On 17–18 May 2018, a jubilee international congress titled “Beauty and Good Lie in Human Experience” was held. Invited guests from abroad and from Slovakia took part to recall together the beginnings of the work, as well as the achievements in cooperation and partner projects on the topic: Quality in social services.
What is quality and what place does the person have in it? What must a professional worker master to be able to provide quality social services? What conditions do politicians create in Switzerland, Germany, and the Czech Republic, and what support do providers of social services in Slovakia have from our politicians and legislators? Is quality only about money, or more about people’s approach? What all must be documented, and what do authorities inspect? These and other questions were discussed by experts with directors and managers of social service institutions at the Akadémia vzdelávania a výskumu v sociálnych službách in Holíč.
The title of the congress alone, “Beauty and Good Lie in Human Experience,” can already reveal the hidden secret of the expert lectures on the age-old topic of quality, which has been carried from the beginning of human life on Earth to today’s scientifically created quality-management systems and models.
The oldest records of humanity already contain records about quality—perfect goodness, which humanity has longed for. History and the present bring us testimonies of the paths of quality, good, and beauty that we wish to follow in all areas of our life. With the gradual development of society and the increasing complexity of the social-cultural environment, relationships in society and within the person themselves, perspectives on quality, its definitions, and the ways of securing and proving it also began to develop and then become complicated. Quality-management systems, tools, and techniques emerged.
These systems and quality models were gradually introduced into social services in the developed countries of Europe. The first pioneers who began with this topic in Slovakia were the founders of Tabita s.r.o., who in 2000–2003 participated in the international benchmarking project E.U.SenioBench. In this project, 16 German and 14 European institutions for seniors were compared according to the EFQM model.
Tabita s.r.o. was then founded in 2003, and it has been dealing with quality issues with a focus on social services for 15 years. When, in 2003, company managers first presented ideas of a systemic approach to quality at the Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Family, they were met with misunderstanding and rejection. MPSVR staff, as well as the providers themselves, rejected the idea that quality of social services can be systemically monitored and measured in social work or in social services.
Both pioneers (Ondrej Buzala, Mária Kovaľová), however, did not give up and, with small steps, began not only with awareness-raising but also with the actual implementation of quality-management systems and models (CAF, EFQM).
The first bold organization that chose systemic quality management was Slezská diakonie (www.slezskadiakonie.cz).
As Tabita s.r.o.’s first partner, it introduced in 2006 not only the ISO quality-management system but also the EFQM model. Director Mgr. Zuzana Filipková, PhD, informed us about the beginnings of quality and today’s extensive activity of the quality department. Today, this organization is among the highest-quality providers of social services in the Czech Republic. The quality department cares for 1,000 of its employees.
In Slovakia, the first forerunner was the city of BANSKÁ BYSTRICA, which in 2008 implemented S T N EN ISO 9000 in all its institutions. On 11 November 2011, together with our teacher and mentor Ing. Ladislavom Majchrákom we founded Asociácia manažérov a audítorov kvality v sociálnych službách (AMAQ) and accredited the course Manažér kvality pre sociálne a zdravotnícke zariadenia. On this jubilee we remembered our great teacher together with its graduates. Thank you, Lacko.
At the congress, Dr. Miroslav Danys also spoke. He is a co-founder of Slezská diakonie, a long-time member of the Central Committee for Central and Eastern Europe in the association of Protestant Churches in Germany, and a long-time member of the IKTM committee. He is currently an envoy for Eastern Europe of the Eben-Ezer foundation in Lemgo and a docent at IMKD (Institut für Management in der Kirche und Diakonie) of the Wuppertal / Bielefeld-Bethel church university. In a moderated discussion, he presented his life story that linked theology with diaconia not only in western Germany but especially in Eastern Europe.
Andreas Bartels, representative for Europe in Arbeiter Wohlfahrt, AWO; www.awo.de spoke twice during the congress. First, he presented the dual education model for caregivers in residential and ambulatory services, as well as in home caregiving services. In his second lecture, he presented transnational projects funded through European structural resources, through which German colleagues finance all innovative, educational, and scientific projects focused on mutual exchange of experience and benchlearning—not only in quality, but especially in lifelong learning. Participants expressed not only quiet envy, but also concern that to this day, similar projects have not been financed from European funds in Slovakia, projects that could help social services with quality improvement or quality assurance.
Organizácia
AWO
was founded in 1919 by Maria Juchacz, a social-democratic member of parliament. AWO operates across the whole Federal Republic of Germany and is among the five largest providers of social services through 480 state associations, 3,800 local associations with 382,000 members, 70,000 volunteers, and 173,000 employees. In all federal states it runs 14,000 institutions and has established 2,000 social institutions (homes) and educational institutions of its own.
In further lectures, we reflected: can ISO standards, as well as the CAF and EFQM models, be equally usable in social services as in the automotive industry?
These questions were answered for us by speakers PaedDr. Marek Vanko from TUV SUD Slovakia, currently responsible for client communication in finding optimal solutions, in the lecture: “Is satisfaction directly proportional to quality of services?”, and Doc. Ing. Iveta Paulová, PhD. MBA from Centra výnimočnosti a zodpovedného podnikania o.z., the lead assessor of the National Award of the Slovak Republic for quality and social responsibility (models EFQM, CAF and ZET). She is an instructor and consultant on implementation of the EFQM excellence model, the CAF model and the ZET model for evaluating a systemic approach to social responsibility in private sector and in state and public administration in the lecture: “Model CAF and feedback – The Effective User of the CAF Model”.
The goal of the organizers and jubilants was to answer a fundamental question during these two days, in the beautiful historical premises of Holická Beseda, now the seat of the Akadémia vzdelávania a výskumu v sociálnych službách: Do the systems that we are jointly introducing today into social service facilities also contain an enactment of good and motivate us toward doing good and beauty for a person who is in an adverse social situation and needs our help? Or are social service facilities truly as poor in quality as journalists are more and more often writing about? Do we need media scandals or misfortunes for them to write about the difficult and responsible work of caregivers, nurses, and therapists at clients’ bedsides?
A central part of the meeting was the launch of the professional publications: “Kvalita sociálnych služieb v kocke I. a II“. Both publications are intended for professional audiences who want to educate themselves on quality in social work and quality in social services, and will also serve as study material in the training course: “Manažér kvality v sociálnych službách.“ The godfather of both publications is our long-time friend Albert Urban Hug, who spoke at the congress with expert lectures on the topics: “Quality is good, but where does the person remain?” and “To Care or to Write. What Is More Important Now?” Albert Urban HUG, Switzerland, studies: Pflegefachmann, Pflege-Pädagogik und Pflege-Management, Sozial- und Geistes-Wissenschaften, Volks- und Betriebswirtschaft and is an expert in nursing care with a focus on psychiatry and long-term care. He worked as a director of social service facilities and a teacher of professional subjects. He built the business company IHR HUG and Partner GmbH with a focus on organizational development and quality assurance, with the central theme: “Humanity and Economy.” (www.ihr.ch). In his lectures, he walked participants through a jungle of documentation biases and presented situational practical examples so as to show how an individual approach to the client and a clear documentation-system structure should look.
The culmination of the jubilee congress was the announcement of national competitions: “Sociálne služby obrazom a slovom 2018” (An anonymous literary-photographic competition in the genres: blog, photography, photo report, and scientific-technical journalism for authors over 18 years old on a topic from the field of social services) and the competition: “TOP Manažér kvality v sociálnych službách 2018”.
Autor: PhDr. Mária Kovaľová, PhD. MHA
The author is a theologian focused on diaconal social work and a master of public health focused on managed documentation and risk management. Since 1991, she has been devoted to caregiving care with a focus on seniors. She is a consultant and quality auditor in social services. Since 2014 she has been president of Asociácia odborných pracovníkov v sociálnych službách and co-founder of OZ Planéta malého prínosa. www.aopss.sk