Local government training capacity in Romania: an institutional perspective

The article deals with the problems and prospects of local government training in Romania. Training for local government is seen as a rather new service that has to be developed, produced and delivered, like all public services. In the Romanian case, this service is delivered in a semi-public manner. Firstly, the paper will take an institutional view of the capacity of local government training and highlight that conditions in the general environment produce almost insurmountable problems for the small local government training sector to strengthen its capacity. Secondly, the capacity of the local government training will be considered from a market perspective. It will be highlighted that the market for local government training is still very imperfect.     

Using rapid city surveys to inform municipal social policy—an application in Cali, Colombia

Many developing countries assign local governments increasing responsibilities in fighting poverty. This requires local social policy to go beyond the execution of centrally designed and funded education and health programs. Hence, local governments and their partners have both an opportunity and a need to analyze key local bottlenecks for poverty reduction and social development. Drawing on an example from Cali, Colombia, this paper describes a tool for such policy formulation at the local level, a rapid city household survey. Although the survey uses pre-coded and closed ended questions, it is contextual in the sense that it is tailor-made to social and economic conditions in Cali. The survey places particular emphasis on collecting both key quantitative information, like household welfare and service access, as well as qualitative information, such as service evaluations and population priorities. Combining the quantitative and qualitative data allows, e.g., to map population budget priorities or service satisfaction levels by welfare group. With costs of the survey moderate and turnover time short, rapid city household surveys could provide an important tool for the development of local social policies.     

Institutional obstacles to service delivery in South Africa

This paper argues that the service‐delivery crisis facing two‐thirds of the municipalities across South Africa is caused by a series of institutional shortcomings ranging from incoherence in national policy towards rural and urban development, a lack of enforcement when it comes to financial controls and competencies, and a lack of skills affecting local officials ranging from customer service and relations, to financial controls, to technical competencies in the core areas of electrification, basic water and sanitation, and refuse collection. Government needs to address the skills shortage at the local level and enforce the rules and regulations concerning the role of public and elected officials to ensure not only service delivery but accountability and transparent decision‐making. Attending to the skills shortage and enforcing relevant rules would ensure better service delivery and, in turn, encourage bringing ‘democracy to the people’, which is at the heart of the post apartheid government’s decentralisation project.     

Fostering Global Citizenship Dispositions: The Long-term Impact of Participating in a High School Global Service Club

To assist teachers in fostering students' global citizenship dispositions through service experiences, this article reports findings from a case study that investigated one high school's global service club and its impact on former club members' global awareness and global citizenship dispositions. Data were collected from Web-based documents and interviews with the faculty advisor and four former members. Data were analyzed by using the constant comparison method to elicit the following findings: (1) fundraising and awareness campaigns, when connected to a larger global service network, can act as viable local actions to combat global poverty; (2) club involvement can produce adults who feel more globally aware, but who do not necessary display critical understandings of global issues; and (3) club involvement can have a positive impact on global citizenship dispositions as participants reported feelings of empowerment and personal/social responsibility, yet no former club members continued participation in global service initiates as adults. Findings suggest the need for structural support when establishing high school global service clubs and, to optimize critical justice aims, local service actions should be tied to a more formal global citizenship curriculum.     

Understanding Mothers’ Engagement with Antenatal Parent Education Services: A Critical Analysis of a local Sure Start Service

This article discusses the issue of engagement in antenatal parent education for women living in deprived areas. The article focuses on the findings of a local evaluation of a Sure Start parent education programme designed to improve parental engagement with antenatal services. The article discusses the re‐orientation of this service, the impact on service users and the implications for professionals. Evidence suggests that this service has been beneficial for those involved and resulted in improved levels of engagement, with 9 per cent of eligible women attending prenatal sessions prior to the introduction of the Sure Start local programme's parent education service and 34 per cent of eligible women attending after its introduction. Despite this, the service only reaches a small proportion of the eligible population. The article also discusses the issue of professional resistance from mainstream services as an unintended consequence of the introduction of the Sure Start local programme and considers the implications of this for effective delivery. Copyright © 2006 The Author(s).     

The potential for international and transnational public service advertising in public spaces in American and Chinese global cities: Conclusions from a 2010 survey of advertisements in subways in Beijing,New York,Shanghai and Washington,DC

Can we construct transnational or international public service advertising to counterbalance the proliferation of transnational commercial advertising? As an important first step in exploring the possibility of such an application of shared media public diplomacy among nations, this paper describes a complete survey of commercial and public service advertisements collected from the public spaces of subway systems in American and Chinese cities in 2010 – New York, Washington, DC, Shanghai and Beijing – to reveal the range of themes of commercial and public service ads in these spaces. The study reveals first that analogous commercial and public service ads are ubiquitous in the public spaces of both Chinese and American cities. Second, many of the themes that might appear in international or transnational public service ads are already being portrayed in ads created by local or national governments or NGOs, although these themes are portrayed in ads created by different sets of actors in China and in the US: government actors and a few international NGOs in Chinese cities, and governments, corporations and non-profit organizations in the case of American cities. Finally, the survey reveals that in all four cities there are many commercial advertisements that appeal to the identity of a transnational consumer, but that there are almost no public service ads that appeal to the identity of a transnational citizen: merely local or national ones who can solve such public problems as global warming, education, and health issues.     

PRODUCTION COSTS, TRANSACTION COSTS, AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT CONTRACTOR CHOICE

Local governments that choose to externally produce a service can contract with other governments, for-profit firms, or nonprofit organizations. This contractor choice is modeled as one in which the local government decision maker minimizes service delivery costs, both production and transaction costs, subject to political and fiscal constraints. The model is estimated using data on three frequently contracted health services obtained from a national survey of local government service delivery arrangements. The empirical analysis reveals the importance of both production and transaction costs, as well as the choice set of available suppliers, to contractor choice.     

The Social Work Outreach Service Within a School of Social Work

ABSTRACT

This article describes a unique community outreach service that is designed specifically to meet the needs of the local community, provide training ground for social work students, and experiment with the development of new practice models. Located within a school of social work, the service was born in an atmosphere in which both the university and the school were being called upon to play a greater part in the community. Since its inception in 1992, it has successfully served the local community through direct service, community organization activities, and consultation. Despite these successes in outreach to the community, internal challenges continue to exist.     

Service Learning in Baccalaureate Social Work Education: Results of a National Survey of Accredited Programs

Service learning is neither field education nor volunteerism. Rather, it is a pedagogical approach designed to reinforce classroom instruction with concurrent service activities occurring in the local community. This service is driven by community-identified needs. Service learning supports social work values, yet the profession has been slow to embrace it in social work education. This article reports results of a national survey examining the use of service learning among baccalaureate programs accredited by the Council on Social Work Education. The majority of respondents report service learning is a required component of at least one course (generally an introductory or practice-based course) and has been incorporated into their programs for more than a decade. Results also suggest some programs may not implement service learning appropriately as it remains undifferentiated from volunteerism or field education.     

Levels of analysis and levels of need: cultural factors and the assessment of need for alcoholism treatment services in an urban community

This is a case study in techniques for combining qualitative and quantitative data in local community service needs assessments. Problems in available administrative statistics when applied to local communities are illustrated and discussed. Supplementation of epidemiologic estimates and utilization statistics with ethnographic, historical, and sample survey data is shown.     

Bespoke program design for school-aged therapy disability service delivery

This article uses the evaluation of a school-aged therapy service for children with disabilities in Western Australia to investigate models of service delivery. The current literature on family-centered practice, multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches, and 4 models of service are reviewed. The models include the life needs model, the relational goal-orientated model of optimal service delivery to children and families, the quality of life model, and the collaborative model of service delivery. Analysis of the data is presented together with a bespoke model of service delivery for children with disabilities, arguing that local contexts benefit from custom-made service design.     

Research and Disability in a Local Community

This paper describes a study of the experience of disability in a local community. The study unfolded within a carefully constructed and collaborative framework, so that the people in whose interests the study was focused could inform its process, and take opportunities to benefit from it and each other. Outcomes included the establishment of a local support group, a family support project involving the University and the local community, and considerably developed understandings of neighbourhood support and the experiences of disability, most specifically from the point of view of carers. Finally, a model of community support service was proposed. In conclusion, the paper highlights the processes of local collaboration and research. It describes research in which the actions taken and proposed to improve local supports were informed by the ongoing processes of research, and in turn the research process itself was informed by the local experiences of participants.     

Changes in the health status of newly housed chronically homeless: the Alaska Housing First program evaluation

The Housing First (HF) model is an evidence-based supportive housing initiative that provides permanent housing for the homeless without preconditions such as sobriety or treatment compliance. This three-year longitudinal study investigated the effects of Alaska's inaugural Housing First projects in Anchorage and Fairbanks on local service usage, costs and tenant quality of life (QoL). A total of 94 tenants participated at baseline in the QoL study and 68 continued to follow-up. Cost data was collected from local municipalities, Alaska Department of Corrections, and local hospitals, health care clinics, behavioral health providers, and detox facilities. Emergency services use by tenants decreased from the year before moving into Housing First to the year after. Changes in health care costs were more variable depending on site and type of service.     

Promoting the Children Act (1989) in Day Services to Disabled Children: Findings from an Action Research Project

SUMMARY: This article describes an action research project designed to assess and promote the implementation of the Children Act (1989) in day services to disabled children under five. Evaluations of six service were undertaken with staff in different local authorities in England and Wales. Each service was evaluated twice, in 1992 and again in 1993. The quality of care on offer to children was consistently high across services, and local authorities appeared to be adopting a flexible approach to the promotion of standards. In addition, services had made improvements in areas such as publicity and information, cultural sensitivity and partnership with parents. Some suggestions are made about factors which contributed to these developments, and issues requiring further attention are highlighted.     

The potential of domiciliary care service in the Czech Republic to promote ageing in place

Due to population ageing, the need for long-term care is increasing. In many European countries, there is now a firm policy preference for care in the home as opposed to institutional care and policies at the local level support this preference. The purpose of this study is to report on the position of domiciliary care service within the Czech social services for the elderly and to explore its potential to promote ‘ageing in place’. The aim of the research was to perceive this issue from the viewpoint of the different parties: service users, service workers, service managers as well as policy-makers. Therefore, the qualitative methodology (case study method) was used. The results revealed that users considered domiciliary care as the only service in the Czech Republic that allowed them to remain at home despite their worsening capacity to manage the activities of daily living. On the part of the domiciliary care service, however, we found that this was strong in the provision of practical help, as well as assistance with users' self-maintenance, whereas their supervision and care management were not explicitly included either in the concept or the practice of this type of service.     

北京有个“家”(英文)

奥运会来临之际,一些由北京市政府批准的"奥运人家"成为外国游客亲密接触中国文化、体验寻常百姓生活的绝佳选择。本刊记者将带您走访钱学溥一家,看看他们为迎接奥运宾客做了哪些准备?     

上海发展国际服务贸易的瓶颈破解与路径选择

国际服务贸易往往反映着一国或一地区的国际综合竞争力。近年来，我国及上海的国际服务贸易发展呈现强劲势头，同时也存在着不少矛盾和困难，尤其是存在一些体制机制性的羁绊。应当进一步提高思想认识，以深化改革和开放新平台为主要抓手，突破体制机制瓶颈；研究制定科学的战略思路和方略举措，把握机遇，整合优势，抓住后金融危机时期的有利时机，以贯彻“十二五规划”为契机，有重点有选择发展高端市场和优势领域，完善长三角城市群的区域联动协调机制，加快培育和建设上海国际服务贸易的若干“高地”。     

Towards Hybridization: The Roles of Swedish Non-Profit Organizations Within Mental Health

In many parts of the Western world, interventions for people with mental illness have radically changed in recent decades. In the deinstitutionalized system of today, the role for non-profit organizations is generally characterized by dual goals: political advocacy and service provision. Here, the role and function of the user movement in the Swedish mental health system is examined through a case study of all local branches of the largest non-profit organization within the Swedish mental health field. The empirical material consisted of annual reports from all local branches, and was analysed through two analytical schemes, concerning voice/service and conflict/consensus. The analysis pointed to a user movement that still retained the basic ideas of peer support and mutual aid, but were also increasingly being asked by formal service providers to represent the need of users. A hybrid organization category, a ‘Social Movement Peer Organization’, was identified that where social recreational activities are combined with local political advocacy.     

The involvement of service users in the assessment of Diploma in Social Work students on practice placements

The government, local authorities and academic institutions in the United Kingdom all positively support the involvement of service users in social work practice and education. Based upon research undertaken for a Master's dissertation, this article argues for such an inclusive approach. The author works for the Training and Development Services of an English Social and Caring Services department, which delivers a Diploma in Social Work course in collaboration with the local university college. This course began to incorporate service users' views in the assessment of students on practice placements in the mid-1990s. This was a helpful development, although areas of ambiguity and difficulty became apparent, as did a lack of clarity and consistency in the implementation of the process. A qualitative survey of the views of practice teachers was conducted by means of semi-structured interviews, which focussed on the main principles, issues and practical implications of service user involvement in the assessment of DipSW students. The article offers a summary of the findings of the survey, and a critical discussion of the main issues and difficulties that emerged. Some recommendations are made for the course that the author is associated with, although they would probably apply to most DipSW courses in the United Kingdom. The author is male, white and British.     

An Investigation of Religious Support of Public and Private Agencies in One Community in an Era of Retrenchment

This article examines the ways in which religious congregations in Greensboro, North Carolina support the efforts of local social service agencies. Findings from a survey of 147 agency directors, 2 focus groups (one with congregational volunteers, and one with clergy and agency directors), and extensive interviews with 6 agency directors, are reported. It is noted that the religious community and the social service community broadened their relationships as a result of the Reagan administration's domestic policies and that there is a surprising set of interconnections between the two systems.