Research aimed at evaluating the activities of municipal social workers in relation to the structure and needs of their clients
Social workers of municipal authorities offer professional help and support to people in a wide range of unfavorable social situations. For some of them, the one-time provision of adequate information or help is essential, for others, longer-term (continuous) cooperation is needed. From a macro-level perspective, it is essential to monitor this activity in the context of the impact on clients, the involvement of various social workers and reporting.
Through the implementation of this project, the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs will obtain the missing data, which will be a basis for any proposals for changes and which can be used for methodological and conceptual work, as well as for the comparison of the performance of social work in the transferred jurisdiction in individual territories.
The deepening research and analytical works will also bring more detailed knowledge: about what social constructs of life situations the municipal social workers are based on, how the choosing of the method of assistance provided and its content depends on them; about the structure of clients’ needs (i.e. a comprehensive description of the situation of clients who turn to social workers in municipalities and with what needs); and about the approaches of social workers to keeping records of work with the clients, the degree of reliability of the records will also be addressed.
The research will therefore enable an evaluation of the performance of the social workers of municipal authorities, among other things, in relation to the structure and needs of their clientele. An integral part will be recommendations for keeping records and their further use beyond the scope of direct work with the client, e.g. for evaluating and determining the adequate number of social workers at the municipal office or determining the number of clients per one social worker.