
ISSN:	0952-0767
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	20 August 2019
Date of Acceptance:	20 November 2017
Last Modified:	27 Nov 2024 08:45
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/124015

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