What matters while assessing quality of social services? Stakeholders' perspective in Czechia

Abstract

Quality of public services including social services is an issue frequentlydiscussed by policy makers, service providers, and by those who representservice users. The aim of this study was to explore how stakeholdersperceive quality of social services, with a particular focus on (1) what didparticipants rate as important; (2) what is the relative importance of eachdomain and how does that differ across stakeholder groups and (3) doesimportance vary by participant characteristics. A specially designedquestionnaire was completed by 217 service providers, by 249 publicadministration representatives and 205 service users of residential careand in-home support. The subjective quality of life of service users wasrated as the most important indicator of service quality by all threestakeholder groups. Particularly important were items that related to thenature of the relationships and interactions between staffand serviceusers. There were some differences between stakeholder groups and alsoby respondent characteristics–public administration respondents, olderservice users and providers of residential care were more likely to ratehealth care as more important than other respondents. Implications forhow quality is measured are discussed