Principles of Social Welfare Administration

1. SOCIAL WELFARE
ADMINISTRATION
-Social Policy

2. INTRODUCTION
Social welfare administration
may be specifically defined as the
process of formulation and
implementation of policies
related to promotion of well-
being of weaker and vulnerable
sections of the society

3. Harleigh B. Trecker (1971) interprets
social welfare administration as a “process
of working with people in ways that
release and relate their energies so that they
use all available resources to accomplish
the purpose of providing needed
community services and programmes.”

4. Nature
•Social Welfare Administration as an Art
i) It can be acquired
ii) It is subjective in nature
iii) Practical application of knowledge
•Social Welfare Administration as a Science
I. Application of Scientific Method
II. Critical Examination
III. Universal Guidelines

5. Need
Welfare services provided by an increasingly large number of
organisations make administration very important.
Social welfare services, schemes, projects and programmes, are
becoming increasingly complex hence a sound administration is
vital.
Implementation of social legislations

6. It is increasingly realised that social welfare programmes require
qualified and trained social welfare personnel to perform social
welfare functions efficiently. So it is argued that for serving the
people effectively it is necessary to professionalise, as
professionalisation can increase the ability of social welfare
personnel to solve the pressing social problems confronting our
society.

7. Objectives
•To make the social policy to reach the disadvantaged section.
•To develop the man and environment.
•To balance the distribution of resources and facilities.
•To mitigate social problems.
•Empowerment of the weaker sections.
•Social change.
•Overall welfare of the society.

8. •To translate social mandates into operational policies and goals that
guide organisational behaviour.
•To design organisational structures and processes through which
social welfare goals can be achieved.
•To secure resources in the form of material staff necessary for goal
achievement.
•To bring increased efficiency and effectiveness in the delivery of
social welfare services

9. Scope
•The POSDCoRB view
•The Integral view.
The POSDCoRB View of Social Welfare Administration
This is a narrow view of social welfare administration and takes into account
mostly the execution of the government’s sponsored programmes. In other words
this view corresponds with the managerial view. Henri Fayol, L. Urwick, Fercey
M. Ovean and Luther Gulick are advocates of this view.

10. The IntegralView of SocialWelfareAdministration
Social welfare is concerned with -
Social Problems : Assessment of its causes, prevention and treatment
through public participation and effective implementation of social
legislation.
Social Services : Social services are meant for general public through
provision of health, education, housing etc. and make them more
effective for the upliftment of disadvantaged and vulnerable sections of
society.

11. Social Security : To make and implement effective social
assistance and social insurance provisions. It aims to compensate
for the loss of income due to unemployment, disability or death
caused by accident and old age through social insurance and social
assistance.
Social Policy : To make effective social policy for the welfare of
underprivileged sections of the society, to achieve the goals of
welfare state through social action

12. DIFFERENCE IN ORIENTATION OF ADMINISTARTION AND MANAGEMENT
ADMINISTRATION MANAGEMENT
1 Mainly concerned with performing assigned
duties
1 Mainly concerned with getting results
2 Stress on what should be done, what ought to be
done and what must be done
2 Stress on what is to be done and how it is to be
done
3 More emphasis on formulation of sound
‘policies’ and their translation into practice
3 Greater emphasis on attainment of objectives
keeping in view the goals and mission of the
organisation
4 Maintenance of status quo is the ultimate goal 4 Change, growth, expansion and development are
the ultimate goals
5 Greater emphasis on ‘personal effectiveness’ 5 Greater stress on ‘Organisational effectiveness’

13. Principles
1. Principle of being in service
2. Principle of co-ordination
3. Principle of progressive adjustment
4. Principle of putting social policy into practice
5. Transformation of social policy into welfare policy
6. Principle of adaptation to local problems

14. 7. Principle of mutually reinforcing
relationships.
8. Principle of democratic decentralisation
9. Principle of communication
10. Principle of sensitivity

15. Principle of being in service
•It is essential that social/welfare services should be
directly provided to clients without any middlemen
between the service providers and beneficiaries, and
without any expectations in cash/kind/service from
beneficiaries

16. Principle of co-ordination
It is considered essential that if all
kinds of services in a particular area
are provided through one organisation
with single window, the work of
administration will be easier

17. Principle of progressive adjustment
Services to be effective have to be changed
with the needs of client. This, therefore, is duty
of administrator to introduce innovations in
services.

18. Principle of putting social policy into practice
It is the duty of social welfare
administrator to implement social
policies and observe procedures
strictly and tactfully

19. Transformation of social policy into
welfare policy
This is the duty of social welfare administrator
to keep the welfare of weak, and vulnerable
sections at the top and mould the social policy to
suit the interests of these sections

20. Principle of adaptation to local problems
It is essential to change
predetermined programmes
according to local needs.

21. Principle of mutually reinforcing relations
For the success of any social welfare programme it is
necessary that there should be mutual trust and
confidence, friendship and closeness between
administration and clients towards each other.

22. Principle of democratic decentralisation
A social welfare administrator believes
that the work relating to public should be
done by public through its representatives.

23. Principle of communication
Communication between administration
and clients should be done in the language
and style easily understood by the latter

24. Principle of sensitivity
A social welfare administrator
should, therefore, also be sensitive
to the pains and sufferings of others
and should try to share them on
the basis of empathy