The quality of the provision of social work in the Czech Republic – the creation of methodology for the assessment and implementation of an initial evaluation
Whereas Western European countries began to address the issue of the quality of the provision of social work as early as in the 1980s, the topic emerged in the Czech environment somewhat later, i.e. around the turn of the new millennium. The compilation and approval of the so-called Standards for the Quality of Social Services (2007) concerning the regulation of the quality of social services was followed by the compilation of the Standards for the Quality of the Social and Legal Protection of Children (2014) which, however, did not include specific criteria for the assessment of the quality of social work; moreover, while some areas of the provision of social work feature their own specific quality management instruments (e.g. streetwork), others do not even include general instruments (e.g. the provision of social work in the context of the Czech Labour Office).
The main objective of the research concerns the general standardisation (i.e. uniform setting) of the starting points and processes surrounding the evaluation of the quality of the provision of social work as an instrument for the continuous improvement and development of the overall quality of social work in the Czech Republic. This objective will be attained on the one hand via the compilation of a methodology for the assessment of the quality of the provision of social work across the various areas of the Czech social protection system and, on the other, via the implementation of the pilot verification of this methodology, i.e. by conducting an initial evaluation of the quality of the provision of social work. At the same time, the pilot verification will serve as a starting point for the long-term monitoring of the quality of social work throughout the entire public services system.
As a result of the implementation of this project, the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (MoLSA) will have at its disposal an instrument for the long-term/repeated evaluation of the quality of the provision of social work across all areas of the social protection system in the Czech Republic that was previously lacking. Furthermore, the MoLSA will be provided with an evaluation of the quality of the provision of social work in the Czech Republic as at the end of 2021/beginning of 2022, which will enable, inter alia, the evaluation of the impacts of the draft Social Work Act on the quality of the provision of social work.
The results of the project will also provide the professional public (social workers, umbrella professional associations, educators) with a basis for negotiations aimed at improving conditions concerning social work and discussions with the employers of social workers and those entities involved in the financing of social work. Over the long term, the quality assessment proposed in this research project will contribute to the gradual unification of the quality of the provision of social work in the Czech Republic and thus contribute to client equality with respect to the availability of social work services at an acceptable standard.
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