16 April 2024

The Federal Participation Act leads to a fundamental change in the management of benefits, for example in workshops for people with disabilities in the area of integration assistance (EGH). This means that people with disabilities can work in a workshop of their choice and choose catering and accommodation in another facility. Prof Dr Bernd Schwien and his doctoral student and former social management graduate, Finn-Leon Brinkmann, jointly presented this paradigm shift in Frankfurt am Main using so-called "management control systems".

Prof Dr Bernd Schwien (right) and Finn-Leon Brinkmann at the 15th International NPO Colloquium (Photo: HSN)

With the passing of the Federal Participation Act (BTHG) in 2016, the Federal Government initiated a comprehensive legal reform of ECEC in Germany. To this end, EGH is being taken out of the welfare system and developed into a separate benefits act. This is the only way to ensure the inclusion and participation of people with disabilities on the basis of their individual needs and on the basis of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. As a result, service providers in EGH are required to develop solutions in accordance with the respective state framework agreements in order to fulfil the complexity resulting from the implementation of the BTHG in terms of planning, management, billing and the obligation to provide evidence. At the same time, service and remuneration agreements must be renegotiated and finalised. Close communication and dialogue between service providers and service providers or funding bodies is essential here.

In their colloquium contribution, Brinkmann and Schwien explained that corporate management is changing in various areas and management types due to the introduction and implementation of the BTHG. Management is being adapted to the new business models and the new performance system.

In the necessary changes to the existing control systems of a social economy service provider, the following factors play an important role

• Opportunities and challenges such as recurring extensions and transitional agreements for previous settlements,
• cultural debate on the understanding of values and the changing participation of stakeholders,
• Changed strategic and operational planning approaches,
• new cybernetic control mechanisms such as the introduction of cost unit accounting,
• more complex remuneration systems,
• and a new administrative control system with consideration of participation management

a major role.

The presentation by Schwien and Brinkmann, who also works as a consultant at rosenbaum nagy unternehmensberatung GmbH in Cologne, was based on approaches to realising these requirements. These approaches will be further developed in the joint dissertation process with Prof Dr Dorothea Greiling from the Johannes Kepler University Linz in Austria.