Good Practices and Innovations in Public Governance 2003-2011

Good Practices and InnovATIONS in Public Governance
• Rules for collaboration (frequency, division of labour, time required, location)
were agreed upon at the beginning of the project.
• Concepts and rules were prepared regarding the decision-making process and
the roles for the individual partners.
• Methods and instruments for monitoring progress toward goals were used in
the structural planning of the projects and the determination of sub-goals, milestones
and end products.
• Mechanisms for the ongoing evaluation and analysis of the results were specified,
and agreements were reached on documenting the results.
• The public relations strategy—presenting data and information, setting up a
website, preparing flyers and reporting results—was planned in detail.
• Early in the project, the financial plan was checked for feasibility and revised.
• To complete the project, a report was compiled.
One measure of the success of the network is that more than 30 people with disabilities
are now employed at the PEI by the integration projects alone. In addition,
a number of other disabled people hold “normal” employment contracts. In all,
approximately 720 positions at the PEI (more than 15 percent of the total) are filled
by people with disabilities. This puts the PEI far above the minimum legal requirement
(German law requires that employers with at least 20 staff members hire
disabled workers for at least 5 percent of their jobs). Beyond the term of the project,
too, the support for disabled people is continued at the workplace or site of
vocational training.
The network has also had external effects, including successful negotiations with
foundations and project management organisations such as the German Research
Foundation (DFG). The options for funding disabled-specific needs are now presented
on the DFG’s website. In addition, at an expert workshop on the Bologna
Process (a joint effort to improve higher education in Europe), measures were recommended
to compensate for the disadvantages that disabled students face in gaining
admission to universities, completing courses and passing exams. The result is that
since January 2008, university courses can be accredited only if examination regulations
explicitly take into account the special needs of disabled students during the
course and during exams.
Beyond advocating for the disabled, the network also targeted the non-disabled, to
reduce prejudices and improve workplace relations. Previously, many employers believed
that workers with disabilities were less efficient and more likely to be sick or
absent. The Tandem in Science project, and particularly the external project evaluation,
disproved those prejudices.
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