Effectiveness of decentralisation in the department of social security

Abstract

Decentralisation has been applauded for its hypothetical potential to improve the level of service delivery and the enhancement of various other values such as bureaucratic accountability, administrative efficiency, responsiveness to local needs and social cohesion, amongst others. However, the assessment of decentralisation in a significant share of academic and practitioner literature has also cautiously highlighted various dangers. This study analyses the effectiveness of decentralisation within the Department of Social Security (DSS). The DSS has long been rendering its services from twenty-two district offices in Malta and another two in Gozo. It was therefore deliberately selected as the set setting for this study about the effectiveness of decentralisation. From the extensive review of related literature, four significant yardsticks, namely service delivery, good governance, social cohesion and accessibility, emerged and served as basis for the analysis. A triangulation approach was adopted in order to achieve the aims of this study and as a strategy for increasing the validity of evaluation. Drawing on paper-based questionnaire data, collected from a stratified random sample of three hundred DSS service users, the general feeling of service is revealed, setting the base for a further set of four interviews with senior officials. Both the questionnaires and interviews revolved around these yardsticks. The study's contribution lies in bridging general public experience and managerial practice and opinion to develop recommendations about how decentralisation may be further exploited to offer service-users better service whilst meeting the department’s mission statement. The findings emanating from this triangulated study reveal that decentralisation within the DSS has mostly proven effective, in terms of accessibility, whilst it is less effective in service delivery, good governance and social cohesion.