Everyday Life and the Local Government Reform

Bonfils, Inge Storgaard; Nichlas Permin Berger, Micalla Kingo Ingwersen og Anja Bihl-Nielsen, February 2009 

Summary 

The local government reform and the tasks consequently laid upon local authorities are bringing about major changes in the field of disability services. New market mechanisms have been introduced for the buying and selling of services, with the result that the operation of specialised offerings for the disabled is in a period of change.

But how do the changes affect those who need the specialised offerings? Is it becoming easier or more difficult for them to live a life with equal opportunities, and can local authorities achieve the objective of creating a coherent, coordinated system of provision for the disabled?

In our study of the effects of the reform on disability services, we are following a number of users as well as managers and employees delivering specialised offerings, over the period 2006–2010. Each year a new group of about ten different offerings are chosen for study. The working paper “Everyday Life and the Local Government Reform” is the third in the series produced by the project, and the analysis, based on interviews with the above groups, covers 20 offerings.

The study reveals that the role of the managers has changed radically as a result of the new operating framework for the specialised offerings. The managers found they had to move attention away from their professional specialisms toward the administrative and strategic aspects of management. A number of managers had decided to employ more administrative personnel in order to have time and energy to participate in the many externally-oriented meetings and local authority activities. With the new framework, the managers were finding that they had to direct effort toward making the offerings and the qualities of those offerings visible to their own and other local authorities, and to the potential purchasers expected to buy places with them in the future.

The users of the specialised offerings had not experienced any changes worthy of note in the services they received, and the majority were satisfied. However, the experience of the managers confirmed that some local authorities have begun establishing new offerings, especially in the area of rehabilitation and counselling, and that potential users are offered something different today from what they would have been assessed for prior to the reform. The study thus indicates that the reform has had the effect that some local authorities are creating new offerings for disabled users needing specialised services and counselling. There was one offering that will have to be withdrawn in 2009 because of the fall in number of users referred for it.

The study also indicates that the users are affected by the impression that the managers and employees are under pressure owing to the large number of meetings, new requirements for documentation and larger amount of administrative tasks. The users are thus indirectly affected by changes to the managers’ and employees’ working conditions.

The users had differing experiences of case processing by their local authority. While some were satisfied, others had found that their case officers lacked knowledge of their case, and a number reported many changes of case officer and long waiting times before their case was processed. A few users felt that the services they received from the local authority were more coherent and coordinated. The study thus indicates that the extent to which the local government reform has caused services, offerings and standards of administrative service to change with effects on users’ everyday life has been small.

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