The role of targeted social services: Case studies from recent SOCIEUX+ cooperation activities

Targeted social services act as facilitators for people in vulnerable situations by safeguarding their fundamental human rights, dignity, and opportunities. They represent an essential support for people who are left behind, especially in times of crisis, and often serve as an entry into the social protection system. In the last year, SOCIEUX+ has seen a significant increase in requests for technical cooperation with specific social services. In this article we review the main challenges of these requests and some recent examples of our work.

Targeted social services include policies, services, and infrastructure for mitigating social vulnerabilities. Examples include early childhood education and care, services and care for people with disabilities , long-term care, decent housing, education and training, and healthcare. The 2006 EU Commission’s communication on social services of general interest divided them into two groups: statutory social security schemes that cover life-risks associated with health, ageing, unemployment, occupational accidents, retirement or disability; and personal targeted social services provided to persons in need in the form of assistance or integration activities, which play a preventive and social cohesion role. While services in the first group have been a traditional focus of SOCIEUX+, requests for personal targeted social services have significantly increased in the last year. In 2022 we received 9 such requests, including 7 requests from countries in the extended Central Asia region: Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Uzbekistan, and Armenia. Partners’ perceived challenges focus on strategic priorities – clarifying institutional rules, roles, and financing – as well as on organizational aspects such as improving implementation efficiency through strengthened oversight and controls, and enhancing social workers’ capacities.

It is in Kazakhstan that SOCIEUX+ engagement for improved social services will be most significant in the coming months. Three institutions have submitted requests that allowed to formulate Actions, which are currently ongoing. One examines social services at the municipal level, aiming to offer social services and infrastructure for people with disabilities in the capital city of Astana. The other two requests were submitted by national institutions which finance targeted social services for the elderly, people with disabilities, and children without parental care supported by national and local nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). The request from Astana municipality highlights the limited accessibility of social services there due to high demand; moreover, the municipality feels that social services should be more targeted to specific users’ needs, due to the diverse competencies of social workers. SOCIEUX+ has committed to jointly assessing the legal basis, inclusion criteria, accessibility, and quality of social services provided at the municipal level, and to training 60 professionals (case workers, caregivers, and managers) of the municipality and partner NGOs, with a focus on strategies for self-care, adaptation, and increased autonomy.

At the national level, our cooperation with the Commissioner for Children’s Rights has conducted two on-site missions which recently concluded with the involvement of public and NGO experts from Croatia and the Czech Republic. They jointly worked on guidelines for procedures and modalities to approach potential foster families, involve them in foster care, and provide training, support, and follow-up. The last activity for this cooperation will train case workers on how to apply these guidelines in their interactions with foster families. Furthermore, SOCIEUX+ is supporting the national Center in Support of Civic Initiatives to improve the monitoring and evaluation (M&E) processes for monitoring NGO projects meant to provide social services to orphans, disadvantaged youth, the unemployed, people with disabilities, and victims of trafficking and domestic violence. The Center expects SOCIEUX-mobilized experts from the Ministry of Labour and Social Solidarity of Romania will help improve their M&E guidelines and enhance the skills of the Center’s agents in monitoring projects.

Across those initiatives, we see the importance of social services in enabling individuals in vulnerable situations to participate in society and safeguarding their fundamental human rights, dignity and opportunities. They represent a fundamental assistance for groups that are otherwise left behind, particularly in times of crisis. Importantly, social services often serve as entry points into the social protection system. We also understand how the design, financing, delivery and evaluation of social services are spread across different levels of government and involve various actors. Although significant disparities, quality and capacity gaps are recorded, SOCIEUX+ commits to achieving the goals of integration (creating synergies among various actors, infrastructures, and services), personalization (tailored design), and increasing workforce capacity through the cooperation opportunities opened up by recent partnerships.