Earticle

The purpose of this study is to evaluate how a user’s choice on providing organizations and provider influences user satisfaction. Moreover, it is to see if the users value importance of having a choice on two factors, and to see how having two factors affect user satisfaction. Data were based on the questionnaire disseminated to 371 service user of early intervention services for the children with ADHD provided as community designed social services in Daegu. The research findings show as follows. First, user’s choice of the provider was lower than the user’s choices on the providing organization. Also, the user considers the awareness of importance to choose the provider than to choose the providing organization. Second, the user’s choice of provider turns out to be an important factor that influences user’s satisfaction. The awareness off importance in choosing an organization and its provider influence satisfaction. Also, the user’s awareness of importance of their choice with specific providers moderates a factor that influences user satisfaction. The study findings show as follows. To increase users’ satisfaction, Retaining enough provider for user’s choice of providers, considering awareness of importance of user’s choice, and managing the qualities of service continuously increase users’ satisfaction.

This study draws the contour of current quality management framework on social services based on the current regulations. Research starts with reviewing the regulations on the registration of service providing organizations, in terms of entering process and proper conditions. Then, this study articulates the evaluation process and the major contents of quality evaluation on diverse social services. Finally the feedback process and special incentives (and/or) penalties are investigated. The outline of current quality management framework on social services suggests that the quality management on institutional, community- based, and in-home social services are fragmented. Moreover, the social services that service users have a choice are not systematically managed in terms of relating the users choice with the service quality. Therefore integrated quality control system should be established to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of social service quality management.

Humanities learning courses for the participants of the self-support programs in Korea is similar to the Clement course initiated by Earl Shorris in the US. The aim of this study is to understand the meaning and accepting process of the humanities learning among the participants of the self-supporting programs in Korea. For this aim, data were collected mainly from the intensive interviews with 13 research participants who have finished both the general and in depth humanities courses offered by Seoul Metropolitan City government. And one of the researchers participated and observed the entire courses. As a result of the study, it was analyzed that research participants' accepting processes of the course were such three-patterned. The first pattern is to join actively the course without any hesitation. Second is to accept it passively with hesitation but welcoming it soon. The third pattern is to join it not intentionally with strong resistance, but step by step overcoming the barriers, at last embracing wholeheartedly the course. During the accepting process, significant factors were founded influential as such; participants’ personal motivations, teachers’ active role, educational environment and living conditions. Some practical and policy implications could be drawn from such findings.

The objective of this study is to find out changes on the composition among social care providers(state, voluntary and for-profit) and government reactions to it in the English community care which is operated by user choice scheme. This study shows that total number of home care services consistently increased with growing of for-profit sector. In the care home services, the number of bed provisions are similar since 1993. But state and voluntary provisions are decreased, for-profit sector provisions are consistently increased. As of 2008, three quarters of social care services are provided by for-profit sector. Although overall service level has been enhanced for National Minimum Standard, the service quality of for-profit sector is lower compared to the state or voluntary(nonprofit) sector. This causes the matter on managing quality of service. Korea enter into aging society which causes diverse demands for social care services and it is expected that in accordance with such change in demand, we will see small-scale profit organizations in continual expansion. Such phenomenon will further increase the need for quality control in the future, which will require quality management standards to be uniformly applied on a national basis, as in England, and establishment of a strong organization in full charge of those standards.