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HELSEVEL-V-Gode og effektive helse-, omsorgs- og velferdstjenester

FRONT LINE INNOVATIONS IN THE WELFARE SERVICES

Alternative title: INNOWEL

Awarded: NOK 10.6 mill.

INNOWEL is a research project that explores different aspects of service innovation in NAV with a point of departure in the following questions: - What is service innovation and how does it unfold at an organizational Level in NAV? - How do the organization, management and the task/work organization influence service innovation in NAV's front line? - How do the Channel Strategy and digitalization influende the organization and the Professionals in NAV? - What reasons are given in the organization for the choices of particular approaches to service innovation and methods(SE, IPS, LEAN etc.) and how do the choices impact on the organization? - What is the knowledge basis for the choices? Empirically, the data collection and fieldwork in INNOWEL has been taking place at three, large NAV-offices. All three case-offices are in processes where they experiment with new concepts of organization and/or service provision. We have also done fieldwork at three Danish Jobcenters in cooperation with INNOWELs Danish project partner at Aalborg University. Throughout the project period we have carried out a number of Learning platforms both at office- and management level at the case-offices involved in INNOWEL. Furthermore, we have presented a range of scientific papers at international Conferences like PROS, EGOS and PUBSIC, and produced articles both for academic, international, peer-reviewed journals and for professional journals read by among others case workers employed in NAV (velferd.no, and Memu).

Vi har bidratt vesentlig til en forståelse av digitalisering i offentlig sektor generelt og i NAV spesielt og til en økt forståelse av hva som kreves av ansatte i førstelinjen som skal implementere evidensbasert standardisering og individualisert tjenesteutvikling. Vi har også gjennomført læringsplattformer som vil kunne videreføres som en svært god metode for økt læring både ved NAV-kontorene spesielt og mellom praktikere og forskere generelt.

Despite of numerous political reforms to increase labour market participation for vulnerable groups in society, the success has been limited. With a multidisciplinary, multi-methodological and collaborative approach, this project will address this challenge by developing new evidence-based practices. The projects research question: How is employment services delivered to vulnerable users in NAV-offices, and what is the role of and implications for the user in this process? How can this evidence be used to further develop models for service delivery and user participation in order to promote labour market participation whenever possible? The project will provide research based knowledge and innovation of better welfare services, to create welfare organizations better able to optimize limited resources, as well as meet the increasingly complex needs of our welfare society. The goal is to create more effective services in terms of administrative costs and long-term employment for users. The project has its point of departure in 5 hypotheses: 1) Combining a policy and an institutional perspective holds a potential for developing knowledge that can improve the results of employment services. 2) More integrated services can improve the effectiveness of employment services 3) Institutional interaction between professionals and users is crucial. The qualifications of front-line workers are therefore important to deliver good outcomes. 4) The role of the user and user participation is essential to achieve the goals of active welfare policies and employment services. 5) A precondition for higher labour market participation is to engage employers in services by matching demands for labour and employer expectations. The project will be carried out in close cooperation with NAV offices to ensure new innovative solutions that can be integrated in the implementation of services afterwards.

Funding scheme:

HELSEVEL-V-Gode og effektive helse-, omsorgs- og velferdstjenester