Never Neutral

Ethics and the Politics of Eligibility Across Practice and Policy

When I started this blog, I hoped to capture connections between what I am learning in my program and my work in municipal government. Four posts in, a consistent thread has emerged: eligibility. More specifically, how systems determine who is recognized as eligible for support, and on what basis. What initially appears procedural is ethical and political.

Sylvie’s Story (Horne, 1986) marked the moment this became visible. Sylvie arrives at a transition house frightened and without a clear path forward. What determines what happens next is not procedure alone, but relational practice: presence, empathy, and whose account of need is centred. Structural, feminist, and systems perspectives shift attention away from individual deficit toward the conditions producing vulnerability. This shift is not neutral; it redistributes responsibility within the system.

That redistribution becomes sharper alongside policy debate, such as a Calgary city councillor’s suggestion to restrict Fair Entry eligibility to Canadian citizens (CBC News, 2026). Eligibility rules do not simply organize access - they define moral boundaries of belonging. A citizenship requirement does not assess need; it pre-determines whose need is legible to the system.

Module 2 extends this into practice. The helping relationship is not separate from intervention; it is the intervention. Without relational grounding, intake processes risk turning people into cases before they are fully encountered. In this framing, eligibility functions as a filter applied prior to engagement. The question is not only what supports exist, but who is permitted into the space where support becomes possible.

Module 3 shifts the lens inward. The River of Life exercise shows that neither practitioners nor policy systems operate from neutral ground. What feels reasonable, urgent, or deserving is shaped by lived experience, institutional positioning, and social context. My own trajectory is not an objective baseline, just as municipal eligibility criteria are not neutral thresholds. Both are structured by history, power, and assumptions about legitimacy. This complicates any separation between administrative decision-making and ethical judgement.

Module 4 identifies four guiding commitments in practice with diverse populations: reflexivity about positionality, attention to power and its material effects, historical awareness, and centring diverse voices (Baskin, 2005; Maiter, 2009; Wehbi, 2011, as cited in Perrault, Ladhani & Van Ngo, 2026). These are not abstract values; they function as interpretive tools shaping how eligibility is constructed and applied. Justice, defined as fairness, access, and opportunity, depends on how these orientations are applied in practice. (Perrault, Ladhani & Van Ngo, 2026). The CASW Code of Ethics (2024) and ACSW Standards of Practice (2023) formalize these commitments as enforceable obligations in professional practice.

Too much structure and Sylvie becomes a file rather than a person; too much flexibility and practice risks losing accountability. The codes do not resolve this tension - they require practitioners to hold it, often without closure.

I came into this course focused on how policy shapes outcomes. I am leaving with a clearer understanding that ethics is not separate from that, it is part of how systems decide who the policy applies to. Every eligibility decision reflects a judgment about whose need counts. That is more demanding than good intentions, and it is where my professional thinking continues to take shape.

References

Alberta College of Social Workers. (2023). Standards of practice. ACSW. https://acsw.in1touch.org/uploaded/web/ACSW%20Council/ACSW%20Standards%20of%20Practice%202023.pdf

Canadian Association of Social Workers. (2024). Code of ethics, values and guiding principles. CASW. https://www.casw-acts.ca/en/casw-code-ethics-2024

CBC News. (2026, May 18). Councillor suggests restricting city subsidy program to Canadian citizens [Video]. CBC. https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/video/9.7203451

Horne, T. (1986). Sylvie's story [Film]. National Film Board of Canada.

Perrault, E., Ladhani, S., & Van Ngo, H. (2026). Ethics and values [Recorded lecture]. SOWK 201, University of Calgary.