All forms of social work practice and social service organizations, public and private, are governed by a series of interdependent social welfare policies. These policies are set in place by a governmental entity, that is, a legislative body, a non-profit agency's board of directors, or a private for-profit or not-for-profit administration. Such policies are essentially the rules of the organization or agency. As such, an individual social worker simply cannot arbitrarily select which policy to follow or what s/he will do or under what circumstancesall social work activities are regulated by social policies that govern their place of employment or the clients with whom they engage (Colby, 2018, p. 2). An agency's operating hours (days, evenings, weekends), clients served (individuals, families, teenagers, adolescents, elders), services provided (individual and/or group counseling, community organizing, research), amounts and types of benefits a person is eligible to receive (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Temporary Assistance to Needy families, Social Security Retirement, Medicare), and payment for service (insurance reimbursement, sliding fee scale) are all regulated by and specified in policies

• Do you have any experience with social policy?
• What questions or concerns do you have about social policy?
• Draw upon previous course work. Think about the principles and aims of social work.
• How do you think policy might work as a tool for researchers, practitioners or organizations?
• what is one new thing you learned about social welfare policy?