When social workers impact policy and don't just implement it: A framework for understanding policy engagement. By J Gal , I Weiss‐Gal , Bristol, UK: Policy Press. 2022, 2023. pp. 184

• Published date: 01 September 2023
• Author: Ofek Edri‐Peer,Nissim (Nessi) Cohen
• Date: 01 September 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.13715

Received: 1 August 2023

DOI: 10.1111/puar.13715

When social workers impact

policy and don’t just

implement it: A framework

for understanding policy

engagement

By J Gal, I Weiss-Gal, Bristol, UK: Policy

Press. 2022, 2023. pp. 184

Ofek Edri-Peer | Nissim (Nessi) Cohen

Department of Public Administration & Policy, The University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel

Correspondence

Nissim (Nessi) Cohen, Department of Public Administration & Policy, The University

of Haifa, Haifa, Israel.

Email: nissimcohen@poli.haifa.ac.il

Since Lipsky’s (Lipsky, 2010 [1980]) groundbreaking book,

street-level bureaucrats (SLBs) have attracted the atten-

tion of scholars in the field of public administration and

policy. SLBs are frontline implementers of public policy

who interact directly with citizens on a regular basis and

exercise considerable discretion while doing so. They are

recognized as pivotal players in policy because they infor-

mally construct or reconstruct the policy as designed.

Thus, SLBs such as teachers, police officers, and social

workers can significantly influence policy outcomes.

More recently, the public administration literature has

suggested that SLBs can influence policy not merely as

part of the implementation process, but also as the policy

is being designed. One way to do it is via street-level

bureaucrats’policy entrepreneurship. This concept refers

to SLBs who influence the formation of policies through

innovative and entrepreneurial strategies. As profes-

sionals with insights and familiarity with the field that are

important for shaping public policy, SLBs can operate in

various arenas to influence policy in different areas and at

different levels (Cohen, 2021; Cohen & Aviram, 2021).

While the idea that SLBs can affect policy design is a

relatively new trend in the public administration and pol-

icy literature, in social work and social policy literature it

has been standard practice. Public policy and administra-

tion scholars, therefore, can benefit by reading this litera-

ture. The social policy literature discusses the concept of

“policy practice,”which refers to social workers’engage-

ment in policy formation processes. It is a well-studied

notion in the discipline of social work, one that Gal and

Weiss-Gal present in the current book in an orderly and

systematic manner. Indeed, for the first time, the book

offers a theoretical framework based on previous findings

regarding the involvement of social workers in shaping

social policy and their influence on policy. Gal and

Weiss-Gal do so by relying on insights from various fields,

including social work, sociology, political science, adminis-

tration, and public policy. While they focus mainly on

social workers, it is important to examine these processes

within other street-level bureaucracies.

John Gal and Idit Weiss-Gal established themselves in

the last decade as the leading research duo in the interna-

tional arena in the theoretical and empirical developments

in the field of social work’s involvement in social policyde-

sign. In their previous research, Weiss-Gal and Gal focused

mainly on policy practice. The definition of policy practice

is “actions taken by social workers as an integral part of

their professional work in all fields and modes of operation,

aimed at designing new policy or changing and improving

existing policy, and preventing adverse changes. These

actions are aimed at influencing both the design of policy

and its implementation at the organizational, local,

national, and international levels, which curb the values of

social work…”(Weiss-Gal & Gal, 2011: 12). The main dis-

tinction between this definition and the definition in the

literature of political participation is the emphasis on social

workers as players in the public policy arena whose activi-

ties are limited by the context andconstraints of their work

and the fundamental ethical principles of their profession

(Gal & Weiss-Gal, 2017; Weiss-Gal & Gal , 2013). This defini-

tion leaves room for further research to develop typologies

of policy practice and/or to debate the various behaviors

at the intersection between them and classic political par-

ticipation. Examples include participating in a protest on

an issue that is not “social”or participat ing in such a pro-

test outside of work.

The theoretical framework of the book takes a step

forward in analyzing the involvement of social workers in

influencing public policy design. Social workers do so

through both policy practice engagement and through

other channels that are not included in classic policy prac-

tice in social work. In other words, the book does not

merely acknowledge the involvement of social workers in

policy practice as part of their professional role, as it has

done in the past. Rather, it points to and analyzes other

ways in which social workers seek to influence social pol-

icy outcomes as citizens or even as political actors. In

doing so, the book emphasizes that the political involve-

ment of social workers in policy goes beyond what can

be called classic policy practice.

The rationale of the book is simple: policy engagement

is a necessary and essential practice for government social

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