The effectiveness of social work and its criteria. Models for assessing the effectiveness of social work Efficiency at various levels of social work

15.02.2024

There are two approaches to defining the concept of “work efficiency”:

1) determining the relationship between the results achieved and the costs of achieving them. In this case, results and costs are measured, as well as the impact of costs on results. In comparison, different situations arise: costs remain at the same level, but quantitative and qualitative indicators of results have increased; costs are reduced, but results increase or remain the same; costs have increased and results have improved; costs have increased, but results have not improved;

2) analysis of actually achieved results. In this case they are measured and described. Since results and costs can be planned, assumed, work efficiency can be assumed (planned), reagent. In addition, it can be practical, that is, actually achieved.

Let's give a definition effectiveness of social work . This is the maximum possible satisfaction of the social needs of the population at optimal costs.

In accordance with this definition, the practice of social work focuses not so much on obtaining additional material and financial resources, but on organization, technology, and professionalism in its implementation.

In the activities of specialists, a special place is occupied by the problems of criteria and indicators of the effectiveness of social work. Since domestic research in this area has a specific history (started in 1996), only the conceptual apparatus has been developed and the types of methods for assessing effectiveness have been determined.

Evaluation methods are the methods and techniques by which performance is assessed. They answer the question of how it is produced. There are methods:

· parametric;

· performance assessment based on meeting the needs of the client being served;

· assessment of effectiveness and ineffectiveness;

· questionnaire survey, etc.

The parametric method involves comparing two parameters - what the client’s condition was before and what it became as a result of working with specialists. This method involves describing the client “at the entrance” and “at the exit” according to certain parameters. The difference between these parameters is a result indicating the effectiveness of the social work carried out.

Evaluating effectiveness based on meeting the needs of the client being served carried out in three ways:

1) specialists periodically interview the client orally or in writing in order to obtain an assessment of their changing situation;

2) specialists compare what clients are entitled to according to social service regulations and standards with what they actually received;

3) the first and second approaches are combined.

Management structures of the social service system need to have information about the degree of satisfaction of customer needs in order to build their work more effectively.

Assessing effectiveness and ineffectiveness allows, in the process of social work practice, to systematize both the factors that determined its effectiveness and the factors of its ineffectiveness. These factors are presented in tables and diagrams.

Institutions are developing programs to increase efficiency factors and reduce the influence of inefficiency factors.

Effectiveness factors can be divided into groups:

1) “top” or “strangers”. They do not depend on the structure of institutions;

2) “own”, depending on the protection institutions themselves;

3) “borderline”, located on the border of “us” and “strangers”.

Questionnaire used as a method for assessing the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of social protection institutions and their employees.

Performance assessment questions can be “embedded” in a regular questionnaire or in a “targeted” questionnaire (on performance issues). In both cases, a questionnaire survey allows you to collect and process a variety of information in order to prepare measures to improve the effectiveness of social work.

Cost Estimation Method used when it is necessary to estimate the cost of social services for one client or group of people. The institution correlates social service costs with indicators that are designated “outcomes.” In the study of problems of social work effectiveness, an important place is occupied by the question of the essence of effectiveness criteria.

The concept of “criterion” denotes a distinctive feature that objectively reflects the state of a particular process or phenomenon.

Each criterion includes a group of quantitative and qualitative indicators that represent a detailed characteristic necessary to analyze the state of social work. This means that the system of criteria for the effectiveness of social work can be considered as a set of ordered, organically related characteristics that make it possible to assess the state of social work and identify reserves for its development.

Practical measurements of effectiveness are associated with identifying the object, subject and subject of assessment. There is no single approach to determining the structure of criteria suitable for all cases of efficiency assessment. In each specific case, the structure of the criteria will have a specific reflection. Therefore, it is more correct to talk not about efficiency in general, but about the effectiveness of the functioning of the system of criteria when performing specific tasks under certain conditions.

For example, consider the simplest functional diagram “client – social service”:

An approximate list of criteria that should characterize a social request includes:

ü date of receipt of the request;

ü client data;

ü desired completion of the request;

ü address for executing the request (at home or elsewhere);

ü frequency of request satisfaction (one-time, periodic, systematic);

ü performers (one specialist, a group of specialists, full-time or not, external contractor);

ü focus of the request (social services, labor, medicine, education, recreation, etc.);

ü form of payment for services (free, partial or full payment).

In this example, the simplest assessment of the effectiveness of fulfilling a social request is determined as follows:

Where W- efficiency mark; t p– real time of request execution; t p– planned request execution time.

If W> 1, then execution is overdue if W< 1 – early execution, W= 1 – execution was completed on time.

If W%= 0, then this means the request was not completed. If W%= 100, then the request is completed completely.

Social work practice is often based on a more complex functional scheme “client – social service – external organizations”:

With this scheme, the role of the social service changes. It performs the following functions:

· satisfies the request at its own expense;

· enters into agreements with external organizations that can compensate for missing resources and satisfy the request;

· controls execution.

The effectiveness of the social service depends on:

ü analytical capabilities of the social service to evaluate the request;

ü social service resources to promptly satisfy the request;

ü level of interaction with government, commercial and public organizations;

ü socio-economic conditions of the administrative territory in which the social service operates;

ü qualifications of social service employees.

In the problem of efficiency assessment, special attention is paid to quality assessment, which is carried out using ranking. In the practice of social work, ranking looks like ordering the number of objects (phenomena, processes) in accordance with a certain quality that they possess. The most typical of them:

· ordering of objects in terms of location in space and time;

· ordering of objects in accordance with the degree of expression of countable qualities;

· ordering objects according to qualities that cannot be changed on any scale;

· ordering objects according to qualities that can be measured, but at the moment this is impossible to do for some reason.

An effective tool in assessing the effectiveness of social work are standards that contribute to an objective analysis of all data obtained in the study of the activities of a social service. Based on the standards, criteria are developed.

Determining criteria for the effectiveness of social services is associated with a system of values that changes over time. This circumstance is taken into account by specialists when developing social work standards.

Effectiveness of social work

The effectiveness of social work is the maximum possible achievement of goals for the provision of social services, meeting the needs of the population or an individual client at optimal costs and in given conditions.

Note 1

The effectiveness of social work is the relationship of the results obtained to the previously set goals. The essence of the effectiveness of social work is the ability of individual elements of the system or the entire system to respond and respond to the needs and demands of the population.

To determine the effectiveness of social work, a comparative analysis is carried out, as a result of which the initial data about the client is compared with those received by the social service in the process of work. A quantitative and qualitative assessment of the previous and current state of affairs is carried out, conclusions are drawn about the effectiveness of social work.

The effectiveness of social work can be considered as the ratio of results achieved and costs to ensure these results. Efficiency can be expressed as planned, calculated, actual.

The effectiveness of social work can be assessed by the main types of social services.

The essence of criteria for the effectiveness of social work

A necessary condition for improving the system of social services and social protection of the population as elements of social work is the use of basic information data that objectively reflects the state of the entire system.

The system of criteria and indicators of the effectiveness of social work is a toolkit for a social worker to obtain the necessary information. This system of criteria should contain data about clients, a list of services provided, results, etc.

The effectiveness of social work can be determined by general and specific criteria:

General criteria make it possible to assess the effectiveness of social work on the scale of a territorial social service.
Specific criteria make it possible to evaluate the main forms and methods of social work, types of social services aimed at certain categories of the population.

The effectiveness of social work is based on the following principles:

the ability to correctly identify the client’s problem;
analysis of the reasons that led to the problem;
assessing the possibility of resolving the current situation;
development of an action plan;
involving the client in solving the problem;
analysis of the results of the work performed.

Criteria for the effectiveness of social work can be applied at various levels: micro level - the level of the client, the individual; meso level – the level of the city, district, region; macro level – state level.

Note 2

The micro level, the direct work of a social service specialist with a client, plays the greatest role in increasing the effectiveness of social work.

At the macro level, the negative trends in the social state of society are stabilized and social deviations are overcome. At the same time, it is difficult to identify indicators that make it possible to determine the contribution of individual social workers to overcoming such problems and deviations as unemployment, poverty, homelessness, social ill health, etc., since their solution depends on the implementation of social policy, the nature of socio-economic reforms, effectiveness of the implementation of the social security mechanism.

Analysis of the effectiveness of social work can be carried out in different ways, depending on the characteristics of the client’s problems and his personality. It is necessary to use such indicators as “degree of freedom”, “measure of activity”, “client’s vitality”, “level of will development”, “ability to use environmental resources and one’s capabilities”.

The task of a social worker is to help a person who finds himself in a difficult life situation. The social worker must determine the direction of the client’s actions, stimulate his vitality, and rationally select means and methods that will help him get out of a difficult situation.

The social worker, considering the client from the perspective of social and psychological sciences, must conduct an anthology of the client’s activities; take into account the peculiarities of the subjective-individual existence of a person in a difficult life situation; determine the characteristics of the client (his distinctive features, qualities, properties, axeological features - motivational, value, target and evaluative characteristics), allowing for the fullest use of his internal potential; take into account ontological and praxeological characteristics.

An objective assessment of all characteristics allows us to design a systematic transition of the client from one state to another, necessary to overcome the current life situation.

Note 3

The listed characteristics can act as indicators that allow tracking the dynamics of development or restoration of a person’s essential forces with the assistance and assistance of a social worker.

Normative criteria for the effectiveness of social work

The criteria for the effectiveness of social work are of both quantitative and qualitative nature. They are complex in nature.

There are normative criteria for the effectiveness of the provision of social services and indicators that make it possible to determine the condition of clients of social services.

Citizens seeking help from social institutions pay attention, first of all, to the personal qualities of a social worker (responsiveness, kindness, fairness, professionalism). Among the negative qualities found in social workers are rudeness, indifference, low professionalism and deceit.

Currently, to determine the effectiveness of social work, four groups of criteria and performance indicators are used:

carrying out state and regional target programs focused on the development of social services and social protection of various categories of the population;
activities of social services;
activities of social workers;
social education (training, retraining of social work specialists).

The use of criteria for the effectiveness of social work is an important stage in achieving the greatest effectiveness in social work as a special type of professional activity.

Efficiency - it is one of the main characteristics of human activity. It is the most important category of economic science, as it characterizes the effectiveness of all social production. The national economy is considered effective if the needs of all members of society are most fully satisfied with given limited resources.

The relationship between the goal and the result gives an idea of the effectiveness of the work. It is no coincidence that the definition is: effectiveness is the degree to which a goal is realized, which can be expressed by the formula

where E F - efficiency; P - result; T - goal.

The better the result and the lower the costs, the higher the efficiency. The definition of efficiency necessarily contains elements: goal, result, costs, generally accepted norms. The main thing in this list is the goal and the result, which represent the beginning and end of the activity.

It is characteristic that the efficiency of a market economy is its state in which it is impossible to increase the degree of satisfaction of the needs of at least one person without worsening the situation of another member of society.

The peculiarity of social work is that its effectiveness depends on the degree of socio-economic assistance to precisely those who happen to be that “other” member of society who finds themselves in a situation of economic risk.

The meaning of the word “effectiveness” is usually defined as “effectiveness, productivity.” But it can be more accurately determined depending on the type of activity.

Efficiency (effect - from the Latin effectus - execution, action) is the result of an action, a consequence of actions; remedy, method, etc.

The essence of the effectiveness of social work is expressed in the ability of the state and society, the social protection system or its individual elements to positively respond and respond to the requests and needs of the population, especially the socially vulnerable part of it. Therefore, the concept of “effectiveness” of social work can be expressed as the maximum possible achievement of the goal of meeting the needs of the population (social service client) at optimal costs. In other words, the effectiveness of social work reflects the characteristics of the result of purposeful activity to achieve a set goal.

Social work is an integral system, including subject, content, means, management, object and functions and goals connecting them into a single whole.

The initial goal of social work is to study the social needs of various categories of people. After the needs have been studied and assessed, opportunities and methods for meeting them have been identified, social workers have a goal: protecting the social interests of people, first of all, who are not able to provide for their own existence.

An important goal of social work in a market environment is to reveal the creative abilities of people, thanks to which they gain independence in solving their problems.

There is a widespread, not entirely correct, opinion that social work pursues the goal of providing material and financial assistance to those in need and establishing guardianship for the infirm. Indeed, today in Russia it is the main one in the activities of state and public bodies for social protection of the population. However, if social work is limited only to such goals, it will contribute to the development of dependency among those in need, which is quite widespread today.

The world practice of social work shows that the main thing is to stimulate initiative, creativity, and create conditions for those in need in which they could find a way out of their difficult situation and, relying on social support, could gain the ability to independently provide for their needs.

Creating conditions for independent life support is the conceptual goal of social work.

Achieving the above goals with logical inevitability should lead to the establishment in society of the spirit of humanity, mutual respect, exactingness and assistance, which can be considered as the final goal of social work. In this case, its ultimate goal merges with the goals of other types of social activity: economic, legal, cultural, etc.

It is clear that the goals of social work are not realized immediately, but by solving smaller problems that make up the content of its goals.

The goals and objectives of social work are always specific. They are driven by the real needs of real people. In determining the goals and objectives of social work, it is important to proceed from these living needs. Social work built on real needs can be highly effective.

An essential indicator of the concept of “effectiveness of social activity” should also be a generally accepted norm or ideal. Ethical standards (respect for old age, compassion for the sick, honoring the mother, etc.) serve as a criterion for the moral health (or ill health) of society. And social work is aimed at maintaining them.

The pursuit of ideal is an indicator of the effectiveness of all social activities, including social work.

Social work has always needed an objective assessment of the assistance provided to clients. In 1978, in the USA, K. Wood published a review of works on the effectiveness of social activities. She concluded that social work is ineffective. But at the same time, she was able to identify six principles on which the success of working with a client is based. According to K. Wood, practitioners should:

1) be able to accurately formulate the problem;

2) carefully analyze the problem and those factors that contribute to its occurrence, hinder the solution or, conversely, favor it;

3) evaluate together with the client the extent to which the problem can be resolved;

4) set tasks, discuss the terms of the contract with the client;

5) plan actions;

6) evaluate the progress made by the client.

In 1981, E. Mullen, speaking at a symposium organized by the National Association of Social Workers, identified four factors that prevent social workers from proving the effectiveness of their efforts:

1) difficulties in specifying the goals of the assistance provided. In this regard, he recommended that social workers learn to set goals that are measurable;

2) the complex nature of the problems facing the social worker;

3) changing priorities of funding organizations. Research topics are more often dictated by the availability of financial resources than by the pressing needs of studying a particular set of issues;

4) the need to devote more attention and resources to the development of research work in the field of effectiveness.

E. Mullen came to the conclusion about the dependence of effectiveness between the final result and the employee’s abilities, the specifics of the department and the relationship with the client, the characteristics of the clientele and the intervention technique.

In 1982, W. Reid and P. Hanahan again raised the question of efficiency. They came to more comforting results. For the first time, a large-scale review of the results of social work showed evidence of its effectiveness.

To objectively assess the effectiveness of social work, scientifically based criteria are needed. A criterion is a sign on the basis of which the effectiveness of social work is assessed, a measure for assessing its effectiveness.

It should be noted that social interests manifest themselves in different spheres of public life: economics, politics, culture, everyday life, law, etc. In addition, they can be individual, collective, group, national, or characterize the entire society as a whole. Based on these features, one should approach the definition of social work criteria.

The traditional way of studying the practical effectiveness of social work is to collect data on all cases related to the topic of research and their results are analyzed by the method of integral assessment or using statistical calculations. Integration involves studying materials and drawing an overall assessment based on them.

Methods for practically determining the effectiveness of social work include:

Statistical analysis, when trends in the development and results of social work are established on the basis of statistical data;

Comparative analysis, i.e. comparison of similar data to determine the degree of goal achievement;

Socio-demographic analysis of the dynamics of mortality and fertility, changes in the level and quality of life, etc., which allows us to judge the effectiveness of social policy;

Targeted monitoring of changes in the client’s life support as a result of the work carried out with him;

Sociological research identifying clients’ opinions on the effectiveness of social work;

Mathematical modeling that helps identify the most effective models of social work, etc.

The most fruitful way is to determine the effectiveness of social work by comparing the results obtained with previously set goals and established social norms.

The criteria for the effectiveness of social work are varied: quantitative and qualitative (level and quality of life, size of pensions, benefits, etc.); norms-goals, norms-conditions, norms-limits (living wage, limits of environmental standards, etc.).

Social norms and standards are used as a general criterion for assessing the effectiveness of social activities, in comparison with which the results of achieving the goal are assessed.

Social standards are the calculated values of working time, material and monetary resources used in social practice. These include consumption standards, systems of social guarantees, protection, support of the population, etc. For example, the formation of a system of social guarantees is associated primarily with the definition of their criteria. Such criteria can be social standards, i.e. the minimum human needs for material goods and services in a given period of time.

Consumption standards are economic indicators that characterize the level of population consumption of food and non-food products.

The most important social standard in relation to social security is the subsistence level budget. Each period of time corresponds to a certain minimum of material security necessary to maintain normal human life. For example, the justification for minimum pensions, on the one hand, should be based on calculations of the normative consumer budget, and on the other, linked to the minimum wage. In this case, certain requirements (norms-limits) must be observed:

The minimum wage must be higher than the minimum pension;

The growth rate of the minimum pension should not be higher than the growth rate of the minimum wage.

Poverty benefits and targeted social assistance should also be linked to the cost of the subsistence budget. It should be borne in mind that an objective assessment of the effectiveness of social work is impossible without relying on scientifically based conceptual approaches. Let's look at some of them.

The problem-oriented approach emerged in social work practice in the early 1970s and has remained largely unchanged to this day. It provides limits on the use of criteria such as:

Clarity in identifying and defining a social problem;

Assessing the possibility of resolving the problem;

Setting time limits for problem resolution, etc.

With this approach, the assistance provided is directly related to the clients' problems and their conscious attitude towards the problem. The goal and program are clearly formulated and agreed upon with the client. In this way, the client is seen as a consumer with the right to decide what services he wants to receive and to know what the social worker intends to do about it. The relationship between the client and the social worker to resolve the problem is formalized in the form of an agreement, on the basis of which the results of their joint activities to achieve the goal are assessed.

An indispensable condition for achieving results in social work should be the scientific development of social programs and their evaluation from the point of view of effectiveness. The purpose of evaluating social programs is to obtain information that can be used to improve their effectiveness. Five models can be distinguished for evaluating social programs:

Result model - all program achievements are assessed;

The goal model focuses only on results within the framework of declared goals;

Systems analysis examines the extent to which social programs are positively and negatively impacted by other organizations and the environment;

The cost analytical model uses costs to determine their impact on the outcome of the program, which characterizes its effectiveness;

The discrete model serves to adjust programs based on prescribed standards. The purpose of evaluation here is to monitor the extent to which staff and program managers adhere to standards.

However, in the practice of developing and implementing social programs in Russia, there is clearly an underestimation of the final results and economic efficiency in terms of cost recovery.

In foreign practice, along with traditional ones, researchers have proposed and begun to apply such methods of efficiency assessment as:

Meta-analysis, which involves systematically selecting studies and then examining their effectiveness, not just statistical significance; Typically, performance is determined by subtracting the mean of the control group from the mean of the experimental group and then dividing the difference by the standard deviation of the control group. Efficiency is an average value;

Assessment of clinical effectiveness (or practical effectiveness, practical improvement). Social workers believe that clinical indicators should take precedence over statistical indicators, since the latter do not always provide evidence of significant clinical (or practical) improvement. Unfortunately, clinical indicators do not have precise criteria, which makes their use difficult.

Assessing clinical effectiveness involves identifying the degree of positive changes in the client’s life as a result of social influence.

Professional social workers contributed to the dissemination of the “single client” method, based on taking into account the specific connection between the results of social work and the personal characteristics of the client, such as age, source and severity of the problem, and motivation for change.

This method is effective for assessing both the final and intermediate results, as it allows the client to express his opinion during medical and social rehabilitation, treatment of various types of antisocial behavior, etc. In addition, it allows you to accumulate basic information, check the reliability of data, standardized tools that make it possible to quickly assess the effectiveness of using a statistical method, meta-analysis, etc.

The growing use of computer technology has stimulated the development of quantitative analysis. Computers have made it easier to use statistical methods, eliminating labor-intensive calculations, and have made it possible to process data quickly and accurately.

A computer system for accumulating databases coming from social services has enormous potential in terms of creating new forms of research on the client population, a range of services, and increasing the efficiency of social work.

To assess the effectiveness of social work, other methods are used: the measurement method, an integrated approach. We should not forget about epistemological (experiment, analysis, synthesis, etc.) and axiological (axiology - the study of the nature of values) criteria for the effectiveness of social work.

It should be noted that the evolution of social ideas gradually developed criteria for assessing the socio-economic development of mankind. They are embodied in the criteria of economic efficiency and social justice.

The criterion of economic efficiency characterizes not only the level of development of productive forces, but also the ability to foresee and prevent the consequences of anthropogenic changes introduced into nature that are dangerous to the life and health of people.

The criterion of social justice evaluates the quality of social (in particular, economic) relations from the standpoint of ensuring well-being, freedom and other human values without prejudice to the same interests of other people.

In conditions of market relations, the connection between the primary (extending to the economically active population) distribution of social benefits and the criterion of economic efficiency, and the final (taking into account those outside of production) distribution with the criterion of social justice, is strengthened.

In a civilized legal society over the last century, the importance of the social criterion as a criterion of social justice and social orientation of the economy has been steadily increasing.

§ 3. effectiveness of social work

Efficiency is one of the main characteristics of human activity. It is the most important category of economic science, as it characterizes the effectiveness of all social production. The national economy is considered effective if the needs of all members of society are most fully satisfied with given limited resources.

where is the EF efficiency; Result; T goal.

The meaning of the word “effectiveness” is usually defined as “effectiveness, productivity.” But it can be more accurately determined depending on the type of activity.

Efficiency (effect from the Latin effectus execution, action) is the result of an action, a consequence of actions; remedy, method, etc.