Trust is key to the effective functioning of social services. The relationship between the social services worker and the client is not just technical - it is personal. Research points out that a good relationship and a human approach help clients to open up, cooperate and make better use of the support available. Although research has long focused on the quality of relationships between service users and frontline workers, it often neglects how users perceive the very formal procedures in which these relationships take place and how this context influences the formation of those relationships. The new study, co-authored by our member Lenka Štěpánková, therefore focuses on how trust in social service workers is formed in the context of bureaucratic processes that determine access to support.
The study took place in the Czech Republic and Serbia and focuses on, for example, the experiences of disadvantaged families with children. The topic is also topical because in both countries there is relatively low trust in institutions and access to services is often burdened by administrative barriers. The authors decided to explore how social service users perceive the processes and people they come into contact with when seeking help from social services. The research took place in Brno and Belgrade and involved thirty in-depth interviews with people applying for some form of social assistance - mostly women caring for children in difficult life situations.
Confusion, rigidity and paperwork as barriers to trust
Users in both countries often described bureaucratic procedures as too complex, unclear and disconnected from the reality of their lives. Ideally, therefore, social services staff should serve as guides through the complex process, explaining and helping applicants what is not clear to them and making the whole process easier for the applicant. However, interviewees repeatedly encountered the need to fill out complicated forms without sufficient explanation or personal contact with staff. The whole process was not helped by the frequent changing of workers in charge of a particular family's case or the transfer between departments - this made it very difficult for interviewees to establish a trusting relationship with a worker, as they were always communicating with someone else. All of these experiences thus led to feelings of powerlessness, frustration and a deep distrust of the whole system among the interviewees. Nevertheless, some users did not perceive the rigid rules as exclusively negative - they saw them as a necessary means to reduce abuse of the system. They appreciated that the rules applied to everyone, which gave them a sense of fairness.
When one meets a caring professional
A significant difference in user experience was whether a stable relationship with one particular worker was established. Where this was the case, users often described the workers as helpful, empathetic, protective - able to listen, explain the rules and above all ‘see the person, not just the case’. These ‘caring professionals’ were willing to go above and beyond the call of duty - for example, to help with a form, to advocate for the user in front of supervisors, or to adapt to the user's situation. In these cases, frontline workers acted as mediators between users and the bureaucratic system, helping them navigate complex procedures and providing emotional support.
Trust does not form in a vacuum - it is shaped by people, but also by rules
The authors of the study emphasise that it is not only the individual characteristics of workers that are needed to build trust. The context in which they work - i.e. specific organisational settings, procedures and opportunities for contact with users - must also be taken into account. Fragmentation of the system, staff turnover and disjointed communication undermine trust. On the contrary, stable relationships, helpfulness and a willingness to overcome procedural limits support it. Although the study did not focus on a systematic comparison of countries, the authors note that in both the Czech Republic and Serbia, user trust is primarily relational - it is tied to a specific person, not to a “state”. This shows how “people in the system” play a key role - and that without them, no system can gain trust.
Recommended citation:
Vasiljević, J., Fiket, I., Đorđević, A., & Štěpánková, L. (2025). The role of bureaucratic procedures and ‘caring professionals’ in fostering user trust: Evidence from Serbia and the Czech Republic. Social Policy and Society, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1474746425100808
