Evaluating the quality of society and public services

A person’s quality of life is not only shaped by individual choices and behaviour: the surrounding environment and the public services on offer have a big influence on how people perceive the society they live in and on their evaluation of their own quality of life. Institutions influence the quality of society through collective actions that individuals cannot undertake themselves: for example maintaining schools, hospitals and roads. Public policies are also responsible for ensuring that water and air are not polluted, and for reducing tensions between different social groups. If public policies are effective and these services are provided to a high standard, the quality of society will improve, with a positive impact on the overall quality of life of citizens. This is why European policymakers and citizens share a common concern regarding the quality of society and public services: the actions of policymakers should contribute to improving the quality of citizens’ lives. To evaluate whether this is in fact happening, one needs to look beyond objective measures of material wealth such as gross domestic product (GDP) and find out how citizens assess the conditions in their society. The second European Quality of Life Survey (EQLS), carried out by the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound) in 2007, asks European citizens to evaluate multiple aspects of quality of society. The result is a comprehensive picture of the diverse social realities in the 27 EU Member States, in Norway, Croatia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Turkey

Robustness of subjective welfare analysis in a poor developing country - Madagascar 2001

The authors analyze the subjective perceptions of poverty in Madagascar in 2001 and their relationship to objective poverty indicators. They base their analysis on survey responses to a series of subjective perception questions. The authors extend the existing empirical methodology for estimating subjective poverty lines on the basis of categorical consumption adequacy questions. Based on this methodology they calculate the household-specific, subjective poverty lines and compare the poverty profiles derived from different subjective welfarequestions. The results show that the aggregate poverty measures derived from consumption adequacy questions accord quite well with the poverty measures based on objective poverty lines. The subjective welfare analysis can be used in poor developing countries for evaluating socioeconomic and distributional impacts of various policy interventions.Public Health Promotion,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Health Economics&Finance,Environmental Economics&Policies,Poverty Reduction Strategies,Poverty Assessment,Poverty Lines,Environmental Economics&Policies,Achieving Shared Growth,Poverty Reduction Strategies

Perceived Social Support among Chinese American Hemodialysis Patients

Social support is linked to improved health outcomes both in Western and Asian societies and is a vital factor in a patient\u27s adjustment to end-stage renal disease and its treatment regimen. This study explored perceived social support among 46 Chinese American hemodialysis patients in San Francisco\u27s Chinatown using the Norbeck Social Support Questionnaire plus open-ended questions. Findings unexpectedly revealed low levels of perceived social support and lack of tangible support especially in elder patients. We can no longer assume that traditional family cultural values are providing adequate social support for this population

Responsiveness of Health Systems: a Barometer of the Quality of Health Services

In the health field, quality is a complex and multidimensional variable. The complexity is shown by different levels of quality, which provide a global picture of the performance of a health system: compliance with mandatory rules, compliance with professional recommendations/references, action of steady improvement aiming at resolving health problems, risk management or excellence seeking, etc. The multidimensional character is provided by various dimensions to be covered by evaluation indicators of the performance of a health system: acceptability in what points the health system meets our expectations; accessibility knowing whether we can receive the services where and when we need them; adequacy knowing whether the care meets our needs and is based on established rules; competence knowing whether knowledge and skills of health services providers are consistent with the care they provide; continuity matching services – coordination, integration, easy access; effectiveness concerning the services in operation and in what point they influence our health; efficiency achieving best results at the lowest cost; security minimizing possible risks in a health area or service. Out of these dimensions – which, from a synergetic perspective, define the overall performance of a health system – we retain for a detailed analysis only those concerning acceptability, adequacy and competence, which determine the responsiveness to the patients’ expectations. Moreover, for working out a methodology for assessing the quality of health services, it is necessary to analyse various standard procedures for assessing the performance of health services initiated and rendered by international organisations and promoted, first of all, by the World Health Organisation. Our paper also deals with actions already taken worldwide, which now are undergoing structural improvements as well as with opportunities for making market surveys (opinion polls) among the beneficiaries of a health system: the citizens.health system; health system responsiveness; health system performance; health condition; determinants of health condition

Post-Foucauldian governmentality: what does it offer critical social policy analysis?

This article considers the theoretical perspective of post-Foucauldian governmentality, especially the insights and challenges it poses for applied researchers within the critical social policy tradition. The article firstly examines the analytical strengths of this approach to understanding power and rule in contemporary society, before moving on to consider its limitations for social policy. It concludes by arguing that these insights can be retained, and some of the weaknesses overcome, by adopting a ‘realist governmentality’ approach (Stenson 2005, 2008). This advocates combining traditional discursive analysis with more ethnographic methods in order to render visible the concrete activity of governing, and unravel the messiness, complexity and unintended consequences involved in the struggles around subjectivity

The role of primary care in adult weight management: qualitative interviews with key stakeholders in weight management services

Background: Primary care has a key role to play in the prevention and management of obesity, but there remain barriers to engagement in weight management by primary care practitioners. The aim of this study was to explore the views of key stakeholders in adult weight management services on the role of primary care in adult weight management. Methods: Qualitative study involving semi-structured interviews with nine senior dietitians involved in NHS weight management from seven Scottish health boards. Transcripts were analysed using an inductive thematic approach. Results: A range of tensions were apparent within three key themes: weight management service issues, the role of primary care, and communication with primary care. For weight management services, these tensions were around funding, the management model of obesity, and how to configure access to services. For primary care, they were around what primary care should be doing, who should be doing it, and where this activity should fit within wider weight management policy. With regard to communication between weight management services and primary care, there were tensions related to the approach taken (locally adapted versus centralised), the message being communicated (weight loss versus wellbeing), and the response from practitioners (engagement versus resistance). Conclusions: Primary care can do more to support adult weight management, but this requires better engagement and communication with weight management services, to overcome the tensions highlighted in this study. This, in turn, requires more secure, sustained funding. The example of smoking cessation in the UK, where there is a network of well-resourced NHS Stop Smoking Services, accessible via different means, could be a model to follow

Review of the Supply of and Demand for Further Education in Scotland

These documents provide are an Executive Summary and Full Report of the background to, methodology for, and overall conclusions and recommendations of a review of the supply of and demand for Further Education (FE) provision in Scottish Further Education colleges in 2000. The review was commissioned by the Scottish Further Education Funding Council (SFEFC), and carried out between November 1999 and June 2000 by a team of researchers drawn from the Scottish Further Education Unit (SFEU), the Centre for Research in Lifelong Learning, Glasgow Caledonian University/University of Stirling, and the Applied Statistics Group, Napier University

Does Meaning Evolove?

A common method of improving how well understood a theory is, is by comparing it to another theory which has been better developed. Radical interpretation is a theory which attempts to explain how communication has meaning. Radical interpretation is treated as another time dependent theory and compared to the time dependent theory of biological evolution. Several similarities and differences are uncovered. Biological evolution can be gradual or punctuated. Whether radical interpretation is gradual or punctuated depends on how the question is framed: on the coarse-grained time scale it proceeds gradually, but on the fine-grained time scale it proceeds by punctuated equilibria. Biological evolution proceeds by natural selection, the counterpart to this is the increase in both correspondence and coherence. Exaption, mutations, and spandrels have counterparts metaphor, speech errors, and puns respectively. Homologous and analogs have direct counterparts in specific words. The most important differences originate from the existence of a unit of inheritance (the traditional gene) occurring in biological evolution - there is no such unit in language

Factors of Competencies on Client Project Performance in a Public Transportation Company

In terms of producing good performance during company activities, an employee must have an ability/competency to carry out the assigned tasks according to their main tasks and functions. However, in its implementation, not all companies place their employees in their suitable positions/positions that are well-fitted with their capabilities/competencies. In the project client company, there is an allegation that the lack of competencies by their company employees is the cause of delays, poor quality, and the occurrence of disputes during the project cycle which causes the poor performance of a project. This paper reports several competency factors on client employees that affect individual client project performance in PT. K. The research sample of this study are employees of PT. K. Data collection using a questionnaire, the data on the questionnaire is analyzed using factor analysis. The results of this research resulted in 8 individual competencies that affect the performance of employees of PT. K formed in 2 factors. Factor 1 is a basic competency on individual characteristics consisting of technical/theoretical knowledge, procedural knowledge, willingness to establish good relations, psychomotor skills, job specific skills, tacit knowledge, and understanding of interaction and conflict objectives. In factor 2 of the top-level competence on the development of individuals, there are critical and creative thinkin

European Quality of Life Survey 2016: Quality of Life, Quality of Public Services, and Quality of Society

Nearly 37,000 people in 33 European countries (28 EU Member States and 5 candidate countries) were interviewed in the last quarter of 2016 for the fourth wave of the European Quality of Life Survey. This overview report presents the findings for the EU Member States. It uses information from previous survey rounds, as well as other research, to look at trends in quality of life against a background of the changing social and economic profile of European societies. Ten years after the global economic crisis, it examines well-being and quality of life broadly, to include quality of society and public services. The findings indicate that differences between countries on many aspects are still prevalent – but with more nuanced narratives. Each Member State exhibits certain strengths in particular aspects of well-being, but multiple disadvantages are still more pronounced in some societies than in others; and in all countries significant social inequalities persist