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Information systems have been heralded as indispensible tools for enhancing the performance of human services and producing positive outcomes for people (Poertner and Rapp, 1988). Such systems can play an important role in the processes of formulating social policy, planning, and programming. This role includes the identification of social issues and their formulation, goal clarification, the identification of priorities and alternatives in these processes, and in social monitoring and evaluation (Berman, 1985). In contradistinction to the political aspect of decision‐making, information systems aid in bringing about rationalization of the decision‐making process in the public policy sphere (Welrich, 1985). The effective use of information systems, however, is dependent upon the accessibility of the system to the decision‐maker during the decision‐making process. The place of the decision‐maker in the administrative structure determines the type of information he needs and its mode of application. The value of the information system in decision‐making is contingent upon the relevance of the information in content and in being available at the right time.

The purpose of this study is to introduce the concept of social welfare chain and address the challenges in decision making through the development of an optimal planning model for a nongovernmental organization (NGO). The distinctive properties of the social welfare chain and its relationship with the humanitarian relief chain in the context of supply chain management are also discussed. The paper presents a real decision problem and analyzes the managerial impacts of the proposed solution.

The study of social welfare policy and the review of the humanitarian literature has necessitated the introduction of the social welfare chain. Based on its definition, an optimal facility location distribution model that consolidates the non‐integrated style of logistics functions with a cost minimizing approach is developed. The General Algebraic Modeling System (GAMS) is used in order to optimize the coal distribution model of an NGO. Data is obtained from an NGO that aims to help vulnerable people through distributing coal and basic food such as rice and sugar.

Besides laying the foundations of social welfare chain, an analytical tool for decision support systems of the NGOs can be considered as the major finding of the research. Despite the increased number of stages in the proposed network configuration, the optimal solution resulted in significant cost reduction and distribution efficiency due to the availability of temporary distribution center locations at no extra cost. Furthermore, this study brings out the advantages of using intermodal transportation in the distribution process of cost‐sensitive networks.

This paper provides a detailed analysis that contributes to the efficiency and the effectiveness of social welfare chains. Moreover, it represents a cooperation established between university and NGOs.

The planning efforts of nongovernmental organizations targeting at the periodical aids to improve the social welfare level have received little attention in the literature. This paper is the first to propose the concept of “Social Welfare Chain”, at the same time addressing the distribution planning for the NGO.

In the early 1970s, clinical evidence emerged documenting causal links between prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) and children’s behaviors as observed by child welfare social workers (CWSWs). Unfortunately, fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) remain on the margins of public health priorities. The purpose of this study was to elicit the views of child welfare social workers when responding to case of or suspected FASD.

A sample (N = 18) of CWSWs, allied health professionals and foster parents were interviewed.

Findings indicate that social workers struggle with their statutory duty to plan safe care for children with or suspected of having FASD. Emergent themes include struggling with advocacy, professional devaluation and lack of procedural guidance.

Social workers need a clear pathway and FASD knowledge to guide their interventions and enhance their capacity to advocate for affected children.

An abundance of research documents the direct effect of PAE on physical, cognitive and behavioral outcomes. However, few studies focus on the critical interface of children with an FASD entering public care and the social workers responsible for planning their safe care. This study sought to document social workers’ response to this vulnerable cohort of children.

The author argues that we must stop and take a look at what our insistence on human labour as the basis of our society is doing to us, and begin to search for possible alternatives. We need the vision and the courage to aim for the highest level of technology attainable for the widest possible use in both industry and services. We need financial arrangements that will encourage people to invent themselves out of work. Our goal, the article argues, must be the reduction of human labour to the greatest extent possible, to free people for more enjoyable, creative, human activities.

Looking at the present Nigeria’s quest to become one of the top 20 economies of the world by the year 2020, the purpose of this paper is to propose that Nigerian public libraries, as key players in community development, should provide resources and services for the promotion of social welfare sector of the country by introducing relevant key information management and service policies. These strategic policies should include identification of various user groups, deployment of specialized information professionals, provision of adequate financial resources, social welfare information resource development planning, effective information service delivery system, partnership arrangements and adaptation of Information and Communication Technology (ICT).

Essential to this paper is to take into account the importance and relevancy of policies, strategies and procedures of information management and services to Nigerian public libraries.

There is continuous rising concerns about the current situation of the country’s socio-economic problems and challenges. However, despite the problem of poor and inadequate ICT facilities in Nigerian public libraries, the ICT infrastructure including the internet will significantly enhance the social welfare information service process in these libraries, if fully adopted. Also very important here is that, the libraries should support community awareness programs on local radio stations or local television channels to compliment the collection of materials in the library.

Nigerian public libraries should be seen as places for all; and participants in community activities must therefore provide relevant data and information to social welfare workers for effective policy/decision making. It is also important that the libraries should help in the identification of areas of welfare that require urgent attention or thorough investigation, examination and analysis.

Child welfare services (CWSs) globally continue to absorb high rates of children living with or suspected of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD). Such high prevalence rates render CWS with major ethical and moral dilemmas of meeting complex needs. Currently, many jurisdictions are challenged by diagnostic capacity and cost implications of formal FASD diagnosis. This paper aims to recommend a screening protocol to address management gap between FASD initial presentation and formal diagnosis.

This is a follow-up paper from a grounded-theory study of a sample (N = 18) of child welfare social workers (CWSWs), allied health professionals and foster parents. A stepwise protocol was developed through systematical interpretation of the final data.

The application of a five-step screening protocol would greatly support CWSW in meeting the needs of children with suspected FASD. This CWSWs-led assessment model incorporates a clinical evaluation to exclude neurodevelopmental conditions caused by known genetic disorders, followed by behavioral and neurocognitive psychosocial assessments.

This study had several limitations. Firstly, as a specific social work-based sample, it is not necessarily representative of the wider population of social workers globally due to different cultural responses to FASD in CWSs. The transferability of findings will have to be considered due to cultural variations concerning FASD.

By offering a management and nonlabeling approach, this five-step screening protocol offers a delineated pathway for CWSW and addresses the major professional frustrations while seeking to plan safe care for a child suspected of having FASD.

The research offers a pragmatic low-cost to society to alleviate the mounting social and monetary implications of FASD. A large percentage of children impacted by prenatal alcohol exposure do not qualify under formal clinical diagnostic guidelines. Leaving these children without intervention is problematic. The recommendation of this study addresses this critical gap in services. The primary aim is to alleviate the burden on this cohort of vulnerable children by offering nonlabeling neurodevelopmental screening.

The direct implications of FASD and how it impacts CWS are well documented. However, few studies focus on the critical interface of FASD and the role of CWSW responsible for planning their safe care. This paper offers a novel pragmatic and functional multistep protocol to aid CWSW in this complex area of practice.

A major problem facing social work educators and students, as well as practitioners and policy formulators, is that of finding valid statistical data on social welfare and social work. As social work moves in the direction of becoming an empirically‐based profession, it will no doubt place a greater emphasis on the use of such data.

Most contemporary British social policies have developed within an institutional and intellectual framework which is commonly referred to as the welfare state, and which first became firmly established in Britain after the second world war at the beginning of a period of historically high rates of economic growth. The embodiment of social policies within a particular set of public institutions required, and received, an increasing flow of resources to pursue the objectives set for them. For more than a quarter‐century economic prosperity underwrote the expansion and consolidation of the modern welfare state. But since the mid‐1970s the deteriorating fiscal environment has affected nearly all public programmes and the welfare state has not escaped its share of the cuts. As a result there has been a growing feeling that a ‘crisis of the welfare state’ is emerging.

This study aims to explore adult professional’s role using the conceptual framework of co-production. It proposes that when adult professionals recognise children’s expertise, they can form equal, interdependent partnerships as co-constructors of knowledge which are integral to co-production practice, but structural and cultural barriers persist when working with justice involved children. This study investigates the sociocultural context of Hong Kong to expand critical knowledge of co-production in youth justice.

This paper uses a qualitative approach and reports on data gathered from participant observation and interviews with social workers in a local children’s service.

This paper empirically uncovers how missed opportunities for social workers to transform their role when working with justice involved children. Partnerships were highly valued as an important part of social workers role, but in practice, equal partnerships were met with institutional and cultural barriers, whereas interdependency formed but social workers still navigated tensions of regulating children’s behaviour.

Deeper theoretical understanding of the structural and cultural impact on co-production across youth justice in the Hong Kong context remains to be explored, though focusing on the repositing of adult professional roles supports a greater understanding of the conflicting practice within youth justice.

Professionals can reflect critically on how their role as co-constructors of knowledge can be achieved to expand children’s meaningful participation into the planning and design of programmes to co-create objectives and share power.

This paper combines theory of co-production with local Asian practices, identifying how barriers towards transformation play out through relationships between children and front-line professionals.