Working together What works well and what doesnt

Working together What works well (and what doesn´t ) Barbora Uhlířová Inclusion Czech Republic

What I mean when I say… o Social services – one of the tools to help people in disfavourable social situation, public service o Community o Care – formal x informal o Community services x institutional care o People with intellectual disability = mental disability, mental retardation, also probably psychological disability

Geography o Czech Republic has approx. 10 milion inhabitants on area 2, 5 x smaller then Belarus o Country is divided into 14 regions o Regions are divided into municipalities o Social services are financed by the state, planned and submitted from the regional level

History – before 1989 o Social services delivered only by state. o Institutional care or families o The needs of the users were not recognised and planning was done by the state and the state providers o There were 2 organisations of people with disability

History – after 1989 o NGOs, churches and other organisaitons – new providers of social services o New organisations representing people with disabilities o In 2006 new law on social services was passed. n Quality standards for social services n Inspection of quality of social services n Users centered approach o Community planning of social services o In 2009 CR has ratified CRPD, in 2004 entered EU

Users centered approach in practice o Personal budget for people who are dependent on care to decide and buy services they like o Planning of their own support o Involved in quality control o Consulted about strategies o Involved in community planning of social services on regional and municipal level

Involving users of services o It is not always easy to involve users n People with intellectual disability n People in crisis (homeless, addicted) o Family members, or former service users are then involved or organisations who represent these groups (people with intellectual disability)

Cooperation o Service providers (NGOs, churches) o Donors and submitters(State, regions, municipalities) o Users (people with disability, NGOs) o Three parties cooperation n State x services providers x users n Region x services providers x users n Municipality x services providers x users

Community planning of ss on municipal level – City of Brno o From 2007 o Monitoring the needs, gaps and main problems in the network of social services in Brno o Preparing Community plan for the development of social services in Brno o Monitoring if the plan is being fullfiled o Analysing

Community planning on municipal level – City of Brno o Coordinating group - 3 representatives of municipal office , 3 service provider, 3 users n Meeting 1 x in months o Working groups - 8 groups according to different disadvantaged groups of citizens n Coordinators – municipal office , service provider, user

Community planning on municipal level – City of Brno o Working groups n Elderly people n Families with young children n People with intellectual disability and autism n People with sensory impairment n People in crisis n People in danger of social exclusion n Immigrants and Roma people

Working groups o All service providers who provide services for this particular group o Representatives of the municipal office (submitter) o Users – all who wish to be involved o Meeting when needed n Evaluating the fullfilment of community plan n Monitoring the fullfilment of plan n Preparing new plan

Working groups Discussion about different problems And the different ways to solve them Needs of users Capacity of social services to respond to the needs of users n Quality of social services n n

Community plan of social services o Devided into 7 areas (working groups) o Description of the status quo o Identification of the main problems and needs o Concrete measures to battle the problems and needs n What service provider will respond to that particular need/problem n Who will pay for it

Community plan of social services o Cross sectional problems o Unsolved problems o Results of different surveys and analysis

Community plan of social services Is official strategic document Is agreed by municipal council The planning is linked to financies New services that are not planned in the strategic plan cannot be financed by the region and municipality o Linked to national and regional strategy documents o o

Practical examples o Central information point for social services and support o Personal asistence on 24 request o New budget for organisaiton, who do supplementary unregistered services

Community planning in South Moravia region o Regional level o Team 1 for community planing o Representatives of : n submitter (employees of the department of social affairs at the regional office) n Providers (representatives NGO´s that provide social services) n Users (users of social services or people from their organisations)

o Team 2 – comunity planning coordinators from the 21 municipalitites in which is the community planning realised o Strategic mid-term plan (4 year) o Action plan (1 year) o Creating sufficient network of social services in South Moravia region

Community planning of social services o First came as a pilot projects in two regions around 2000 o Projects from ESF money to enhance the community planning o Comunity planning in all the regions o The regions have legal obligation to prepare Strategic medium – term plan for social services now

Why is „community“ important? o Community based services o Opposite to institutional care o Services delivered to user to his own community (not delivering user to services) o Providing only those specialised services that are necessary and are not present as mainstream services in the community o Maintaining the roots and origianl natural community and the network of informal carers (family, friends, neighbours)

Informal care o Families are the biggest providers of social services o In Czech Republic they do not get any support (financial support or counselling, respite services) o It is starting to be recognized as important

What works well o Regular meetings of all three parties. o There is a good knowladge about the situation in the region and its main problems. o It is well demonstrated that users and their needs are important and heard. o The proces is open to everybody.

What is difficult Involving users Planing creates great expectations among users Users have weaker voice then service providers Planning doesn´t work when there is still the same budget for social services (or lower) o Cooperation between the different working groups o The process is too long and not flexible and doesn´t answer well urgent needs o o

Thank you! o barbora. uhlirova@spmpcr. cz o www. spmpcr. cz