Model of integrated special social services in EKO: results of public monitoring

On the territory of East Kazakhstan, the "Model of integrated special social services - client-oriented approach to system management" project continues [1].

Over the course of the project, the specialists of the ZUBR Social Corporate Fund conducted a public survey of the quality and effectiveness of special social services in the field of social protection, education, and health. The main monitoring lines were:

- a "mirror" survey of consumers and suppliers of special social services (complete and objective information on the quality and effectiveness of special social services is collected "through the eyes" of consumers and suppliers); and

- focus groups in Zyryanovsk and Ust-Kamenogorsk with the participation of government agencies in the areas of social protection, education and health, PMPC, ITU, NGOs and other specialists involved in providing special social services.

In addition, a number of expert meetings and brainstorming sessions with specialists from correctional facilities, PMPK, employment and social programs in Ridder and Glubokoe, the health facilities, and medical workers in the polyclinics in Ust-Kamenogorsk were carried out as part of the project.

The most urgent topics addressed at these meetings were various aspects of the interaction between direct service providers (social workers, medical workers, and social educators), procedural issues of document preparation, the implementation of an individual rehabilitation program for disabled individuals, optimal mechanisms for uniting efforts, and the integration of such services.

A painstaking analysis, carried out with the involvement of various stakeholders, enabled the specialists of SKF “ZUBR” to develop a draft schematic of the process of providing special social services in the three studied areas and of the process of interaction with the consumer, on the basis of which a single scheme of integrated special social services is being developed. In addition, proposals regarding the amendment of normative legal acts have been developed, in addition to a project regarding the Individual chart of an individual (family) in a difficult life situation.

These documents are being presented for broad expert discussion, including the members of the Working Group on the revision of the procedure for assessing and determining the need for special social services, the introduction of an integrated model for the provision of special social services, and the cost of special social services established under the Ministry of Health and Social Development of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

[1] The project is being implemented with the support of the Eurasia Foundation of Central Asia and USAID as part of the Initiative to Support Good Governance.