Agency Planning

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Agency Planning

• Operational and Strategic Plans

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Who decides on the direction of an agency?
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Internal to the Agency

• Individuals and factions within the agency who
  can mobilize external groups with power and
  money.
• Usually these include
• Members of the Board Of Directors
• Chief Administrators
• On occasion,a staff member
• who possesses a particular skill needed by the
  agency
• who has access to external power sources.

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External to the Agency

• Individuals or groups that provide resources to
  the agency. Who would this be?
• Individuals or groups that regulate the
  technology of the particular agency. Who would
  this be?

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The final goals are a negotiated blend of the
most powerful internal and external interest
groups involved with the agency. These groups
constantly change and thus the goals of the
agency are in flux.
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Who is left out of this picture?
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The client the consumer.

• Why?

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• They hold limited power or resources.
• They are not politically organized.
• Why?

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The Way Planning Should Be Done.

• The agency needs to complete a needs assessment.
• Social Indicators-published and unpublished needs
  assessments based upon population, agency, census
  reports, government research, and United Way
  assessments
• Interviewing-interview administrators of agencies
  in the community to ascertain their beliefs
  concerning the needs of the community and the
  best way to fill those needs.

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Given what weve said about client empowerment,
should interviews with administrators be the only
way we gather information for needs assessment?
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• Needs Assessment Instruments-using surveys or
  interview guides, solicit feedback through
  telephone interviews, focus groups, or individual
  interviews.
• Open Public Forums and Meetings-hold public forms
  and meetings on community needs inviting
  political leaders, religious leaders, community
  leaders, and recipients of public service.

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• Goals and objectives for the agency need to be
  formulated and decided upon with input from all
  the players involved with the agency including
  administrators, workers and consumers. They need
  to be specific, time-limited, and measurable.
• Goals-a proposed change in an organization that
  will alleviate a long-term need in the
  community.Goals are long-range benefits that the
  agency is seeking. Goals are usually the ideal
  and you may not be able to achieve it completely.
  For example
• To increase the ability of persons with
  disabilities to live outside of institutions in
  Fresno County.
• Objective-the specific accomplishment which will
  result in the reaching of a goal.
• To provide transportation to 20 people with
  disabilities per week.

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Two Kinds of Objectives

• Outcome or Task Objectives (impact, operational,
  and product)-objectives which relate to program
  activities to be performed and the numbers and
  types of services to be delivered.
• What specific services will be provided?
• How many people will be receiving these services?
• How long will they be receiving these services?
• What product will be produced? How with people,
  organizations, or communities be changed?

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An example of an outcome objective

• Thirty middle school students will receive
  three hours of counseling per week for 20 weeks.

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Another example of a outcome objective

• At the conclusion of a five-week course on skill
  development in activities for daily living, 85
  of the participants will demonstrate a pre/post
  gain of at least 30 using the Activities for
  Daily Living Rating Scale. Areas tested will
  include transportation, food shopping and meal
  preparation.

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Another type of objective is a service or process
objective

• You need process objectives in order to produce
  outcomes or carry out outcome-related objectives.
• They specify how tasks will be accomplished.
• Process objectives sometimes contain the words
  through or by. For example
• Recruiting new volunteers by distributing flyers
  door to door.

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Agencies change in three ways

• Goal Succession-the original goals of the agency
  are accomplished and the agency moves on the new
  goals.
• Goal Adaptation-original goals are modified in
  relationship to changes in the community but no
  new goals are adopted.
• Goal Displacement-an agency abandons original
  goals and moves in the direction of resources.

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The Importance of Effective Planning

• Clear goal and objective formation counters
  criticism of agencies that they dont know what
  theyre doing.
• Well conducted needs assessments assures quality
  services for consumers and strong arguments for
  agency programs.
• Clear goals and objectives well conducted needs
  assessments respond to conservative needs around
  accountability.

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An operational plan

• Identifies actions needed to operate a program.
• Is described in a variety of documents including
  grant proposals, government and local agency
  policy manuals, eligibility criteria,
  organizational charts, and lists of procedures.

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Two main types of plans

• Operational plans.
• Strategic plans.

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Operational plans should be based on the
problem-solving model (problem identification,
assessment, goal setting, intervention/implementat
ion, and evaluation.) Its everything you need to
do to plan a program
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Inputs for Program Operation

• Facilities
• Supplies
• Staff and/or volunteers
• Clients
• Eligibility criteria
• Policies and procedures (rules)
• Intake and referral processes

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A strategic plan

• Is used for long-range planning.
• Usually contains information about how an
  organization wishes to operate over a period of
  time (usually about 5 years).
• Most strategic plans start with a mission
  statement that includes values that the
  organization wants to achieve
• Is developed with input from staff, clients, and
  other key informants/constituents.
• It also requires that the organization figure out
  how the suprasystem will be different in 5 years
  and how the organization should respond to these
  changes.
• Allows the organization to find the resources it
  needs to achieve what is written in the 5 year
  plan. The plan is often adopted in small stages
  over the 5 year period.

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Goals and objectives should be based on a theory
of action.

• Theories or explanations of why things happen
  should guide our actions as social workers.
• Theories connect cause and effect.
• Most theories are testable (can be evaluated to
  see if they are right)
• In program development and planning, they should
  allow us to connect our inputs and interventions
  with outputs. What should happen as a result of
  the program.

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Sources of theories for program development can
include

• Theoretical and research articles in professional
  journals and books.
• Practice experience and knowledge
• Best practice literature that can be found on the
  web and in reports issued by social service
  agencies, advocacy groups, and government
  agencies.

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Goals and objectives should incorporate the
assumptions outlined in our theory of action

• The goal is the outcome (long range change that
  we want to achieve for clients, the organization,
  or the community)
• Outputs are the things we produce when we provide
  the service (immediate or intermediate changes in
  people/organizations/communities)
• Objectives are the small steps needed to research
  the goal, but also contain information about the
  output.

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Lists of goals and objectives should also contain
information about how we will evaluate what we
have done.

• Measurable objectives allow us to simply assess
  whether weve achieved these things (for example,
  giving 50 bags of food to hungry people)
• We can assess if our action has produced other
  results using additional research methods (for
  example, measuring improvements in self-esteem
  using Hudsons self-esteem scale).

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In addition to goal attainment and standardized
scales, other ways to evaluate achievement
include

• Interviews with program participants.
• Surveys
• Focus groups
• Experimental and quasi-experimental design.
• Case record analysis (Who was served what was
  the outcome?)

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Evaluations can measure both outcome and process
(how the service was delivered/why was it
effective/not effective)

• Process evaluations or implementation analysis
  allow us to assess whether there were problems in
  delivery and how to improve things.
• Relies both on organization records and the
  perceptions of people in and outside the program.
• Allows us to determine what happens within the
  black box of the program.

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Goals and objectives can also incorporate
assessments of quality and cultural competency.

• Quality refers to whether the product or
  service produced meets certain criteria. For
  example, is a home-delivered meal received while
  its hot and in a timely manner. Were social
  workers polite? Did they provide the client with
  the information he or she needed?

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Cultural competency also is related to the way
the service was offered

• Cross (1998) defines a system of culturally
  competent services as the expansion of knowledge
  and the adaptation of services to meet culturally
  unique needs.
• Culturally incompetent services are not language
  appropriate or make people feel inferior if they
  are not members of the dominant culture.

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How would you describe culturally competent
services?
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Why are many services not culturally competent?