Dipartimento di Ingegneria Gestionale

The effectiveness of the Home Care Premium Programme: a Policy Evaluation

About the project

The project was a policy evaluation research concerning the effectiveness of a multi-level programme promoted and managed by the INPS, the Italian National Agency for Pension and Welfare. The programme, called Home Care Premium, is a social service programme launched in 2010 and still working. It provides home care services to public employees or their immediate relatives (wife/husbands, parents or sons) suffering of diseases affecting their self-sufficiency (physical or cognitive), on the basis of their needs and graduated according to their income

Researcher team: Giancarlo Vecchi, Marco Di Giulio, Bruno Dente, Tommaso Agasisti, Costanzo Ranci, Marco Arlotti, Andrea Parma

Funders: Italian Agency for Pensions and Welfare (INPS); Competitive Funding

Duration: 2016 – 2018

Partners:

KEY RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The evaluation covered different aspects. First of all, we analysed the implementation process using a quali-quantitative approach, to detect the compliance with the programme theory and the characteristic of the ‘problem’ in terms of target population affected and its localisation; the results of the studies (based on on-field interviews, data-bases analysis, etc., realized during 2016 and with a reply in 2018) were at the base of a first modification of the policy design in 2017. Then, before the beginning of a new edition, we started a counterfactual analysis, based on a randomized controlled trial design (applying a difference-in-difference technique), to study the effectiveness of the programme comparing a group of beneficiaries (articulated in different sub-groups, considering age, level of disease, localization) with a group of non-beneficiaries (even subdivided in sub-groups). The results of the evaluation analysis are now at the basis of a new formulation of the programme’s design, currently discussed by INPS managers

OUTPUTS & IMPACTS

  • Di Giulio M. and G. Vecchi. 2018. “The risks of taming street level bureaucracy. Challenges for collaborative governance in social care policies”, paper presented at the Symposium: Implementing Collaborative Governance – Palermo 25th – 26th October 2018.
  • Vecchi G., “Ontologies, Methods And Evidences: Fostering The Use Of Mixed-Methods With Accuracy”, RIV – Rassegna Italiana di Valutazione (forthcoming).