900 Clients Were Visited
Alltogether 900 clients of residential offers and sheltered workshops were visited in the course of the Nueva reference project in Berlin. 50,8 % of them participated in either a survey or an observation carried out by the Nueva evaluation team. The project took place by order of 8 service providers, the Paritätischer Wohlfahrtsverband gave fincancial support and politicians and public authorities regarded it with favour.
In January 2009 the Austrian evaluation team settled in Berlin. Eight months later, on September 22nd, first general results were presented to the public.
Full Hall in the “Schlösschen”
Around 90 participants – by far more than expected – could not disconcert the competent voluntary staff of the Altenselbsthilfe- und Beratungszentrum des Sozialnetzwerks Berlin e.V. (center for self-advocacy and counselling for the elderly). Käte Tresenreuter, chairwoman and founder, welcomed the guests and later invited them to have all kinds of delicacies in the sunny garden of the “Schlösschen” (little castle).
Self-Advocacy and Empowerment
Spastikerhilfe Berlin eG is among the first to have taken part in this project. According to the director, Georg Dudaschwili, the main reason to participate was “because, at Spastikerhilfe, the notion of self-advocacy which is included in Nova has always been viewed as being important. The instrument has convinced us. The evaluations were partly surprising for the employees. We have had intensive discussions that have already led us to a number of conclusions for changes of our supply”, outlines Mr. Dudaschwili.
“Our clients were very pleased to find out that someone is coming from Austria specially to find out their opinion”, says Bettina Blankmann from Berliner STARThilfe e.V. The clients’ initial fears of possibly not understanding the questions were soon overcome after the first encounters and “they were very proud to have taken part”.
Discussions with Clients as Experts
For Veronika Schürheck from Lebenshilfe Berlin the definition of the target state profiles, which took place during the preparatory trainings with the professionals and the clients, was very interesting. “I especially found the advice that we should look at things from the interviewees’ point of view important. Now it is about what the evaluations can tell us and what will be the next steps for Lebenshilfe”. At this point it is crucial that “the results don’t disappear into a drawer, unnoticed”, demands Harald Siebert, UNIQ peer, in his statement.
Gabriela Bäumker from aktion weitblick betreutes Wohnen gGmbH mentions that the employees were skeptical at the beginning. “However, it was our big advantage that two of our clients had already been peers in the UNIQ project and thus had a better understanding of the Nueva method. They helped us during the preparatory trainings and we had a very good discussion about the definition of the target state profiles with them.”
Human Resource Development on Site
Georg Schnitzler, director of Lebenshilfe Berlin, reckons that Nueva is also helpful for human resource development: “Many questions in the questionnaire touch on the attitude of the field workers.” A client of Lebenshilfe confirms: “I already enjoyed the training and now I am curious about the new talks”. Another client complains that it has not yet been her turn in this first round and that she would also like to be interviewed soon.
Transparency and Comparison
“I would like to invite the other service providers to share and benchmark the results. I think that we should also be able to do what Mr. Forner does”, suggests Georg Schnitzler and, as far as Sabine Wilden from Albert Schweitzer Stiftung is concerned, he preaches to the converted. She, too, advocates the disclosure of the outcomes. Ms. Wilden thanks Mr. Purmann for supporting this project, as the Albert Schweitzer Stiftung would not have been able to shoulder it alone. Moreover she underlines that the preparatory trainings were very well received.
“I hope that this is not the end of it, that we will, just like you do in Austria, have a catalogue in Berlin, where people can obtain an overview of what is available”, says Stefan Zenker from Starthilfe, stimulating future steps in Berlin. This proposal appeals to Helmut Forner, director of nbw and board member of Paritäter: “It is already known that I am a fan of Nueva. I now invite you to figure out in mutual talks how we can establish and implement Nueva in Berlin”.
Realise Nueva-Berlin together
Reinald Purmann outlines the benefits of Nueva as seen from two different perspectives: On the one hand, there is the development of quality for which he feels responsible, and on the other hand the perspective of customer counselling based on clear information about offers in Berlin.
However, according to Mr. Purmann, these topics don’t only concern services for people with disabilities, they are equally relevant for care and assistance of the elderly. He thinks that it is a European goal to strengthen the users of social services and to incorporate them into the evaluation and the development of quality of these services.
Mr. Purmann points out that the provider of a Nueva project in Berlin should be neutral. Thus all service providers are invited (“everybody should be able to participate”) to cooperate in getting the training of Nueva evaluators in Berlin going.
UNIQ Peers Make Clear Demands
Harald Siebert, Thomas Plischkovsky and Nicole Thomas want the results of the Nueva evaluations to lead to changes. From their point of view it is of particular importance that in the course of the evaluation talks with clients “the results are presented in an easily understandable way and that Nueva highlights where there is need for changes.”
“We wish for evaluation talks between us and the directors”, say the UNIQ peers, suggesting another possibility for discussion between providers and users.
But not only do the UNIQ peers strive for changes in their own residential offer or sheltered workshop, they are also concerned about transparency and the possibility of comparison: “We need a catalogue that provides an overview of the offers in Berlin and that is at the same time very easy to understand.”
Continue reading here to find out what UNIQ peers from Berlin think about the profession “Nueva evaluator”.