This thesis develops our understanding of the roles and processes underlying the co-production of public services. The co-production concept encapsulates the joint contribution made by service users and service providers to the delivery of services, acknowledging the expertise, inputs and role of service users. There has been an expanding stream of literature within the public management field focusing on co-production, recently enhanced through combinatory insights drawn from the service management literature. The thesis builds on this perspective, and addresses a current gap in understanding regarding the processes and roles that underpin the concept of co-production. In particular the research questions consider: the factors that facilitate co-production; the features of co-production that are evident within everyday service interactions; how service users and employees interact within the processes of co-production; and how these impact upon the delivery of public services at an individual level. The research for the thesis is undertaken within the context of community health and social care services for older people, at two locations in Scotland. An interpretivist, constructionist approach is taken to the inductive study which adopts a qualitative case study methodology. The research findings are drawn from semi-structured interviews with managers, older people and employees delivering services, together with observations of meetings and service interactions. Extant research has often conflated the roles of employees and public service organisations, and equal attention is rarely paid to the co-productive roles of service users and employees. The study makes a theoretical contribution by: developing the concept of active co-production; highlighting the complexities of the roles and processes underpinning co-production; revealing the different types of learning occurring within co-production; and developing a model to explicate the processes that combine the expertise of older people and employees, during the delivery of public services. On a practical level the study also highlights how more advanced and ‘active’ forms of co-production have developed, and the impact this has on the delivery of health and social care services for older people in Scotland.

Yes / In England, care homes for older people have been subject to four different regulatory bodies within the last six years (see Table 1). The government has announced further change with the creation of a new regulator of adult health and social care in 2009 (CSCI, 2007). The current regulatory body, the Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) will merge with the Healthcare Commission and the Mental Health Act Commission to create the Care Quality Commission. The Department of Health (DOH) is currently reviewing the future regulation of health and adult social care in England (DOH, 2005; DOH, 2006a) and the way that CSCI carries out the regulation and inspection of a range of social care agencies including care homes for older people. Substantial reforms of the regulatory system of regulation and inspection were embodied in the Care Standards Act (CSA) 2000 that was part of the wider Government agenda to modernize health and social care services. The Act established new regulatory bodies for care services and workers and along with the regulations and mandatory National Minimum Standards (NMS) created a framework to ensure greater consistency of quality and to better protect vulnerable children and adults (Engelman and Spencer, 2003). The impact of these changes for both inspectors and providers of care services has been significant. Regulators have had to adjust and adopt new ways of working whilst carrying out their statutory responsibilities. Care providers have had to respond to the revised changes in standards and requirements of registration. This article examines inspection as a mechanism for improving the quality of care standards. It reports on a study conducted in 2004 that sought the views of managers of care homes for older people about the NMS and the inspection process at that time. The role of inspectors will be considered in light of the findings and published literature.

The main topic of this thesis concentrates on the adolescents' leaving process from foster families in our Czech territory. The aim of the presented thesis is a deeper exploration of the leaving process preparation from foster families and circumstances connected with it. The theoretical part of this thesis is divided into three chapters. The first of them deals with the adolescence period with its developmental specifics. The second one describes foster care and its partition in the Czech legislative system. The same one also presents available Czech and foreign research. The last chapter focuses on the two topics: the leaving process of adolescents from foster care from a legislative point of view and how it names participants who contribute to this leaving process. At last, it shows some useful Czech social care services for adults. The practical part of the thesis presents a realised qualitative study with three groups who contributed on foster care in the Czech area. These involved groups were adolescents (16+), their foster mothers who share the same household and social workers. This research tried to bring answers for the questions about the adolescents' leaving process from long-term foster care and other similar topics which deal with it. The results of the research were deeply analysed...

Magistro baigiamajame darbe išanalizuota ir įvertinta „Šv. Juozapo globos namų“ vidaus ir išorės aplinkos veiksnių kompleksinė įtaka, identifikuotos probleminės sritys ir tuo remiantis sudaromos prielaidos organizacijos strategijos formavimui bei strateginio plano rengimui. Pirmoje darbo dalyje teoriniu aspektu apibrėžiamos socialinės globos paslaugos, strateginio planavimo teoriniai aspektai ir socialinių globos paslaugų kokybės vertinimo ypatumai apžvelgiant paslaugų kokybės vertinimo modelius bei užsienio valstybių empirinius tyrimus. Antroje dalyje, remiantis tam tikrais metodais (Porter 5 jėgos, PEST, 7 - S, SSGG), atliekama „Šv. Juozapo globos namų“ strateginė analizė. Trečioje darbo dalyje pateikiama „Šv. Juozapo globos namų“ socialinės globos paslaugų kokybės empirinio tyrimo metodika bei organizavimas ir rezultatų analizė. Tyrimo tikslas - palyginti socialines paslaugas į namus gaunančių asmenų bei jų artimųjų ir globos įstaigoje gyvenančių asmenų bei jų artimųjų požiūrį į jiems teikiamų paslaugų kokybę bei identifikuoti kokybės kriterijus, darančius didžiausią įtaką bendram kokybės įvertinimui. Atsižvelgiant į strateginės analizės rezultatus pateikiami siūlymai organizacijos veiklos tobulinimui. / This Master's thesis analyzes and evaluates St. Joseph's Care Home’s internal and external environmental factors’ complex influence, identifies problematic areas and leads to the preconditions for organization's strategy formulation and preparation of strategic plan. The first part of the thesis defines the theoretical terms of social care services, strategic planning in theory and the peculiarities of social care services quality assessment by reviewing service quality evaluation models and empirical studies from foreign countries. The strategic analysis of St. Joseph's Care Home is performed in the second part of this thesis basing on certain techniques (Porter's five forces, PEST, 7 – S, SWOT). The third part of the thesis provides the methodology of St. Joseph's Care Home empirical research on social care service quality, organization and analysis of the results. The aimof the research is to compare the attitudes on services quality of individuals and their family members, who receive social services athomeand the ones living in carehome; also to identify the quality criteria that havethe greatestimpact on the general qualityassessment. Based on the results of strategic analysis the suggestions on how to improve organization’s performance are provided.

Social care services in a certain region are highly affected by the demographic development. To evaluate the demand for social care services, the population, age structure, life expectancy, natality and mortality should be considered. There are 1691 inhabitants living in Vlachovo Březí as at 31 December 2008. Most social care services for the town residents are provided by other municipalities of the Prachatice district. The thesis was aimed at document analysis and a subsequent statistical procedure which, together with future demographic development, formed a basis for the prognosis of the demand for social care services in Vlachovo Březí at the age groups 0-7, 15-18 and 65+ years during the 2010-2020 period. The other goal was to find out the use of social care allowances by beneficiaries and financial costs of the allowances for 65+ age group in Vlachovo Březí. Based on the prognosis for single age groups and the evaluation of the current social services, the findings are as follows: As an early years child care service (0-7 years) does not exist in the district, a necessity of setting up such a facility, which will serve this age group in the district centre (Prachatice), can be expected. Social care services for the age group between 15-18 years are currently insufficient so to build a low-treshold facility should become a priority. The age group 65+ is supposed to grow. A senior home has not been established in Vlachovo Březí and the surroundings. There is a possible way in setting up a nursing home with a simultaneous enhancement of community care services. In addition, the research helped us discover the fact that expenses on the social care allowances are not spent effectively and financial costs of them will increase 1.5 times in the next 10 years. The future revaluation of a current system of the allowance payment or a dependancy rate of the beneficiaries seems to be necessary. There are 1184 beneficiaries in the Prachatice municipality with extended competence as at 31 December 2009. This thesis can serve as a draft plan of social care services in the region. It can also be helpful in further research into this topic and the dissemination of the research findings.

The thesis deals with the problem of aging of the population in the lower territorial unit in the municipality with extended competence in Příbram. The current situation of the population is dealt with, but the future population status is projected from 2015 to 2030. For their analysis are used demographic and economic indicators, results of own projection as well as a description of social care services provided in this area. The aging of the population is related to several key themes, mainly with the provision of adequate care for the elderly, and in the work it is also addressed in terms of financing services and the increasing burden of the economically active population. The demographic data on the local population is compared with the situation in the Czech Republic. The benefit of the work is primarily to determine the need for social care services for the elderly in the future, to identify possible shortcomings in their provision, capacity, quality and financing. The aim of the thesis is also to find possible solutions that are most effective and help to ensure safe and peaceful aging for all seniors in SO ORP Příbram. The result of the work is to map the current situation and to create a future estimation that will provide the necessary documents for better planning of social services for the elderly.

This thesis is focused on problems of consequences of ageing population and the needs of social care services in terms of bed capacity in retirements homes and nursing homes. The aim of the thesis is to set a projection of bed capacity in these facilities at the level of individual regions and the whole Czech Republic by 2051. The dissertation presents three methods of calculating the future bed capacity which shows that the bed capacity will need to be significantly increased in future. The results found show that there are regional differences in the demographic structure within the Czech Republic at regional level which leads to a different intensity of demand for bed capacity.

Title: The Principles of Funding of the Public and Voluntary Formalised Solidarity in the Social Care Services in the Czech Republic Abstract: The social care services are a specific system within the social protection system. Opposed to the public benefit systems they allow the coexistence of public and voluntary solidarity. There are many welfare state models and systems of cooperation of the public and NGOs in Europe. These models offer differently formed relationships of their entities. This thesis raises the question of finding a more convenient organisation of the whole system of the social care services in the Czech Republic where the problem is currently being discussed The objective of the thesis is to find possibilities of public and voluntary solidarity in the social care services settings and to suggest ways for their cooperation. The research is mainly based on qualitative methods. Firstly, the causal links of statistical nature from the fields of demography, social relations and economics are introduced. In the next step a combination of methods of in depth interviews and expert discussions is used. They focus on public solidarity and regulation in the system. The last research step brings 3 case studies with examples of the best practice in financing of NGOs in the social care services...

The spiritual needs of pensioners in the residential home in Velká Bíteš Abstract: This theses focuses on spiritual needs of senior citizens living in the residential home for pensioners in Velká Bíteš. The theoretical part concentrates on the human needs, ageing and old age, healh and social services. It deals with spirituality, pastoral care, meaning of life and some religions. The practical part examinates the spiritual needs of pensioners in Velká Bíteš and tries to find out if these are sufficiently met. Further it maps the relation between the elderly to the faith, especially to some religious activities, and their cooperation with pastoral workers. The theses provides specific recommendations based on the results of the survay. The conclusion lists recommendations, which could be put into the practice and increase the quality of the spiritual care for senior citizens in residential facilities. Key words: HUMAN NEEDS, MEETING OF NEEDS, NEEDS BY MASLOW, SPIRITUAL NEEDS, AGEING OF PEOPLE, CHANGES IN OLD AGE, HEALTH CARE (SERVICES), SOCIAL CARE (SERVICES), RESIDENTIAL HOME, SPIRITUALITY, PASTORAL CARE, PASTORAL WORKER, DEATH, DYING, MEANING OF LIFE, V. E. FRANKL, SOLITUDE, RELIGION

This graduation thesis is concerned with the topic of quality standards in social care and the formation process of writen quality standards in some organizations in the civic sector, which offer social services. The theoretical section of this thesis concerns new legal arrangement of social services, their principles and international connections; as well as standards of quality of themselves and of the different tools which are related to them, for example inspection of the quality in social services, registration of providers and education of emploees in social care services. The empirical section deals with evaluation of the research focused on the process of formatting written quality standards in organizations which were under investigation and on the presentation of obtained data which were gained, especially by observation and questionnaire inquiry in organizations.