Evaluation and monitoring of pilot project “Securing skilled personell through the professionalization of household services”

Balancing work and family responsibilities poses a challenge to many people. In particular when care tasks for the elderly and for children need to be performed.

The pilot project implemented in two employment agencies of the state Baden‑Wuerttemberg (Aalen and Heilbronn) in March 2017, is designed to tackle this issue. On the one hand, the project intends to test whether the reconciliation of family and work life can be facilitated through the distribution of vouchers for household services and whether the target group’s labor participation as well as their volume of employment can thus be increased. On the other hand, the project aims at contributing to the professionalization of household services and at fostering employment within this sector, which is subject to social insurance contributions. The project ends on February 28, 2019.

In the course of the evaluation, the implementation as well as the impact of the project are analyzed. The following questions are central to the evaluation:

• How is the consulting process and the distribution of vouchers organized within the employment agencies? Who is being consulted and who redeems vouchers?
• What is the project’s effect on the labor force participation and the volume of employment of persons eligible for vouchers?
• How are service companies recruited? What are their characteristics?
• How do participating institutions and participants assess the project? What are challenges and further prospects? Moreover, what has already been successfully implemented and what needs further improvement?

The evaluation combines qualitative and quantitative research methods. The implementation analysis examines the realization of the project. For this purpose, expert interviews and problem-centered interviews are carried out. The qualitative findings also form the basis for a standardized survey of project participants. The impact analysis, on the other hand, evaluates if and how the project’s objectives have been achieved. This analysis is based on a theory-driven evaluation model of effect channels and mechanisms. Finally, the project will be compared to similar schemes in Belgium and France.

Report (in German)

Economic analysis (in German)