Work has started on a new methodology for calculating the costs of social services. Intended to serve as secondary legislation, the methodology will be used by the relevant authorities in planning and budgeting social services and in contracting them from private or public providers. Overseeing the development of the methodology is the NGO “Institutum Virtutes Civilis”, in partnership with the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection.
The advisory group established for this purpose is made up of representatives of social assistance and finance departments at district level, as well as social service providers. The group meets periodically in Chisinau and examines the draft methodology on which the experts Mariana Ianachevici and Veronica Sandu are working.
“We are proposing a different approach to calculating the costs of a social service - we start from the activities we provide. So, first of all, we set exactly what service we offer. Secondly, we determine exactly that there is a beneficiary who needs the whole package of activities and there is a beneficiary who needs only a few of the activities that we can offer, and thirdly we determine the average for the client who needs 6-7 activities and for those who need 1-2 activities”, explains Mariana Ianachevici, one of the experts working on the methodology.
Mariana Ianachevici is confident that the proposed approach will allow a real estimate of the costs of social services and will lead to improved quality: “This approach is based on reality, it allows us to give an exact estimate, not one based on norms. First, it will greatly influence the quality. When a realistic estimate of social services can be made, it will be much easier and more efficient to find the right provider that offers quality. It could also influence the emergence of much better competition, because we have many places in the country where there is absolutely no competition in the provision of social services, and when there is no competition, quality is affected”, said Mariana Ianachevici, quoted in a press release.
The participants in the first meeting of the working group accepted the new approach, finding it suitable for the further development of the methodology. “It is an exercise that we have been waiting for a long time, so that social services in the Republic of Moldova have a unique calculation methodology accessible to all providers, both state and private. Over the years, we have had several exercises for calculating the costs of social services and I think that the method that was discussed today is the most useful and applicable”, said Liliana Samcov, representative of the “Demos” NGO from Edineț. The organization provides specialized social services - assisted social housing and socio-professional integration services for children and young people.
Vasile Cușca, state secretary at the Ministry of Labor and chair of the Working Group, announced at the end of the meeting that, once the activity-based approach is accepted, formulas and other instruments will be developed further, which will be subject to discussion at the next meetings.
Liliana Palihovici, president of Institutum Virtutes Civilis, the organization that launched the methodology development process, said: “We started from a concern expressed during an evaluation of social services. We analyzed the opinions of civil servants responsible for the development of social services and their contracting, as well as private service providers. What worried me about civil servants, especially those responsible for the procurement procedure and signing contracts, was the lack of a normative framework that would guide them in making decisions to allocate one amount or another for a social service”, stated Liliana Palihovici.
The development of the methodology is part of the project “Civil society organizations act for better social services”, financed by the European Union, co-financed by the Soros Foundation Moldova and implemented by IP Keystone Moldova and Institutum Virtutes Civilis NGO.
