An expanded seminar-meeting on "Formation of an integrated social service system within decentralisation: modern practice and prospects" is being held in Vinnytsia on May 23-24

The event was organised on the initiative and with the participation of Oleksandra Churkina, Deputy Minister of Social Policy of Ukraine, with the support of the oblast state administration and Vinnytsia Local Government Development Centre.

"Within the context of decentralisation, provision of social services in Ukraine is one of the important tools for its implementation," said Ihor Ivasyuk in his introductory speech. “After all, in fact, social support services concern almost every family from the moment of birth and accompany them throughout their life. They are particularly relevant for the families and persons in difficult life circumstances. At the same time our main task is to reach every person, not to leave him/her aside, and to help in a timely manner. In addition, the quality of such services should be equally high both in cities and villages.”

The Deputy Minister of Social Policy of Ukraine outlined the European approaches and priorities in this issue, in particular, the following ones:

• support and strengthening of the family as a prerequisite for overcoming children’s poverty;
• integrated approach to the work of all services;
• early detection of vulnerable families;
• creation of effective support services for families with children;
• development of universal services, in particular – parents’ potential;
• monitoring and assessment of service quality.

The official advised to focus on monitoring of the quality of services provided in the hromadas: "When in two or three years decentralisation issue becomes common, donors will not be so generous to finance, and then each hromada will have to show its rating, that is, what it has achieved, in order to attract foreign investments,” emphasised Oleksandra Churkina.

The full version is available in Ukrainian – please click HERE