The restructuring of the child welfare system in Ontario: A study in the social organization of knowledge

This study describes the social organization of the child protection system in Ontario after the introduction of the “Child Welfare Reform.” The study explores and describes the new “regimes of practices” that bind the child welfare social worker into producing institutional outcomes. There have been significant changes to social work practices as a result of this restructuring. Of particular concern is the considerable reduction in the professional autonomy of social workers and a removal of major decision-making powers from front-line social workers and supervisors. The study explores the increase in the emphasis on social workers' accountability to the system itself and a corresponding decrease in professional autonomy and the commitment to the clients' needs. Procedures and the documentation of social workers' actions and decisions become more important than their relationships with clients and community.;The study uses Institutional Ethnography, a method of inquiry developed by Canadian sociologist Dorothy Smith, complemented with the literature on governmentality. I draw on my knowledge and experience of the routine every day work of child protection and how new “technologies of government” such as the New Funding Formula and the Ontario Risk Assessment Model (ORAM) have affected the practices of the restructured child protection system.