MANAGING QUALITY IN SOCIAL CARE SERVICES

This paper is part of a final doctoral research and presents the current state of knowledge in social services at European level. Its objective is to emphasise the role of social services in European Union, together with the importance of quality and quality management in this field. Diversification of social needs, together with the increasing complexity of social services has generated changes both in the management and the organisation of suppliers in this area, and also in the expectations of beneficiaries. In this context, the paper starts to identify the main factors that lead the change in this domain and discusses the results of recent researches conducted at international and national levels. Aspects regarding the quality management in social services highlight current and future challenges in this field.