Service Delivery Agencies Research Articles

Issues and developments on the consumer recovery construct

The consumer recovery model has had increasing influence on mental health practices in the United States, Western Europe, and several other countries. However, adoption of the model has reflected political decisions rather than empirical evidence of the validity of the model or its value for treatment services. The recovery construct is poorly defined, and until recently there has been no reliable and valid measure with which to base a research program. We have developed an empirical measure that is well-suited for both research and clinical applications: the Maryland Assessment of Recovery in Serious Mental Ill-ness (MARS). We briefly describe the MARS and present preliminary data demonstrating that recovery is not a simple by-product of traditional outcome do-mains, but seems to be a distinct construct that may have important implications for understanding consumers with serious mental illness and for evaluating the outcome of treatment programs.

Developing and Maintaining Partnerships as the Foundation of Implementation and Implementation Science: Reflections over a Half Century

Public health depends on its base of community support, and each public health program depends on this support for its survival. As a broad field public health is dramatically intrusive; it invades the most private lives of citizens, including instructions how to brush your teeth, injections of bacterial vaccines into your body against disease, guidelines on what to eat, prohibitions against smoking, limits on ages of individuals allowed to use of alcohol and prohibitions against use while driving, prohibitions against use of illicit drugs at all. Even sexual practices receive strong instructions such as promoting safe sex behavior such as condom use. Public health law requires vaccinating the community’s children before school entry, and even requires chlorine—a poison—in the community’s drinking water. In teaching public health I have often cited the first rule: “Don’t get kicked out of the community”. And that brings us to the issue of partnerships, the foundation on which all public health is built. These reflections are about the required but complex nature of relationships among community organization constituents, service delivery agencies, and research institutions and investigators to carry out programs–from priority setting to their initial testing of efficacy, then effectiveness, and now into implementation and “going-to-scale”.

Competency-Based Management—An Integrated Approach to Human Resource Management in the Canadian Public Sector

With a new appreciation for the value of their employees, many organizations are moving rapidly to embrace Competency-Based Management, a relatively new approach to human resource management. Competency-Based Management involves the management of key HR activities such as staffing, learning and performance management, around a competency profile for the work to be carried out. This article describes how Service Canada, a key service delivery agency within the Canadian Federal Public Service, was able to bridge the two worlds of job analysis and competency modeling in order to successfully implement a working competency framework in a large unionized organization.

NSW Premier's Council for Active Living

The NSW Premier’s Council for Active Living (PCAL) aims to strengthen physical and social environments to enable active living. PCAL comprises representatives from NSWGovernment (linking infrastructure and service delivery agencies), business and the community sector; it reports to the Premier. The Council provides advice to government and promotes guidelines, policy and legislation to increase the level of physical activity of all people in NSW. PCAL’s priorities include active travel, healthy urban planning and the liveability of NSW cities and towns.

Substance Use Monitoring Systems: Building Fundamental Infrastructure to Support Policy Development, Evaluation and Research

The worldwide growth in the illicit drug trade and continuing global concern about the public health impact of alcohol and tobacco over recent decades has created the need for better information systems to address questions such as: what recreational, addictive and mood altering substances are people using? What tangible harms are associated with the use of these substances? What combinations and patterns of use are mostly contributing to the risk of such harms? Are rates of hazardous use and harm increasing or decreasing in particular populations and geographic areas?All policy making and service delivery agencies potentially have a stake in getting good answers to such questions. Canada is no different in this regard where in recent years Health Canada as well as British Columbian (BC) government bodies have collaborated with the Centre for Addictions Research of BC to develop a comprehensive pilot drug monitoring system. To support this effort, an international symposium was held on Vancouver Island, British Columbia in 2007, at which papers were presented on the design and use of monitoring systems from Europe, Australia, South Africa and North America, This issue of Contemporary Drug Problems presents a series of articles with a North American focus that were first presented at the symposium.The first three articles have a more national focus variously describing (i) progress in developing indicators for alcohol, tobacco and illicit drug use and related problems for jurisdictions across the United States (Flewelling et al.); (ii) efforts to improve the comparability of Canadian provincial school surveys (Clark), and (iii) the application of well-established US monitoring surveys to the evaluation of important state-based public health initiatives (Paschall et al.).The remaining articles describe the local application of a longstanding national epidemiological monitoring initiative in Canada (Buxton et al.) as well as a new monitoring system being piloted in BC for application across Canada (Stockwell et al.), The BC Alcohol and Other Drug Monitoring Project (see www.AODmonitoring.ca) is a multisite partnership which aims to deliver up-to-date information on the changing patterns of substance use and related harms across the province. Buxton et al. (second article) describe a component concerned with monitoring alcohol, tobacco, and illicit drug related morbidity and mortality across place and time, Macdonald et al. …

A comparison of electronic to traditional pen-and-paper data collection in discrete trial training for children with autism

There is considerable empirical evidence that demonstrates that early intensive behavioral intervention (EIBI) produces substantial improvements in young children with autism. A central feature of this treatment approach is the reliance on continuous measurement of child performance during all treatment hours (20–40 h per week) to ensure an objective and quantitative analysis of behavior. Pen-and-paper data collection is standard practice in service delivery agencies. An alternative is to collect data via an electronic format, however little research has been done on electronic data collection in these settings. The purpose of this study was to compare mTrial ®, a program that allows therapists to record, store, and report discrete trial and other behavior data for students on a personal data assistant, to traditional pen-and-paper data, in terms of the accuracy of data collected and the time required to do it. Results suggest that both formats are of approximately equal accuracy but that traditional data collection is faster. Implications of the two data collection methods for data storage and analysis are also discussed.

The Perils of Institutionalization in Neoliberal Times: Results of a National Survey of Canadian Sexual Assault and Rape Crisis Centres

This article reports on a national survey of Canadian rape crisis and sexual assault centres conducted in 2005. We situate our results in relation to feminist literature on the perils of institutionalization. We argue that institutionalization takes on new forms in the context of neoliberalism and we emphasize the resistance of centres to under-funding and to individualized victims’ services policy frameworks. Despite significant pressures to redefine as social service delivery agencies, Canadian centres continue to engage in social change activism and define themselves as specifically feminist/pro-woman/equality-seeking organizations. Our respondents vary significantly in size and resources, yet nearly all emphasize the significant obstacle of inadequate funding and all continue to rely heavily on the unpaid work of (usually women) volunteers to do more with less.

Performance Regimes—The Institutional Context of Performance Policies

Performance measurement, targeting, reporting and managing of public services has spread across jurisdictions in recent years. The most usual stance adopted by governments in developing performance policies has been shaped by principal-agent theory and a hierarchy of principal-agent relationships from core executive to service delivery. Such notions have been challenged from several directions, both in theory and empirically. Writers on accountability and those analyzing the “audit explosion” and the growth of “regulation inside government” have pointed to the way in which multiple actors and accountabilities have grown. Drawing on these and other sources this article develops a “performance regimes” perspective that offers a heuristic analytical framework of the main groups of institutional actors who can (but do not always) attempt to shape or steer the performance of service delivery agencies. The aim is to create a framework that can be applied comparatively to study changes in total performance regimes over time and between jurisdictions and sectors.

Implementing public employment policy: what happens when non‐public agencies take over?

PurposeThe purpose of the article is to analyse the interconnections between formal policy reforms and operational policies, specifically between new governance and employment policy. The main question is what happens to public employment policies when they are contracted out to non‐public (for‐profit and not‐for‐profit) agencies?Design/methodology/approachThe case is the contracting out of the public employment services in Australia, Holland, and Denmark. The data consists of in‐depth interviews with key respondents in the three countries, observations at service delivery agencies, and desk studies of existing research.FindingsThe new quasi‐market models seem to have difficulties in living up to the preconditions for a well‐functioning market, as well as political expectations. Contracted out employment systems do not seem to create higher efficiency, innovation, quality, and less bureaucracy than previous public bureaucracies. But a quasi‐market model, on the other hand, does seems to create a new type of employment policy, and new conditions for steering and governing the labour market and employment policy. This implies that choosing a quasi‐market model involves much more than a discussion about “technicalities” like (cost) efficiency and productivity. Some of the most important – but often neglected and depoliticised – policy changes seem to emerge from changes of the institutional set‐up rather than changes of specific laws and ministerial orders.Originality/valueThe article is innovative in trying to identify relationships between management structure and policy content. Often these changes are analysed in separate disciplines, and isolated from each other. In this article we provide an integrated and multidisciplinary approach.

Using knowledge brokering to promote evidence-based policy-making

Using knowledge brokering to promote evidence-based policy-making

Room to move? Professional discretion at the frontline of welfare‐to‐work

Outcomes of social policies have always been mediated by the discretionary agency of front‐line staff, processes which nevertheless have received insufficient attention in policy evaluation and in the social policy literature more broadly. This article takes the case example of the policy reforms associated with the Australian government's welfare‐to‐work agenda. Drawing on two discreet research projects undertaken at different points in the policy trajectory, the practices of social workers in Centrelink – the Commonwealth government's primary service delivery agency involved in welfare‐to‐work – is examined. Centrelink social workers have been and remain one of the core groups of specialist staff since the Department's inception in the late 1940s, working to improve the well being of people in receipt of income security. Their experiences of the recent past and their expectations of the future of their professional practice as welfare reform becomes more entrenched are canvassed. In summary, the discretionary capacity of the Centrelink social workers to moderate or shape the impact of policy on income security recipients is steadily eroding as this group of professionals is increasingly captured by the emerging practices of workfare.

Telepsychiatry improves paediatric behavioural health care in rural communities

In the US, children with special health care needs are underserved by both the medical and educational systems. This problem is especially serious in rural states. Telemedicine is a technique that can reduce these gaps in service and help connect the two systems. The technology required has become cheaper and more accessible. Progress on reimbursement for such services has also been made. For some years, we have provided telepsychiatry for children in Washington State using videoconferencing. Interviews with families and service providers were conducted in Washington and Missouri. Some parents reported that their child actually preferred telepsychiatry to conventional consultation. The telepsychiatry service model was built on the existing system of outreach clinics, thus involving specialists who were familiar with the community and who were known and trusted by the community. Before starting, we ensured that all relevant service delivery agencies and providers were comfortable about using videoconferencing as a method of service delivery. In the 18-month period ending in March 2003, three providers in Seattle saw 159 patients by telepsychiatry and 210 patients face-to-face at the hospital clinic. The main barrier to further growth of the telepsychiatry service is the absence of reimbursement for telepsychiatry.

Partnering the 800 Pound Gorilla: Centrelink Working Locally to Create Opportunities for Participation

This article explores the potential for government agencies to move into new kinds of relationships or ‘social partnerships’ with the community sector and business to address social problems. Through an analysis of documented examples of partnerships at the local level it examines how Centrelink, the Common wealth Service Delivery Agency, is using its considerable resources, human and physical, to work with others to improve accessibility of services, address service gaps and to actively create opportunities for participation. It proposes a tentative framework for understanding partnerships in terms of their value for ‘customers’ and the potential that such partnerships have to create opportunities that would not exist in a silo driven service delivery model. This article has relevance across all in human services who are interested in how the rhetoric of social partnerships translates into day to day service delivery.

The importance of expectation fulfilment on domestic violence victims' satisfaction with the police in the UK

PurposeThis paper seeks to investigate what victims of domestic violence expect police to do for them, and how these expectations subsequently influence their levels of satisfaction.Design/methodology/approachStructured interviews with 222 victims of domestic violence were conducted by staff from an integrated community‐based service delivery agency in Cardiff, Wales. Multivariate analyses were performed to reveal the factors that contribute to domestic violence victims' satisfaction with the police.FindingsConsistent with the expectancy disconfirmation model, results indicate that the most important determinant of satisfaction is the extent to which victims' expectations about police behaviour and demeanour are fulfilled.Originality/valueThe results of this study and implications for police policy are discussed.

Creating synergy: Developing new forms of partnership between university and industry

An innovative university/industry partnership has been developed between the Australian Catholic University (ACU) and Centrelink (the Australian Government's Service Delivery Agency). This partnership has been established on a ‘no exchange of monies’ basis and has proved to provide clear specific benefits to the School of Social Work at ACU and Centrelink's National Social Work Services Team and also to both organisations more generally. The authors argue that this type of university/industry partnership offers a framework that has wide applicability in the human services where relationships between training institutions and ‘the field’ appear to be becoming increasingly difficult.

The quasi‐autonomous agency in an ambiguous environment: the Centrelink case

AbstractAustralia's Centrelink provides an unique experiment with the integration of a variety of social services through a single quasi‐autonomous organisation. This multi‐functional agency delivers services to a number of clients while subject to a range of external and internal imperatives. The case indicates the complexities in managing the interface between policy department and service delivery agency and the limitations of operating with purchaser‐provider arrangements as a basis for relationships. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Rethinking international organizations: pathology and promise

Part I: Decision Making with States 1.Financing the United Nations: the Role of the United States, Klaus Hufner 2.Diplomacy: Its Place in the Multilateral World, Dietrich Kappeler 3.The Politics of Norm Setting at the United Nations: The Case of Sustainable Human Development, Jacques Fomerand Part II: Decision Making in International Organizations 4.Good Intentions to Naught: The Pathology of Human Resources Management at the United Nations, Dirk Salomons 5.The Transformation of International Public Organizations: the Case of UNCTAD, Matthias Finger and Berangere Magarinos-Ruchat 6.Fraud, Corruption and United Nations Culture, Yves Beigbeder Part III: Implementation 7.Programs and the Problems of Participation. Dennis Dijkzeul 8.Human Rights, Institutional Wrongs, Alex de Waal 9.Managing CIVPOL: The Potential of Performance Management in International Public Services, Dennis Smith 10.Sustainable Civil Society or Service Delivery Agencies? The Evolution of Non-governmental Organizations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ian Smillie and Kristie Evenson Part IV: Toward Theory 11.Cures and Conclusions, Dennis Dijkzeul and Leon Gordenker

Voluntary Organisations and Social Policy in Britain: Perspectives on Change and Choice

Voluntary Organisations and Social Policy: Twenty Years of Change M.Harris, C.Rochester and P.Halfpenny Public Policy, Social Policy and Voluntary Organisations N.Deakin Tackling Social Exclusion: The Contribution of Voluntary Organisations D.Billis Contracting: The Experience of Service Delivery Agencies D.W.Scott and L.Russell Regulation: The Impact on Local Voluntary Action C.Rochester Regeneration: The Role and Impact of Local Development Agencies S.P.Osborne and K.Ross Partnership: Insiders and Outsiders M.Taylor Providers of Care for Older People: The Experience of Community Care J. Kendall and M.Knapp Grant-Making Foundations: Policy Shapers or Policy Takers? D.Leat International Development NGOs: Policy Conflict and Convergence D.Lewis Non-Profit Housing Agencies: 'Reading' and Shaping the Policy Agenda D.Mullins and M.Riseborough Boards: Just Subsidiaries of the State? M.Harris Volunteers: Making a Difference? J.Davis Smith Users: At the Centre or the Sidelines? M. Locke, P.Robson and S.Howlett Voluntary Organisations in a Changing Policy Environment M.Harris

Strengthening the Capacity of Schools and Communities to Serve Students with Serious Emotional Disturbance

Target 2 of the National Agenda for Improving Results for Children and Youth with Serious Emotional Disturbance stipulates that communities and schools “serve children and youth with emotional needs in their neighborhood homes and regular classrooms by developing the capacity of teachers, schools, and communities to provide supports and resources.” This statement is partially based upon the idea that children and youth who are placed out-of-district for special needs and services are often alienated from their neighborhoods and their communities. The Westerly, RI, and Alliance, OH, school districts, service delivery agencies and families collaborated to implement system-wide change, so as to accomplish two main goals. First, they intended on retaining students with emotional needs in their neighborhood schools and in regular classrooms. Second, they aimed to increase their effectiveness in addressing the needs of all students by providing a range of integrated resources. Both communities were strongly driven by the underlying objective: to improve the educational, economic, and social outcomes for all children.

Output–Purchase Funding and Budgeting Systems in the Public Sector

Output–purchase funding systems are systems in which payments made to service delivery agencies by government are an explicit function of quantities of outputs delivered by those agencies. This article considers the feasibility of such systems for the funding of tax–financed public services. It focuses on the implications of key characteristics of public sector outputs and specifically upon the prevalence of heterogeneous outputs, the predominance of services (as opposed to physical goods), and the presence of many “contingent capacity services.”