Building a Better System
An image of the Five Giant Evils as described by William Beveridge, whose report “Social Insurance and Allied Services” served as the basis for the welfare state.
This resource is licensed under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA
This is a post from Susan Holdsworth, who is the RECOVER project manager.
Let me start this post with a provocation: Our social service systems are based on some faulty assumptions.
Yes, when the welfare state was established in the post-war world, it was modern and visionary. It included provision of many new services, training of professionals and building of new homes. It lifted thousands out of poverty, and provided many with decent homes, educations and a sense of security. It addressed the material needs of many. Our systems were based on thinking that we need to be productive, that GDP is a good measure for quality of life, that a life well lived is only possible with a minimum amount of material goods.
It also established large and expensive bureaucracies. Over the years, there have been efforts to bring spending under control - with cuts to funding and countless re-organizations. In search of efficiencies, successive governments everywhere have reorganized public bodies (including welfare services) along market lines. Business management practices were incorporated, and now it is readily accepted that things like maximum efficiency and risk management are essential.
“Technology has evolved; disconnection has grown; social isolation is a pandemic unto itself. Have we reached the limits of our current systems?”
Debates about how to manage institutions take up a lot of energy and resources. However, since our welfare systems were set up, our world, and the nature of our problems have changed. Technology has evolved; disconnection has grown; social isolation is a pandemic unto itself. Have we reached the limits of our current systems?
There are a growing number of people who recognize that relentless attempts to fix the 20th century social sectors is the wrong response for our contemporary world. The more we concentrate on merely re-working our existing institutions, the more we fail to see that the underlying assumptions underpinning our systems are wrong. Neither money nor management alone can solve our problems. We don’t just need more coordination or integration of services and programs.
“We need a wellbeing culture shift.”
We need a wellbeing culture shift. It is time to move away from the current emphasis on managing needs, deficits and scarcity. It is time to focus on building capabilities. It is time to move away from depending solely on professionals, and focus on connecting us to one another. We must create possibility rather than to seek only to manage risk. Our systems must be designed to include everyone — neighbours, families, friends — thereby fostering connections and relationships that make living the good life possible.
RECOVER is now about trying to shift the culture to support more whole community responsibility, and the development of healthy reciprocal relationships across our differences. There are four key things that we see need to change:
The language we use. (Is vulnerability not a shared human condition? (...just ask Brene Brown!) Should we not focus on strengths and gifts? Do not the people who need help also have a lot to give?)
The way we frame problems. (Are they not about more than lack of material needs, but also about the lack of connections and dignity?)
The way we approach solutions. (Donating and volunteering is not enough, four walls and a roof is not enough, calories are not enough - they shouldn't be the end goal, more the means. For example, how you serve a meal, how you curate the experience is just as important as the food itself.)
How we know things. (Not just through quantitative data but also through Indigenous and other ways of knowing).
We think that our wellbeing framework can help to support the culture shift.
COVID has been a time for reflection and focus. It has shown us that our systems can change if they need to. Carpe Diem, please.
For more explanation of the origins of our welfare systems and how they need to change, please check out Radical Help, a book by Hilary Cottam. I also highly recommend The Trampoline Effect: Redesigning our Social Safety Nets, a book by Gord Tulloch and Sarah Schulman.