Social services

Social services are a range of public services provided by the government, private, profit and non-profit organizations. These public services aim to create more effective organizations, build stronger communities, and promote equality and opportunity.
Social services include the benefits and facilities like education, food subsidies, health care, police, fire service, job training and subsidized housing, adoption, community management, policy research, and lobbying.
Characteristics.
Social Services are a range of public services intended to provide support and assistance towards particular groups, usually disadvantaged (Munday, 2). They may be provided by individual actors, private and independent organisations, or administered by a government agency (Munday, 2). The term ‘Social services’ is often substituted for and by other terms such as social welfare, social protection, social assistance, social care and social work, with many of the terms overlapping in characteristics and features (Munday, 2) (Pinker, [4]). What is considered a ‘social service’ in a specific country is determined by its history, cultural norms, political system and economic status and thus is dependent upon these factors (Munday 2) (Pinker, [4]). The most central aspects of social services include education, health services, housing programs and transport services (Le Grand, 3).
Recipients:.
Social services may be available to the entirety of the population, such as the police and fire services, or they may be available to only specific groups or sections of society (Munday, 3). Some examples of social service recipients include elderly people, children and families, people with disabilities, including both physical and mental disabilities (Munday, 3). These may extend to drug users, young offenders and refugees and asylum seekers depending on the country and its social service programs or the presence of non-governmental organisations (Munday, 3).
History of Social Services.
Early Development.
Social Services began to develop in the last two decades of the nineteenth century in Europe (Flora and Alber, 37). There are a number of factors that contributed to the development of social services in this period. These include the impacts of industrialisation and urbanisation; the influence of Protestant thought regarding state responsibility for welfare, and the growing influence of trade unions and the labour movement (Flora and Alber, 41) (Pierson, 3).
Europe: (1880 – 1914)
In the late nineteenth century, as countries industrialised further, the extent of social services in the form of labour schemes and compensation expanded. Switzerland’s legislation of the Factory Act in 1877 is largely regarded as the first notable social act in Europe (Grandner, 1). It introduced limitations on working hours, provided maternity benefits and provided workplace protections for children and young adults (Grandner, 1). In Germany, Otto von Bismarck introduced a large amount of social welfare legislation in this period (Grandner, 1). Mandatory sickness insurance was introduced in 1883, with workplace accident insurance enacted in 1884 alongside old age and invalidity schemes in 1889 (Grandner, 2). Insurance laws of this kind were emulated in other European countries after, with Sweden enacting voluntary sickness insurance in 1892, Denmark in 1892, Belgium in 1894, Switzerland in 1911, and Italy in 1886 (Flora and Alber, 51-52). Additionally, Belgium, France and Italy enacted legislation subsidising voluntary old-age insurance in this period (Flora and Alber, 52). By the time the Netherlands introduced compulsory sickness insurance in 1913, all major European countries had introduced some form of insurance scheme Flora and Alber, 53).
Latin America: 1910’s-1960’s
According to Carmelo Mesa-Lago, Social Services and welfare systems developed in three groups (Pierson, 9). The first group, consisting of Argentina, Brazil, Chile Costa Rica and Uraguay developed social insurance schemes in the late 1910’s and the 1920’s (Pierson, 9). The notable schemes, which had been implemented by 1950, consisted of work injury insurance, pensions, sickness and maternity insurance (Pierson, 9). The second group, consisting of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru and Venezeula, implemented these social services in the 1940’s (Pierson, 9). The extent to which these programs and laws were implemented were less extensive than the first group (Pierson, 9). In the final group, consisting of the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras and Nicaragua, implemented social services programmes in the 1950’s and 1960’s, with the least coverage out of each group (Pierson, 9). With the exception of Nicaragua, social service programmes are not available for unemployment insurance or family allowances (Pierson, 9). Average expenditure as a percentage of GDP in these states is 5.3% (Pierson, 9).
Types of Social Services.
·      Healthcare
·      Education
·      Police
·      Labour Laws
·      Fire service
·      Insurance laws
·      Soup Kitchens/Food Assistance
·      Charities
·      Housing Services
·      Aged Care
·      Disability Services
·      Legal Aid
·      Youth Services
·      Crisis Support
·      Emergency Relief
·      Public Transportation
Impacts of Social Services.
Quality of Life:
There is significant evidence that indicates that social services programmes have a positive impact upon the individuals’ quality of life. An OECD study in 2011 that asked people to rate how they value their life on a scale to 0-10 found that the countries with the highest ratings were Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland, whilst the lowest ratings were given by people from Estonia, Portugal and Hungary (OECD Better Life Index). Similar results were recorded by the Global Barometer of Happiness in 2011 (Dimian and Barbu, 156). Both of these studies indicated that the most important aspects of quality of life to people were health, education, welfare and the cost of living (Dimian and Barbu, 156). Additionally, the countries with the perception of high-quality public services, specifically Finland, Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands scored the highest on levels of happiness (Dimian and Barbu, 159). Conversely, Bulgaria, Romania, Lithuania and Italy, who scored low on levels of satisfaction of social services, had low levels of happiness (Dimian and Barbu, 156). According to Dimian and Barbu, these studies demonstrate that social services have a significantly positive impact upon individual’s quality of life and standards of living, with a strong correlation between happiness and social services.