Realising a responsive social work practice in a non-responsive context

ABSTRACT Public welfare actors struggle with the question how they can guarantee children’s wellbeing. The answer to this question depends on the countries’ perspective concerning its responsibility for the care of its citizens. In the Flemish context, a maximalist child protection logic – with a focus on the realisation of rights – is adopted. In this article, we focus on the so-called ‘bottleneck cases’ and use the case of Zoë as a concrete application of the legislative framework that regulates the bottleneck case system. By analysing the case of Zoë, we show that a maximalist policy discourse that is based on commitment towards complex situations sometimes masks a minimalist policy logic. The issue that prompts itself is that this does not mean that a maximalist practice is not realised, but that it is realised because social practitioners deviate from the policy plans, while pretending ‘as if’ they follow them.