Professionals’ tinkering with standardised tools: dynamics involving actors and tools in child welfare practices

Abstract

This article aims to examine how child welfare professionals adapt standardised tools into practice. It focuses on how the professionals apply two commonly used standard tools in Norway and how they make them fit their daily practice. The research question is: How do professionals adapt standardised tools into the practices of the child welfare service? This is explored through the concepts of institutional work. The data stem from observation, client documents and semi-structured interviews with frontline professionals and managers in two child welfare offices. The data were analysed using thematic analysis. The findings show that new rules for practice and knowledge emerged when the tools were used. Moreover, the professionals modified them to suit their professional ethics and workload; here, the managers encouraged them to exercise discretion. We argue that how the tools were adapted depended on the institutional work of the child welfare professionals, through creation, maintenance and disruption. Consequently, there is a dynamic process between the actors and the tools, in which they both impinge on one another. Furthermore, frontline professionals still maintain substantial discretion and tinker with tools.