Assessing the Effectiveness of Social Technology in Terms of Benefits and Costs

Abstract

This article is devoted to one of the evaluative aspects of the effectiveness of social technologies, the question of balancing costs and benefits when implementing a social intervention in a problem family with children. In evaluation practice, the question of the costs of implementing such programs is rarely raised. The study is based on the client-­oriented concept of Schreiner’s model, which works with a number of indicators (total cost of the service, cost of the service to the client, benefit to the client, weight of net benefit to the client, number of clients, number of services provided, time of service provision). With some modifications of the model (the addition of an indicator related to the assessment of the impact of the quality of management on the efficiency of the service, as well as the empirical implementation of the model in a qualitative design), results have been obtained based on key interviews with staff of family centers using social technology to work with cases. It is shown that the cost of a case does not only consist of the salaries of the professionals involved, but also of charitable funds, NGO grants, government payments, private money and even the personal money of the staff. When services are provided free of charge for clients, there is sometimes a small personal investment in terms of costs (transport, documents, certificates), but there are also intangible costs (feelings of shame, loss of 'face,' etc.). The benefits for the client are calculable: the professional assistance of the whole team in partnership interaction replenishes skills and resources, provides benefits, advice, ways of solving problems, sometimes provides direct assistance, improves the emotional background of the family, promotes the growth of trust, self-esteem and self-efficacy. A significant gap was found between the normative standard regulating the number of children from problem families under care (30 children) and the empirical qualitative number of children from such families served (5–6 families -sic! with children). The managerial component of the assessment shows the need to separate the service for identifying new cases from the functioning of the specialists as a separate one, and also, in general, the reaction of the specialists to the managerial policy is ambivalent, its rationality is not always accepted.