Abstract
This chapter considers discretion as a positive attribute of work in human services. A significant part of these services is the social encounter, where the skills and insights of workers are intrinsic to the provision of services themselves. These services cannot be delivered mechanically, as products and predetermined outputs. Instead, they are services crafted in their delivery, constituted in the relationship between citizen and practitioner within a policy framework of resources and expectations. Discretion in this context entails creativity: imaginative problem-solving that moves from routine processes to solutions, often by pushing, augmenting or adapting existing frameworks. Discretion also concerns an ability to engage with, value and imagine others’ particular points of view and commitments, and to use these insights to craft human and humane responses. Practice in human services, then, cannot be predetermined by policy but requires discretion to bring desiccated policies and procedures to life.
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Evans, T. (2020). The Art of Discretion. In: Evans, T., Hupe, P. (eds) Discretion and the Quest for Controlled Freedom. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19566-3_24
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