A család- és gyermekjóléti szolgálatok szerepe a társadalmi mobilitás elősegítésében – a munkatársak nézőpontjából
The role of family and child welfare services in promoting social mobility – from a staff perspective

Summary/Abstract: The study aims to seek answers to the following questions: how do Hungarian child and family social workers perceive their role in addressing poverty, the potential they have to tackle poverty, and the barriers they face when filling this role. The analyses are based on a survey of 600 social workers at child and family services conducted at the turn of 2018 and 2019.Our findings indicate a consensus among professionals that social work does have a role in addressing poverty. At the same time, the data suggest a tension between the role perception of social workers and the potential (or rather the lack of potential) for filling this role. There is no difference in the role perceptions of professionals according to their individual level sociodemographic variables. However, an important finding of the study is that perceptions of the possibilities for alleviating poverty depend on the socio-demographic characteristics of the area where they carry out their activity. In settlements with high shares of poor or Roma populations, social workers are less likely to think that addressing poverty can be part of their professional daily routine. Thus, the situation of poor families living in these settlements is exacerbated by the fact that it is these places where the child and family service system is the least capable of taking on the role of tackling poverty.

• Details
• Contents