The new era in social welfare regulation

Abstract

Regulation in its proper form for the purpose of monitoring is a deep-rooted practice. The test of time has resulted in less impact on the functions of regulation than its modes. At present, the concept of regulation encompasses the continuous and engrossed control exercised in a public manner, based on a legislative mandate involving activities that are generally regarded as necessary for society. Majone (1996) highlights that such a legislative mandate implies that regulation is not achieved simply by passing a law but requires comprehensive knowledge and intimate involvement with the regulated activity. Hence, the role of regulating an activity requires detailed knowledge of its operations, ability to shift requirements as the condition of the activity dictates, the pursuit of energetic measures upon the appearance of an emergency and the power through enforcement to realise conclusions especially relating to policy. Recent eras have also led to the evolvement of the transformation of social welfare provision, with movement towards privatisation, decentralisation and non-governmental organisations’ involvement, thus making the role of the state inclining towards an “enabling” one. Hereafter, the regulatory function gains further importance when a direct link with the most vulnerable groups in society is concerned (Benish et al., 2017). In this regard, a gap in scholarly work on the regulation of social welfare services remains, both in literature on social work and welfare and in literature on regulatory governance. Furthermore, existing literature seldom explores the ways that the regulatory function is perceived and practiced at the grassroots, nor does it consider the professional dilemmas involved in regulating social welfare services.