Impact and effectiveness in the BTHG. A critical reflection with a view beyond the horizon.

Review of the symposium on 14.09.2021 at the FH Dortmund

This year's symposium took place on September 14, 2021 on the Fachhochschule Dortmund website under the title "Impact and effectiveness of the BTHG - A critical reflection with a view beyond the horizon". Since 2018, Prof. Dr. Michael Boecker (Fachhochschule Dortmund) and Dr. Michael Weber (HPZ-Krefeld) have been organizing regular symposia dealing with the consequences of the Federal Participation Act. Once again this year, around 100 digitally invited guests joined in.

The original plan was to hold the symposium with all guests and speakers on the premises of Fachhochschule Dortmund, but due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the organizers decided to hold it digitally. Only the technical team and the speakers were on site; the content was streamed.

Procedure

After the opening of the symposium by Prof. Dr. Michael Boecker and Dr. Michael Weber, Prof. Dr. Katja Nowacki, Dean of the Faculty of Applied Social Studies, welcomed the guests and provided the first starting points for a critical discussion of the concept of impact in social work. Pablo Arias Meneses from the Rahel Varnhagen Kolleg in Hagen gave a very impressive presentation of the traveling exhibition "Disability through the ages. Persecution and discrimination of people with disabilities in Hagen". The project is a cooperation between the Faculty of Applied Social Studies at Dortmund University of Applied Sciences and Arts, the Caritasverband Hagen e.V. and the Rahel Varnhagen Kolleg and describes the crimes committed by the National Socialists against people with disabilities.

As an introduction to the specialist discourse, Prof. Dr. Michael Boecker and Dr. Michael Weber reflected on the concept of impact and effectiveness in social work and in the BTHG, pointing out the social science pitfalls. Dr. Klaus Koch, Head of the Health Information Department at IQWiG, took the first look at the bigger picture when he spoke about evidence-based decisions in the German healthcare system and emphasized the value of so-called RCT studies. Dr. Stefanie Albus, research associate at Bielefeld University, took a critical look back at impact research in youth welfare and outlined the opportunities and risks for the impact discourse in integration assistance. Prof. Dr. Sebastian Noll, from Mittweida University of Applied Sciences, was the last speaker to focus on the principal-agent theory and illustrated the great potential for achieving greater reliability and assistance for people with disabilities and thus strengthening practice.

The event concluded with a panel discussion with the speakers of the symposium. The first target coordinates for measuring impact and effectiveness in the BTHG were critically discussed. It became very clear that both terms are subject to highly normative attributions and that there is still no socio-political consensus on what effective integration assistance must or should actually achieve.