COPENHAGEN DISABILITY CENTER INCREASED QUALITY AND FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT THE CHALLENGE In 2010, the home advisers from eight units in the social services department in the City of Copenhagen were merged into unit in the new Copenhagen Disability Centre. Management was consequently facing a major challenge in standardising the initiatives to be offered to the centre’s target group of citizens. As the new organisation consisted of employees from units which had previously had their own approach to the work, the organisation was presented with many different opinions on which services should be offered and how they should be carried out. The consequence was that citizens with identical needs were not necessarily offered the same service. The heterogeneity also made it impossible for the home advisers to share knowledge and experiences. The management of Copenhagen Disability Centre had an overall aim to realise the benefits which can be gained by standardising the initiatives through process optimisation and effect management. However, there was also another and highly specific motive. By standardising the particular type of service described in the Danish Social Services Act section 85, the Copenhagen Disability Centre would be able to select the least disruptive and most costefficient service. Alternative services are significantly more disruptive in the citizens’ lives and also significantly more expensive. THE SOLUTION In cooperation with both management and employees, Valcon helped the centre optimise and align the entire process from when a citizen is granted a service to when the service has been carried out. Waste has been eliminated in all aspects of the process, and the home advisers’ services have all been described. Whereas the services used to be individual, they now follow clearly defined guidelines with the consequence that Copenhagen Disability Centre is now able to find the solution providing the most value to the citizen and most value for money. ABOUT HANDICAPCENTER KØBENHAVN Copenhagen Disability Centre is one of four public service centres in the social services department in the City of Copenhagen. Each public service centre handles tasks within their specific target group specialisation (children, adults, addicts and citizens with disabilities). Copenhagen Disability Centre provides service in accordance with the Danish Social Services Act, the law on active social policy and the Danish Pensions Act for citizens between 0 and 65/67 years with significant permanent physical and/or mental impairment of function, or who suffer from chronical or long-term illness. The centre cooperates with among others Social Centre Copenhagen, other administrations in the city, clinics, centres, institutions and hospitals. TESTIMONIAL “The project has provided with an entirely new transparency in both needs and services, which has enabled us to better match services to needs and work systematically on improving the quality of our service to our citizens.” Jimmy Streit, head of government agency and head of Copenhagen Disability Centre.
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