The trouble with thresholds: Rationing as a rational choice in child and family social work

The financial crisis of 2008 has led central governments in industrialised nations to seek to reduce public expenditure at the same time that demands upon the welfare state are increasing. Using the example of statutory social work with children and families in England, this article explores whether the concept of rationing might be a more useful way of describing practices at the front line that seek to meet the objectives of policy makers, while also being financially responsible. In doing so the article challenges social work to see austerity as less of a descriptor of the straightened financial times we live in, but rather as an ideology that is seeking to reshape the very nature of the welfare state, and to push responsibility for dealing with the consequences of these decisions away from politicians and policy makers onto front line staff.