Model project transition from day care centres to workshops for disabled people

The aim of the project was to test in a model way how people with high assistance needs who are currently employed in day support centres can also have their entitlement to vocational training fulfilled. To this end, a model entry procedure with three phases was developed together with the Lower Saxony Social Welfare Office, the Regional Directorate of the Employment Agency and interested day support centres (Tafö) and workshops for people with disabilities (WfbM) in order to remove the rather high barrier between Tafös and WfbM and to create suitable framework conditions for participation in vocational training in the vocational training area of a WfbM.

ITA was mandated with the accompanying scientific evaluation of the framework conditions defined for project implementation as well as the impacts and results achieved by the model project. ITA pursued a formative evaluation approach in order to support the involved actors in better understanding why (or why not) something works through appropriate and scientifically sound data collection and procedures.

Three project committees were formed as part of the implementation:

• Steering group: This group, in which decision-makers from the institutions participating in the respective round were represented, directed the actual course of the model project. ITA supported the steering group with data and information that was necessary and helpful for a timely follow-up in the direction of an improved achievement of objectives.
• Implementation Group: In this group, the professionals from Tafös and WfbM who were involved in the implementation met. ITA coordinated these meetings and supported the exchange among the professionals in order to promote mutual collegial support and to make use of synergy effects of parallel participation in the model project. The findings from the regular interviews with the specialist staff and the employees participating in the pilot project were transferred into recommendations for action for the implementation of the transition from Tafö to the entry procedure of a WfbM and further maintained during the project. At the end of the project, the fifth edition of these recommendations is available ( Download of the recommendations for action (in German), version 5; status: April 2021; PDF ).
• Support group: Finally, this group consists of the management level of the participating institutions as well as representatives of the State Social Welfare Office, the Regional Directorate of the Employment Agency and the LAG A B T. The final report of the scientific evaluation by ITA is primarily addressed to this group, as it provides information on any necessary changes in the organisation or implementation at the organisational level (Tafö and WfbM) as well as aspects of the fit or non-fit of the framework conditions agreed upon for the pilot project at the start of the project. ( Download the final report of the scientific evaluation (in German); PDF )

The model project was extended in good time before the original two-year term expired and is now running until 2024. Information on the project can be found on the LAG A B T website, see: https://www.lag-abt-niedersachsen.de