Innovation is an oft-heard buzzword in both public and private sectors concerned with the organisation and delivery of services to vulnerable individuals. This thoughtful volume explores what innovation might actually involve in the context of contemporary human services. Highlighting both the importance and utility of innovation but also promoting a more reflective approach, the book distinguishes between innovation and improvement and discusses the relevant differences between private sector, public sector and non-profit organisations. It looks at how innovation is often as much a result of the power relations between the involved actors, and the structural context, as a result of popularly identified ‘drivers’ and ‘barriers’. Including numerous case studies, the book illustrates and explains innovations in welfare services at different levels, looking at the macro level (innovations in social policy), the meso level (innovation at organisational level) and the micro-level (user-driven innovations). Arguing the innovation is nothing new in human services, the authors emphasise the importance of innovation being developed and supported by those working within those organisations. New and creative solutions to problems encountered in everyday work by front-line workers can be taken up to improve services provided and make a difference for the users, rather than change being externally imposed upon them by those without insider knowledge. Innovation in Social Welfare and Human Services is an important read for researchers and practitioners interested in the administration, leadership and organisation of social services.

Innovation is an oft-heard buzzword in both public and private sectors concerned with the organisation and delivery of services to vulnerable individuals. This thoughtful volume explores what innovation might actually involve in the context of contemporary human services. Highlighting both the importance and utility of innovation but also promoting a more reflective approach, the book distinguishes between innovation and improvement and discusses the relevant differences between private sector, public sector and non-profit organisations. It looks at how innovation is often as much a result of the power relations between the involved actors, and the structural context, as a result of popularly identified 'drivers' and 'barriers'. Including numerous case studies, the book illustrates and explains innovations in welfare services at different levels, looking at the macro level (innovations in social policy), the meso level (innovation at organisational level) and the micro-level (user-driven innovations). Arguing the innovation is nothing new in human services, the authors emphasise the importance of innovation being developed and supported by those working within those organisations. New and creative solutions to problems encountered in everyday work by front-line workers can be taken up to improve services provided and make a difference for the users, rather than change being externally imposed upon them by those without insider knowledge. Innovation in Social Welfare and Human Services is an important read for researchers and practitioners interested in the administration, leadership and organisation of social services.

This second edition of Innovation and Change in the Human Services considerably updates and expands the previous volume. An overview of the development of human services over the course of the twentieth century culminates in an evolutionary model which illustrates how human services generally progress from an initial “individual-problem” stage to one of considerable governmental involvement and media attention. Eight specific human services are discussed in detail: hospices for those with life-limiting illness; continuing care retirement communities; services for those with HIV/AIDS; domestic assault services; day care for children; services for the homeless; lifelong occupational counseling; and services for Alzheimer’s patients. A full chapter is devoted to some of the major events of the last decade of the twentieth century: the Clinton Health Care Plan; the Welfare Reforms of 1996; and the Oregon Death with Dignity Act. The chapter on human services education compares degree programs in human services and social work, and suggests a functional approach which would allow the human services worker to move easily from one setting to another, due to having mastered a common core curriculum with “universal” applicability. The last chapter deals with human services issues of considerable importance at the start of the twenty-first century, including: the corporatization of human services; the privatization of human services; Social Security reform; and healthcare reform. This material is expected to be of use not only to educators and students in the human services, but also to policy analysts and health services administrators/practitioners who face everyday the challenge of refining/adapting the programs they administer, study and support

This new edition looks at the many recent changes in the arena of Human Sevices Organizations.

This book provides panoramic overviews of critical human service organizational and management practice challenges, as well as new and needed research frontiers. The Future of Human Service Organizational & Management Research: Navigating Complex Frontiers invites researchers, educators, and practitioners to explore: the intersection of the complex environment of public and private human service organizations; and the rise and uncertain effects of new developments in social work, public policy and public management, and other helping professions. The contributors identify how future generations of macro practitioners and scholar-researchers can: Improve service delivery and program effectiveness; Implement evidence-based practices and evidence-informed practices; Promote leadership and social innovation; Build linkages across micro, meso, and macro levels of practice; Train organizational leaders and educate practitioners; and Advocate for more socially just visions of social welfare and society. This edited collection argues that human service organizational and management practice and research are needed to support new discoveries in social welfare, social work, and related professions. This book was originally published as a special issue of the journal, Human Service Organizations: Management, Leadership & Governance.

In recent years, social innovation has experienced a steep career. Numerous national governments and large organisations like the OECD, the European Commission and UNESCO have adopted the term. Social innovation basically means that people adopt new social practices in order to meet social needs in a different or more effective way. Prominent examples of the past are the Red Cross and the social welfare state or, at present, the internet 2.0 transforming our communication and cooperation schemes, requiring new management concepts, even empowering social revolutions. The traditional concept of innovation as successful new technological products needs fundamental rethinking in a society marked by knowledge and services, leading to a new and enriched paradigm of innovation. There is multiple evidence that social innovation will become of growing importance not only concerning social integration, equal opportunities and dealing with the greenhouse effects but also with regard to preserving and expanding the innovative capacity of companies and societies. While political authorities stress the social facets of social innovation, this book also encompasses its societal and systemic dimensions, collecting the scientific expertise of renowned experts and scholars from all over the world. Based on the contributions of the first world-wide science convention on social innovation from September 2011 in Vienna, the book provides an overview of scientific approaches to this still relatively new field. Forewords by Agnès HUBERT (Member of the Bureau of European Policy Advisers (BEPA) of the European Commission) and Antonella Noya (Senior Policy Analyst at OECD, manager of the OECD LEED Forum on Social Innovations)

This important book is the first to make an explicit link between management practices and service outcomes in social welfare agencies. Managing for Service Effectiveness in Social Welfare Organizations is based on the premise that the primary responsibility and distinctive competency of social welfare management is delivering high quality, effective services to clients. Collectively, the book’s esteemed contributors have clearly presented a model of administration founded on concepts and strategies for connecting managerial action with service effectiveness. The sections of the book correspond to the core functions and tasks in an effective approach to management, including measuring performance, program and organizational design, managing people, managing information, managing environmental relations, and the ethics of managing for effectiveness.

Integrating Social Care into the Delivery of Health Care: Moving Upstream to Improve the Nation's Health was released in September 2019, before the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic in March 2020. Improving social conditions remains critical to improving health outcomes, and integrating social care into health care delivery is more relevant than ever in the context of the pandemic and increased strains placed on the U.S. health care system. The report and its related products ultimately aim to help improve health and health equity, during COVID-19 and beyond. The consistent and compelling evidence on how social determinants shape health has led to a growing recognition throughout the health care sector that improving health and health equity is likely to depend â€" at least in part â€" on mitigating adverse social determinants. This recognition has been bolstered by a shift in the health care sector towards value-based payment, which incentivizes improved health outcomes for persons and populations rather than service delivery alone. The combined result of these changes has been a growing emphasis on health care systems addressing patients' social risk factors and social needs with the aim of improving health outcomes. This may involve health care systems linking individual patients with government and community social services, but important questions need to be answered about when and how health care systems should integrate social care into their practices and what kinds of infrastructure are required to facilitate such activities. Integrating Social Care into the Delivery of Health Care: Moving Upstream to Improve the Nation's Health examines the potential for integrating services addressing social needs and the social determinants of health into the delivery of health care to achieve better health outcomes. This report assesses approaches to social care integration currently being taken by health care providers and systems, and new or emerging approaches and opportunities; current roles in such integration by different disciplines and organizations, and new or emerging roles and types of providers; and current and emerging efforts to design health care systems to improve the nation's health and reduce health inequities.

Pandora's Dilemma presents theories of social welfare, addressing stakeholders, the policy process, electoral politics, child welfare, the precariat, online education, the devolution of the welfare state, and the evolution of the investment state.