WP4 turns to the actual responsiveness of social services to citizen input. It is co-led by a citizen association (Retis) and a municipal social service department (Yvelines) to be multi-perspective and support access to interview partners. Interview and document analysis will reveal how information and ideas from citizens are transmitted and reshaped when they move through an organisation.
Research teams will talk to front line workers who receive input from citizens, then move up to managerial circles who can decide on changes and back down to ask how these changes are implemented on the ground.
Tracing processes of transformation – or alternatively a lack of change – will identify blocks and facilitators of responsiveness in individual and organizational practice. This data will inform a Europe-wide questionnaire for social services (WP Task 4.5) to be distributed by IFSW Europe to gain wider data about factors shaping responsiveness and innovative solutions.
Organisational management will provide input on institutional processes and factors shaping reactions to citizen input, social work gives attention to interventions and the needs of users of services whilst social policy contributes understanding of how the broader social sector is structured, financed and functions.
As well as creating a clear analytical model of drivers and constraints of responsiveness, this WP will develop a tool for social services to self-assess levels and forms responsiveness in their organisations.