Who benefits from Nueva?
Nueva is for all those, who want to be informed about what the users have to say about social services.
Quality from a user perspective
Nueva’s quality criteria are concrete and were developed by the users from their own point of view. For the service or the administration providers, the advantage of working with Nueva is the possibility of getting information about quality criteria that is relevant to the users themselves.
Frequently, people with learning difficulties who have been living in a supervised surrounding for a long time, have little knowledge of what else could actually be possible. If you interview them about their requests for change, some cannot give you any further information. Interviews with concrete quality items in the questions often offer the users a broader spectrum of what quality can mean. After all these items were defined by others from their target group and might have already become reality for some of them.
An example of such a question could be: “Do the staff show you where you can find self-advocacy groups?”
Feedback on outcome quality from user perspective
Nueva sees itself as a supplement to systems for quality management, which also claim to consider outcome quality. Whoever wants to measure the output quality of their offer, or at least make it more comprehensible, can get authentic feedback from Nueva users. The model offers possibilities for comparison between the self-defined target and the performance from the point of view of individuals in a group. For the definition of target-values, the concrete questionnaire-criteria are being discussed, and ideal outcomes are predefined for example by a group of staff of a residential offer and/or by the resident-representatives. After the questioning-process Nueva provides a comparison with the outcomes. This yields detailed information for purposeful improvements of quality.
Benchmarking data
From 2004 to 2008 Nueva carried out and evaluated more than 2,600 surveys. The results of these evaluations are available for comparable questions and offers for benchmarking. Nueva employers can choose from different possibilities for benchmarking.
For Example: 100% of the evaluated residential offers in Vienna say that they provide individual contracts concerning support and care for all their residents. 46% of users questioned in an evaluation cycle (2008, n = 439) say in the interview that the staff talk over these contracts from time to time. 45% could not remember any talk of contracts.
Information for users
Condensed results and single quality criteria that are especially important from a user-perspective, are being prepared in an easily-comprehensible form. Providers who want to inform potential users about their quality profile can publish their results at www.nueva-online.info. They thereby offer relevant information for their target group and allow comparison – an essential requirement for responsible and informed users.
Data for quality controlling and social planning
Countries and administrations which decide to apply Nueva as an extensive means of information and quality management offer additionally benefits for users. Together with service providers and user representatives they can define target state profiles for the different services provided, using the Nueva questionnaire criteria, and they receive important information for the planning of future offers and services.
An example of this is the effect of infrastructure on the perception of the quality dimension “self-determination” of the residents. A survey that has been carried out in Styria (with around 850 users involved), shows that if given immediate accessibility to public transport (less than 30 minutes by foot), the value of experienced self-determination obtained is up to 15% higher than the average value.