The Contribution of Swedish International Development
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THE CONTRIBUTION OF SWEDISH INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND CO-OPERATION AGENCY (SIDA) INTO THE IMPLEMENTATION OF COMMUNITY SOCIAL SERVICES DEVELOPMENT PROJECT Alfredas ZABIETA (Vilnius University) In 1997 the Ministry of Social Security and Labour fnance the programs for the improvement of pro- together with the World Bank and the Swedish In- fessional qualifications in the area of social work. ternational Development Agency started the imple- Stockholm University Social Work School is re- mentation of Community Social Services’ Devel- sponsible for the effective and timely implementa- opment pilot project. The project’s progress revealed tions of the said actions. several interesting aspects of international co-op- At the beginning of project’s implementation eration in the area of social work. I think they will specialists from Stockholm University together with be interesting to the social workers of our country. the staff of Vilnius University Social Work Depart- This conclusion has been fostered by the ech- ment carried out a Base line study of social service oes of project reaching us from abroad. Probably rendering situation at all municipalities involved in the most important event witnessing the project’s the project. This allowed us to define more precisely international recognition was the award won at the the contents and scope of activities of future open- Hanover World EXPO 2000 World Projects’ Com- type social service centres, social needs of the cli- petition. The project was put on the list of the best ents, and the directions for the improvement of so- European urban social policy innovation projects cial workers’ qualifications. Half of the time given made by the European Council Social Assistance for the project’s implementation being over, the Min- Committee. Executors of the project are invited to istry of Social Security and Labour, the Project Co- international conferences for the presentation of ordination Group and Stockholm University car- the project to international audience (Stockholm in ried out a Mid-term evaluation. It purposed to as- 1999; Capetown, Oslo, Riga in 2000). sess the agreement among actually achieved quali- The project covers the municipalities of the tative and quantitative indicators of projects’ towns of Vilnius and Šiauliai as well as the munici- progress and the ones expected at the start of palities of the regions of Utena, Molėtai, Anykščiai, project’s implementation. The results achieved and Švenčionys. The purpose of the project is to showed that funds satisfied the expectations of all create a system alternative to institutions offering participants of the project: the comparison made by expensive institutional social services. The project client groups indicated that services offered to men- seeks to give cheaper noninstitutional social services tally handicapped children by centres established to the biggest possible number of clients, and to in the course of projects’ implementation were create the chances for more effective use of exist- 2.5 times cheaper; to mentally handicapped adults ing or future possibilities. The project attempts to – 2.1 cheaper; and services offered to old people demonstrate a system of co-ordinated actions seek- were 10 times cheaper than the services rendered ing to create favourable circumstances and condi- by institutional service institutions. Compared to the tions for the development of socially, economically costs of municipal care homes, the rates of pilot and fiscally effective social service system. This is centres are cheaper 1.5 times if clients stay there the basic advantage of the project. not longer than 6 months. Currently 14 day care centres and services offer From the beginning of project’s implementation various social services to people. in 1997 till June 1999 the number of clients increased SIDA funds are used to assess the project and to from 146 to 1296, that is 8.8 times. 72 of them 97 avoided in this way institutionalisation. It should centres participating in training courses were sur- be mentioned that the rest of clients stayed at home: veyed. Negative opinion about the value of such they either did not receive necessary services or the training was given by 2.4% of respondents, while services provided were not adequate. other respondents thought that the training was use- A survey of the opinion of clients attending can- ful (36.1%) or very useful (24%). From the point of ters revealed that only 0.4% of all respondents gave view of organisation, the absolute majority of re- negative opinion about centres’ activities. Answers spondents gave a very good evaluation to the train- such as “good” (46.7%), “very good” (23%) or “ex- ing courses. The survey showed that it was owing cellent” (16.9%) prevailed. No major differences to professional knowledge imparted by Swedes that among the clients of separate centres were observed. the personnel of centres acquired excellent profes- Services given by centres also received favourable sional understanding of the goals of centres, differ- opinions: only 3 persons out of 261 gave negative entiated evaluations of problems, and adequate evaluations to services rendered by centres. The as- methods for their solution. According to the heads sessment of personnel qualifications revealed the of centres, courses made a tremendous influence absence of negative opinions. When evaluating this on the personal motivation to future work with cli- indicator, it is possible to state that the greater part ents, and on the wish to further elaborate profes- of centre-attending clients, that is 86.6% (“good” sional skills. The survey also revealed the opinion 46.7% + “very good” 23% + “excellent” 16.9%) of social workers of other municipalities not in- gave favourable evaluations to services rendered by volved in the project on the professional compe- centres. tence of centres’ workers: 51% of respondents As early as at the stage of the project’s prepara- thought that the competence was much higher than tion Stockholm University paid special attention to in other social service institutions. the qualifications of personnel of newly-created cen- Activities related to the support provided by the tres. When assessing the experience of social work- Swedish Government (SIDA) are carried out within ers’ training in Lithuania, project creators prepared the framework of project implementation: regular specialised training programs for every group of so- supervision of functioning centres by Swedish spe- cial workers based on their future target activities, cialists; workshops on various social work subjects; the specific character of their institutions’ activities, annual conferences on the project’s accomplish- and on socio-demographic definitions of their cli- ments and implementation problems involving all ents. In total 4 qualification improvement programs social workers of Lithuania; creation of a computer were created, namely Special education and social program for the documentation of work with cli- work with mentally handicapped children and their ents, and its introduction into the activities of al- families; Social services to elderly and mentally ready existing centres. All this secures positive qual- handicapped adults; Social rehabilitation of people ity of given services and necessary staff competence. with dependencies (alcoholics, drug addicts, pros- Besides, this serves to demonstrate how it is pos- titutes); Children’s welfare courses. The programs sible to expect more effective use of funds for the were created with the active participation of Vilnius needs of the most socially vulnerable residents of University Social Work Department. The duration Lithuania in the transitory period leading to day care of every program covers 10 weeks of training in centres offering open-type services. Lithuania plus 3 weeks of training in Sweden. Pro- In 2000 the Ministry of Social Security and gram participants include 130 social workers from Labour created a new project. It purposes to further 6 municipalities. Program executors are social work develop the experience of creation pilot centres with professionals working at the said universities. Ac- a stress laid on the perspective of social problems cording to the plan of project’s implementation, on an all-Lithuanian level. This project provides the every program had to be completed before the open- creation of a system for the improvement of profes- ing of a social service centre reflecting the theoreti- sional qualification of social workers of Lithuania, cal and practical contents of the program for the and the system of monitoring of social institutions. improvement of professional qualification. To evalu- Experts from SIDA and World Bank have already ate the contents of programs, all staff workers of approved this project. 98.