Workshop 1.6 - Deutscher Verein für öffentliche und private Fürsorge

Despite the tremendous diversity in the situations of the 45 Council of Europe member states, with big differences too in the role and
expectations of social services, all our member states are facing similar challenges such as the financing of social services, the proper
balance between state provision and private provision or the monitoring of quality and efficiency among a growing range of providers.
Recently one of the aspects that has received increased attention is the need for social services to be more responsive to the nature of
demand. So it is not surprising that one of the key current developments in the provision of social has been to make them more clientorientated
and to leave behind the ethos of a remote and intimidating bureaucracy. It has been generally accepted that social welfare
services have to be increasingly orientated towards the individual and his or her needs and aspirations. This in turn makes it necessary
to involve users in the planning, delivery and evaluation of different kinds of social services.
With these considerations in mind, the European Committee for Social Cohesion decided to launch a new project on user participation
in social services. As a starting point, a basic mapping of social services in Europe has been carried out in order to help clarify the
differences between different clusters of States and to identify current problems. We paid particular attention to the situation of social
services in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, about which less research has been done. This valuable survey was made by
Professor Brian Munday from the University of Kent, England, who will present his report this morning. His report will be used as a
basic document for the work of our Group of Specialists on User Involvement in Social Services which is holding its first meeting during
this Congress. On the basis of their extensive shared experience, the members of the Group plan to draw up guidelines on the rights of
users and their involvement in the planning and delivery of social services. Some of the members of the Group are going to present
their experience of developing user involvement in social services in their countries during this morning session. In the afternoon, a
couple of members of the Group will present their experience of the use of New Information Technology in the field of User Involvement
in Social Services. We hope that these snapshots from countries as different Iceland and Romania will open our eyes to what is
going on across the European continent and so add a truly international dimension to your proceedings.
I now wish to express my sincere gratitude to the Frankfurt Observatory for the Development of Social Services in Europe, thanks
to whose efforts this seminar has been made possible. The cooperation between the Observatory and the Council of Europe, which
started at the Berlin Conference, is thus continuing and I am sure that in the future we will also find other opportunities for working
together.
Finally, I also wish to express the gratitude of the Council of Europe to the German Association for Public and Private Welfare, organisers
of the Deutsche Fürsorgetag, for giving us this wonderful opportunity to present a European viewpoint to such a large and representative
national audience.
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