Embedding sustainability in local welfare systems: bottom-up contributions from social workers and care professionals in public and third sector organisations

Sustainability, and how it may be embedded in welfare systems and services, is a much-debated topic in social work studies, with implications for the role that social workers and other care professionals play in this process. Analysing a local welfare system, this paper investigates professionals’ experiences of the organisational dimension of social services, and potential factors supporting a service redesign informed to sustainability. Professionals’ perspectives on sustainability, and their views on structural factors, barriers and methodological tools influencing the establishment of sustainable service networks, are explored. Data is drawn from a study exploring views on sustainability in care professionals in Italy (Veneto region). Eight focus groups, involving n = 26 social workers and n = 12 care professionals in Public and Third Sector Organisations were conducted using a photo-elicitation technique. Interviews were thematically analysed and interpreted through Boetto’s ‘transformative eco-social model’ (2017). Results describe the structuring of the eco-social intervention network and the (un)sustainable system aspects. Participants highlighted the benefits of participatory planning approaches, community work, new economic models, and organisational cultures fostering meaningful work. We conclude that social care professionals have a key role in catalysing grassroots change, and local services are privileged settings for building a sustainable, generative welfare.