quality standards in homelessness servies in poland - bottom-up approach
DESCRIPTION
Presentation given by Piotr Olech, PFWB, Poland at a FEANTSA Conference on "Quality in Social Services from the Perspective of Services Working with Homeless People", Luxembourg City, Luxembourg, 2011TRANSCRIPT
Quality Standards in Homelessness Services in Poland – bottom up aproach
Quality in Social Services – Luxembourg City 21.10.2011
The project is co-financed by the European Union from the resources of the European Social Fund
Quality in Social Services – Luxembourg City 21.10.2011
Major problems1. Lack of comprehensive social policy towards
homelessness2. Services are temporary in nature (emergency)3. Current solutions and the homeless assistance
system are based on assumptions and judgements
4. No cooperation among stakeholders 5. Participation of the homeless7. Support provided under certain conditions -
behavioural model8. Lack of economic perspective 9. Homelessness is frequently seen as a social
pathology rather than a housing problem
Quality in Social Services – Luxembourg City 21.10.2011
Problems related to service quality
1. Lack of regulations and service quality standards in the field of homelessness
2. Access as a priority - not quality 3. NGO sector is too independent and
detached - no possibility to coordinate and monitor the quality of standards
4. Considerable diversification of service quality
5. Costs determine contracting services6. Complete lack of services in some spheres
The Model of District Standard of Getting
Out of Homelessness
Quality in Social Services – Luxembourg City 21.10.2011
Quality in Social Services – Luxembourg City 21.10.2011
OrganisersHuman Resource Development Centre (CRZL) is the partnership leader and representatives of six organisations dealing with homelessness, including FEANTSA members, are responsible for the factual aspects of the project implementation:• Pomeranian Forum in Aid of Getting Out of Homelessness
(PFWB), • Saint Brother Albert’s Aid Society, Main Board (TPBA ZG),• Barka Network, • MONAR Association, • CARITAS of the Kielce Diocese,• and the Open Door Association from Warsaw.
Quality in Social Services – Luxembourg City 21.10.2011
1.18 – Development of Assistance and Social Integration Service Standards, Task 4 – Harmonization of Work with the Homeless and Development of the District Standard of Getting Out of Homelessness.
Main project activities include the following stages: diagnosis (9.09 - 6.10) - 10 monthsmodel (7.10 - 6.11) - 12 monthseducation and information (7.11-2.12) - 8 months pilotage (3.11-8.13) - 18 monthsrecommendation (6.13-11.13) - 6 monthsreport - promotion (12.13-4.14) - 5 months
Budget - about PLN 35 million (EUR 8.5 million), pilotage support (PLN 15 million)
Quality in Social Services – Luxembourg City 21.10.2011
What is GSWB The model of District Standard of Getting Out of Homelessness (GSWB) is a model of solving the problem of homelessness, active on the levels of Prevention, Intervention and Integration, which provides a full range of service standards in the following fields: 1. Street work, 2. Social work, 3. Housing and temporary assistance, 4. Health, 5. Local partnerships, 6. Employment and education.
Quality in Social Services – Luxembourg City 21.10.2011
What are StandardsStandards - statements recorded as a document or a set of documents, agreed on and considered binding, which provide a detailed description and characteristics of the standardised entity. The name “standard” does not have to appear in documents in which these standards are presented, they may be referred to as norms, requirements, conditions, rules or regulations concerning the standardised entity.
Each standard is presented according to 13 points, e.g. target, range, competence, organiser, cooperation, legal situation, financing, documentation, monitoring and evaluation
Quality in Social Services – Luxembourg City 21.10.2011
Research Team and Expert GroupsSix Expert Groups (about 60 people) and the Research Team (6 people) form the basis of Partnership activity in the area of diagnosis and development of models and standards
Pilotage - Partnership- Education phase - research, trainings - 30
partner organisations from different regions of Poland
- Pilotage phase - testing standards - minimum 15 partner organisations from different regions of Poland
Quality in Social Services – Luxembourg City 21.10.2011
Innovation and experiment1. Grass-roots project - involvement of all
entities2. Quality standards - as an element of the
strategy or plan of solving the problem of homelessness in Poland
3. Elements of standards - housing first method, prevention programmes, street work, health services
4. Diagnosis - Model - Pilotage - Recommendations and legal changes
5. Implementation of legal solutions
Quality in Social Services – Luxembourg City 21.10.2011
Strengths 1. Participation process – different
stakeholders – service providers, users, policy, public sector
2. Building up a National Alliance 3. Learning process – exchanging
experiences4. Quality standards – reflects reality,
close to real problems5. Self regulation – our standards
Quality in Social Services – Luxembourg City 21.10.2011
Weaknesses1. Quality of quality standards2. Participation in process – ministry
responsible for homeless services3. Acceptation process – time,
differences 4. Self regulation – low quality 5. Services providers perspective
(policy, research)6. All stakeholders – mission impossible
I wish you a successful Conference with fruitful discussions
Quality in Social Services – Luxembourg City 21.10.2011
The project is co-financed by the European Union from the resources of the European Social Fund