EVALUATION as an instrument of governance for a regional social plan Dr. Annamaria Casini

EVALUATION as an instrument of governance for a regional social plan Dr. Annamaria Casini (sociopolitical management expert) SULMONA - 22nd October 2012

The Social Plan for a Region Social intervention master plan continuously evolving within the context of crisis and financial scarcity location of welfare system reconstruction trying out various changes to social ties and promoting them

The Social Plan for a Region It is a complex system characterised by: the presence of numerous interested parties with interlocutors having divers objectives; the presence of numerous difficult to coordinate operators; the possibility of emerging strategies and actions impossible to plan in advance;

Possible Implementation Risks Great uncertainty regarding future availability Possibile need to back track regarding plan implementation and management The abandon of strategic medium duration planning (referring here to organisations under pressure)

Implementation Strategies Rationalisation and reorganisation of services: Methods of access; Function; Integration with other subjects;

HOW TO MANAGE THIS PROCESS? ….OR BETTER STILL… WHICH AREA PLANNING GOVERNANCE INSTRUMENTS TO EMPLOY?

A Definition of GOVERNANCE… “Governance was ultimately seen as a way to pursue a joint action on the part of a complex society, an expression of articulated interest, and then as the path through which the different viewpoints of citizens, businesses, associations - or more generally of greater numbers of social subjects – are to be translated into actual policy choices (Kohler and Koch, 1999) "

GOVERNANCE is a process of intermediation involving public and private players which is adaptable to complex decisional systems.

Evaluation of the PSZ To overcome the bureaucratic language of the constitutional objectives of the PdZ, the conclusive reports and subtle problems that risk relapse

A New Approach to PSZ Evaluation EVALUATION AS A LEADERSHIP PLAN DETERMINANT INTENDED TO: encourage participatory dynamicswith the players in the non-profit perspective of the reconceptualisation of the public social services system realise an action/evaluation capable of providing real-time results and feedback to thereby guide positive future decisions

Evaluation as formation of stakeholders Theme exploration: Of the need (the real need, not that already interpreted as a solution) Of the user outcomes and of the impacts on the area and the community.

PSZ Evaluation Project within the Social Ambit of Sulmona STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES: to favour greater timeliness and reliability regarding the monitoring of the plan’s progress, and to render the evaluation process less traumatic and more efficient and consequently the evaluation data more accessible to plan users;

PSZ Evaluation Project within the Social Ambit of Sulmona STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES: 2) to improve the capacity to interpret the social services system, to enhance and optimise it, to increase the productivity of existing trade systems (networks) between agencies and services, to intercept and disseminate successful practices from the assessment of what makes them actually "successful”

PSZ Evaluation Project within the Social Ambit of Sulmona STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES: 3) to understand, describe and measure the effects of initiatives undertaken that are connected to the development of a local social system integrated in terms of: the social value realised in terms of changes generated within single target areas in relation to discerned needs and problems; the capacity of the network to regulate itself the satisfaction of the local community (organisations coinvolved and eventual resulting benefits).

PSZ Evaluation Project within the Social Ambit of Sulmona DESIRED RESULTS: 1) to animate the group network so as to improve component involvement and the governance of the local social system by means of a process of participative evaluation.

PSZ Evaluation Project within the Social Ambit of Sulmona DESIRED RESULTS: 2) to promote a local welfare model to be formalised by means of an agreement for local social development (e.g. a protocol agreement) in which are defined the activities carried out by the network of local players that actively participate in social politics (human resources, instrumental and financial resources made available, governing mechanisms for same).

PSZ Evaluation Project within the Social Ambit of Sulmona DESIRED RESULTS: 3) to develop an informative system capable of monitoring, measuring and evaluating the contribution of collaborative management towards reaching higher levels of sustainable growth that, at the same time, indicate a possible route to strategic integration between different organisations that operate in the same local area.

PSZ Evaluation Project within the Social Ambit of Sulmona STRATEGIC ACTIONS To organise a quantitative survey with respect to the performance of social services with the primary objective of understanding their logical structure and their inherent problems. To give rise to a process ofparticipatory evaluation of social services (derived from quantitative data) but that may also be an opportunity for "training" with respect to the necessary reconfiguration of said services. This would be unthinkable without the setting in motion of solid network dynamics.

EVALUATION as an instrument of governance for a regional social plan Dr. Annamaria Casini