A broader meeting of public consultations on the draft methodology for calculating the costs of social services was recently staged in Chisinau by the public association “Institutum Virtutes Civilis”. The participants formulated a series of proposals and recommendations that will be taken into account when the methodology is finalized, IPN reports.
“The public consultations are held in connection with the reform of the social assistance system through which we aim to change things to the better, to ensure balanced and uniform access to social assistance services for all the beneficiaries from our country,” Vasile Cușcă, secretary of state of the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection, stated in the opening of the event.
He noted that the emphasis on the quality and accessibility of social services, improvement of the mechanism for reporting, monitoring and accrediting social services and also for planning the costs of these are important elements of this reform. “At present, we have an approved national normative framework, but the reality is that the situation in districts is different, including as regards the costs of services. This shows once again the shortcomings we have and that we need to work out a methodology for improving the calculation of costs of social services, which would be applied by all the providers of social services nationwide,” noted Vasile Cușcă.
For about a year, the consultative group consisting of experts in the field, in cooperation with representatives of district social assistance divisions and finance divisions of district councils and also of public and private social service providers has worked on the draft methodology for calculating the costs of social services.
Liliana Palihovici, president of “Institutum Virtutes Civilis”, which launched the process of drafting the methodology, said that persons who know best the structure of spending and the challenges that appear in the process of providing social services were invited to the public consultations. “Following the discussions initiated in October 2022, four types of social services were chosen: “Mobile team”, “Professional parent assistance”, “Multifunctional community center” (for children and adults) and “Placement center for children in situations of risk”. Experts worked on these to identify the calculation formulas based on the real estimates of costs for beneficiaries of socials services. In the broader consultation meeting, the participants analyzed in groups the draft formulas for calculating the costs of two types of socials services - “Mobile team” and “Professional parent assistance” - and formulated proposals for improving these,” stated Liliana Palihovici.
Eugenia Veveriță, expert in social assistance, proposed analyzing a number of examples for forming the costs of social services they provide and urged to be very careful when supplementing this information and to always start from the interest of beneficiaries. “The budget is our money and we should therefor use it wisely. Don’t forget that the formulas and calculations should be for the benefit of beneficiaries,” Eugenia Veveriță said in the working session with representatives of the “Mobile team” group.
The second expert, Mariana Yanakevich, executive director of the Association for Child and Family Empowerment “AVE Copiii”, worked with representatives of the group “Professional parent assistance”. “The minimum quality standards are the biggest challenge. When these are not very explicit, it is not clear what kind of actions are stipulated for service X or Y to be provided according to the proposed minimum requirements and it is very hard to calculate. In the amalgam of social services provided at different levels, we have services with minimum quality standards of the first generation (created for the first time when nothing existed). We have standards of the second generation that are improved and look much better and also have several quality services of the third generation. These are clearer and are those that in the framework regulations appear in the section entitled Service Provision,” stated the expert.
The methodology is being drafted within the framework of the project “Civil Society Organizations Act for Better Social Services”, which is financed by the EU and is co-financed and implemented by Soros Foundation Moldova in partnership with IP Keystone Moldova and AO “Institutum Virtutes Civilis”.
