Time for and timing in social work with vulnerable families: Responding to needs in neoliberal times

Recent research has shown that in Denmark an intensified focus on economic productivity and cost-effectiveness has emerged. The notion is that it should be possible to create more and better welfare for the same or less resources. Innovation focuses on how to gain and win time despite having less time to do social work and on the potentiality of fostering indi-vidual change more effectively. The question guiding the paper is: What is the time for and the timing of care in social work with vulnerable children and their families, and how does this connect to negotiation of needs? The paper is part of a three year Danish research project involving ethnographic field studies closely following and observing how social workers prac-tice and reflect on the forms and possibilities for care across statutory social casework, home based counselling and family treatment. Findings exemplify how social workers navigate, negotiate and construct time horizons and how care is affected by this. This relates to possi-bilities for and conflict related to attentiveness to and negotiation of needs and thus to basic questions regarding the power of social work as an agent of care and social change.