The aim of this study is to create a system of indicators for the minimum income scheme in Portugal (Rendimento Social de Inserção), serving as a basis for the creation of a model for evaluating the service provision of this policy by local authorities. The research question that will guide our work is to what extent does the decentralisation of competences to the local level contribute to alleviating the causes of poverty and improving the quality of the services provided? The decentralisation of competences has been seen as a mechanism for combating poverty. Several international organisations, such as the World Bank, the OECD and the European Union, refer to the potential of decentralisation to enable local authorities to develop sustainable development processes. Several authors such as Von Braun and Groot (2000) and Crawford and Hartmann (2008) argue in favour of decentralisation, pointing out that local governments are better informed about the needs of their populations than the central state. Proximity makes it easier to monitor the citizen-beneficiary and can also allow for easier and more effective evaluation of social workers. However, some questions arise, namely the fact that these positive impacts of decentralisation depend on two factors, namely the resources that are made available to local authorities (Jütting e Corsi, 2005 and Harris and Posner, 2022) and also how local authorities themselves implement programmes (Harris and Posner, 2022). In the Netherlands, for example, during the process of decentralisation of competences (2003 and 2015), the problem that emerged was related to the way social workers acted in the execution and monitoring of social assistance recipients, who adopted a welfare philosophy. And it was through the initiative of the municipalities that they were open to changing the paradigm of the social intervention model (Oliveira, 2024). In Portugal, there were those who opposed decentralisation on the grounds that local authoriti...

Project structure / summary 1. The Concept of Welfare State a) Causes for the emergence of the Welfare State b) Different approaches to the conceptual definition of the Welfare State today 2. Evolution of Public Employment in Portugal a) The period from 1974 to 2000 b) The beginning of the 21st century: shifters and causes c) Public employment in the EU: a comparative perspective 3. Consequences of the reduction and aging of public employment in the Welfare State as an actor providing services to citizens 4. Public employment and provision of public services: health and education a) Public employment in the Health field - evolution of medical and nursing careers - number of employees / per capita - the demographic problem / more elderly population in need of more health care - representations/perceptions of institutional actors, health professionals and citizens about the provision of health care and the adequacy in quantity and quality of the human resources assigned to it (questionnaires / interviews) b) Public employment in the Education field - evolution of staff (teachers, auxiliaries, special education teachers, psychologists, etc.) - representations/perceptions of institutional actors, education professionals and citizens about the provision of education services and the adequacy in quantity and quality of the human resources assigned to it (questionnaires / interviews) Objective and methodology The present study aims at discussing the concept of the Welfare State today, as well as the evaluation of public employment and its evolution over the last decades. Based on a definition of a Social State that preserves its universalist nature, the research will seek to discuss the public employment necessary (both quantity and quality) to ensure that the Portuguese State is able to maintain the solidarity and universalism in an appropriate way. After conducting a discussion on the conceptual definition of the Welfare State in the present day and characterizing and qu...

In the wake of economic globalization, competitiveness, efficiency, effectiveness and quality have come to play a prominent role in work processes. In this way, according to the literature (Caetano, 1990; Ilgen, Barnes-Farell & McKellin, 1993; Dejours, 2003; Yasin & Gomes, 2010), evaluation has become an increasingly used instrument to measure, distinguish and increase performances. If this process was initially more present in the private sector, it quickly spread to the public sector and, within the latter, to public administrations (or public administrative sector). In this course, Portugal does not constitute an exception to the rule (Madureira, 2001, 2002; Madureira & Rodrigues, 2006, 2008). As part of the public administration reform process, the XVI Constitutional Government created in 2004 the Integrated System for the Assessment of Performance in Public Administration (SIADAP), which would be revised by Law 66-B / 2007, of December 28. The great change advocated by this new approach to evaluation in the Portuguese Public Administration is based on the introduction of the logic of management by objectives, aligning the action of services, managers and workers in the pursuit of common objectives. In 2012, through Law 66-B, of December 31, which approved the State Budget for 2013, some changes were introduced in SIADAP, namely at the level of SIADAP 2 and SIADAP 3 evaluation cycles, which in the first case, came to be of five or three years, according to the duration of the commissions of service, while in the case of the workers took on a biennial character (article 49, ibidem). According to the legislator, transparency, impartiality and the use of objective evaluation criteria are fundamental principles for a good application of SIADAP, which originally presented as main objectives, among others, to promote the motivation of workers and managers, as well as to recognize and distinguish services, officers and employees on the merit of their perfo...