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What matters while assessing quality of social services? Stakeholders’ perspective in Czechia

Šiška, Jan, Čáslava, Pavel, Kohout, Jiří, Beadle-Brown, Julie, Truhlářová, Zuzana, Holečková, Markéta Kateřina (2021) What matters while assessing quality of social services? Stakeholders’ perspective in Czechia. European Journal of Social Work, 24 (5). pp. 864-883. ISSN 1369-1457. (doi:10.1080/13691457.2021.1934411) (KAR id:91062)

Abstract

Quality of public services including social services is an issue frequently discussed by policy makers, service providers, and by those who represent service users. The aim of this study was to explore how stakeholders perceive quality of social services, with a particular focus on (1) what did participants rate as important; (2) what is the relative importance of each domain and how does that differ across stakeholder groups and (3) does importance vary by participant characteristics. A specially designed questionnaire was completed by 217 service providers, by 249 public administration representatives and 205 service users of residential care and in-home support. The subjective quality of life of service users was rated as the most important indicator of service quality by all three stakeholder groups. Particularly important were items that related to the nature of the relationships and interactions between staff and service users. There were some differences between stakeholder groups and also by respondent characteristics – public administration respondents, older service users and providers of residential care were more likely to rate health care as more important than other respondents. Implications for how quality is measured are discussed.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1080/13691457.2021.1934411
Uncontrolled keywords: Quality assessment, social services, social inclusion, quality of life
Subjects: H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General)
Divisions: Divisions > Division for the Study of Law, Society and Social Justice > School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research > Tizard
Depositing User: Julie Beadle-Brown
Date Deposited: 24 Oct 2021 22:33 UTC
Last Modified: 15 Nov 2022 12:27 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/91062 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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