The Agency’s material as part of the research for regional publications of Chernihiv Oblast (Chernihiv).
Under full-scale war conditions, the eternal problem of “how to provide the community with social services?” is escalating. Financial resources for this are evidently limited, but people cannot be deprived of their right to help from the community. So, what shall be done?
Social services: paid or free?
The first and most obvious option seems to be receiving grants and other charitable assistance. However, even without attracting external support, communities have a tool which can help partially cover the costs of social services. We are talking about the approach when a person who gets social services pays for them in whole or in part. This contributes not only to providing people with the services they need but also changes the idea of the system itself. Services are transformed into products with definite parameters and value but are not considered solely charitable or free assistance.
Partial or full payment for services is not an innovation and has been implemented by communities since 2020. However, with the full-scale invasion, some communities decided to provide social services to everybody who needed them at the local budget’s expense. This has its own explanation, as the security and the difficult financial situation of socially vulnerable groups do not permit local governments to limit access to social assistance. However, some communities are already coming back to the practice of providing social services for full or partial payment. Novhorod-Siverskyi City Territorial Community is one of them. It shared its experience during our research on social services.
Novhorod-Siverskyi community is located in Chernihiv Oblast, which is in the area of possible hostilities. At the moment, the most numerous categories in need of social services are persons with disabilities, elderly people who need assistance, and internally displaced persons. The community states that the demand for social services significantly increased since the full-scale invasion. A lot of elderly people are left without the necessary support as their relatives, who used to help them, moved to safer places and cannot visit them regularly.
The only provider of social services is the municipal institution – the Social Service Centre of Novhorod-Siverskyi City Council.
There are no non-government providers, such as public associations and charitable organisations, in the community now. Most of the services provided by the Centre are free of charge for people and are funded from the local budget. For example, informational support on issues of social protection, consultations regarding possibilities of resolving complicated life situations, and social support for children living with adoptive parents and others. However, some services are provided based on the partial or full payment by the people who get them. According to estimates from the Social Service Centre, approximately 20% of people receiving social services pay for them either fully or partially.
Payment for social services is the guarantee of their provision
This mostly relates to home care services, in-kind assistance, and inpatient stays in the Centre’s department. For people in need due to the inability to undertake household matters on their own, this is a way to get help with maintaining the household, cooking, cleaning, and purchasing and delivering food and medicines.
The Centre also provides clothing repair services and has a hairdresser on staff. People apply to the Centre for these services. Their needs are evaluated, and an agreement is concluded stating the list, frequency, and terms of social services and establishing the form of payment depending on income level. This allows all vulnerable categories of residents to receive necessary services and get basic household matters done, even on the condition of partial or full payment. This way, concluding agreements and receiving social services for partial or full payment becomes a certain guarantee of the needed assistance that people can count on.
For the Centre, this kind of social service delivery also has a positive effect. After all, this is the opportunity to cover the institution’s expenses partially. In Novhorod-Siverskyi community, they note that the total income from the provision of social services is currently not significant and cannot satisfy all needs, such as purchasing a specialised car for a “social taxi,” which is relevant for the community. However, providing paid social services is still a reliable financial basis. The funds received enable the Centre to plan additional expenses or quickly cover unexpected expenses. The community also engages additional resources through participation in social projects and grant competitions. However, as stated in the Social Service Centre, concluding agreements for service provision at partial or full payment is a more systematic way of attracting additional funds.
The positive effects of this approach are manifested at different levels. This is both an opportunity to reduce the burden on the community’s local budget and to obtain additional resources for the Centre’s functioning, as well as an incentive to increase the responsibility of people receiving social services because they invest their own resources. This not only ensures partial self-funding of providers and satisfies a greater number of needs of vulnerable population categories but also promotes the development of a more efficient and competitive social service market.
The Agency for Legislative Initiatives, with the support of the International Renaissance Foundation, performs research on the provision of social services in communities.
