The UIA project "home & care" in the transition from the project idea to the actual implementation - JOURNAL 2

The city of Landshut runs the project with a fully staffed project coordination team, the fully established structures and some political backing. The city administration’s unclear perception of the project management and lack of leadership has an effect on project in the sense of unclear sustainability.

After a suitable structure for project implementation was developed in 2020, the subsequent focus was put on developing meaningful processes that could ensure the success of the project. In a comprehensive process, the project coordination team found its own role in the process and coordinated the project in a participative manner with the other project partners. Increasingly, this coordination function is also recognized by the other project partners.
A repressive factor is the unclear perception of the “home & care” project management by the higher management of the city of Landshut. For example, the city leadership failed to be present in a meeting with the UIA contact person on site. There is a lack of strategic leadership. The project management can currently only be expected to answer the most pressing questions in the course of the process. It would be desirable for the “home & care” project management to be more involved in related administrative procedures to provide impetus and to act as a gatekeeper to various areas of administration and politics that are dealt with in the project. The coordination effort within the project management team is high. This creates uncertainties in the coordination team and vis-à-vis the project partners. For example, the concrete strategic direction of the city of Landshut with regard to a sustainable use of the project results is unclear so far.

With the completion of the "home & care" building, the public procurement process is complete.

The construction of the home & care building played an enormous role in the past process steps, public procurement is by and large completed with the completion of the building. It became apparent that for this type of project, under the conditions of public procurement and the resources of local authorities, it was not possible to find a contractor who was prepared to take on all the services in the sense of a general contractor. It is unclear whether this is due to the local conditions in Bavaria or the current economic upheavals, or whether it is a general phenomenon regarding public construction projects. The local response was a move away from a single-source solution and the associated division of the overall contract into several subcontracts. These specific tenders in turn led to the desired success of finding bidders who were then ultimately able to fulfil the subservices.

The conceptual plans for cross-department cooperation between the project management and other departments involved have so far only been partially successful.

In discussions with the project coordination team, it becomes clear that there is, positively seen, a functioning cooperation with parts of the administration. For example, cooperation works very well with the Youth Welfare Office, for example, in the question of how to organize childcare. In other areas, it is much more difficult for the coordination team to establish effective cooperation as the “home and care” staff unit is located outside of the regular structures. In the assessment of the cross-department working there is in part an administrative fear of decision-making and a diffusion of responsibility, that is complicated by the deficiencies in city leadership as described above. For example, when it comes to clarifying the amount of rent and drawing up rental agreements, major challenges arose as to who is actually responsible for this and who takes on the technical responsibility.

There have been major positive changes in this area. The involvement of project partners is now much less conflictual and more goal-oriented. Concrete agreements between the partners are very useful. The involvement of the target groups continues to be a challenge.

Contrary to the negative assessment in the last journal, there has been a clear change for the better in this area. The project partners have succeeded in seeing themselves as a network and the project coordination has succeeded in bundling different interests and opinions in the project partnership. A major success is that employers and social organizations involved in the project were able to resolve conflicts in the project development in such a way that a common understanding could emerge and trust could be built. The way in which partners in the project work together, who would otherwise never have engaged in such cooperation and in such a structured way, is to be emphasized in a particularly positive way.
Involving the residents in the organization of the day-to-day living is still an existing challenge. There is a clear need to develop an organizational structure that enables the participation of residents living and working in the “home & care” house. Likewise, a strategic participation of the people who are neighbors of the "home & care" house should be established. In some cases, neighbors have children that are looked after in the “home& care” house. The people in the neighborhood are enormously important in the task of anchoring the house as part of the neighborhood.

There has been a lot of progress in this area. The difficulties with scientific monitoring have been solved and integration into the “home & care”-network is now working.

After a change in personnel in the scientific monitoring team, a working cooperation was established with the Landshut University of Applied Sciences in which the agreed procedures can finally be implemented. The cooperation is perceived as useful by the project partners and enables the establishment of an atmosphere of trust. The frequent personnel changes in the scientific support team had a negative effect, making continuity in the cooperation more difficult.

Comprehensive communication channels have been established by the project management team. Internal communication within the project partnership and public relations take now place on a regular basis.

With the filling of the communication position in the coordination team, a functioning communication was established. An internal newsletter from the coordination team to the project partners was set up. Likewise, instruments such as small video clips were developed to provide information to the public and to attract the target groups, for example. 

With further progress of the project, first lessons learned for upscaling can be drawn despite this being a continuous challenge. Whether the home and care house can exist in this form beyond the end of the project is still open.

With the increased cooperation of the project partners, the project network came together more strongly. Previous difficulties in cooperation, for example between the interests and expectations of the employers of the single mothers and the social agencies that supported the mothers in coping with their social challenges, could be solved through intensive discussions. Now all project partners emphasize that they were not only able to broaden their own experience as the project progressed, but also learned to better understand the other partners through regular exchange about the possibilities and limitations of the other project partners. A new quality of cooperation has emerged. Here, the city administration and local politics could learn a lot in order to solve existing problems in other topic areas as well as through networked communication and intensive cooperation.