LOCAL SOCIAL SERVICES FOR CHILDREN IN SERBIA Ivana Koprivica Tatjana Lazor Obradovic Rada Mitrovic Provincial Institute of Social Welfare Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, Republic of Serbia

Provincial Institute of Social Welfare, since 2006: Reasearch and analysis Professional support to social services providers Information and Promotion Professional training

Context 1. Social inclusion 2. Decentralisation and deinstitutionalisation in the social protection system (transformation of residential institutions, and development of community based, local services) 3. Law on Social Protection and Rules on standards on services 4. Support from EU and bilateral donors in the reform of the social protection system 5. Poverty; individual level, family level, local community level

Local Social services for children in Serbia 162 municipalities in Serbia, 45 in AP Vojvodina Population of AP Vojvodina: 2 million Day care centres Home assistance Personal assistance Respite care Financed from the local budgets and through projects (from the national Government and donor funds) No data on number of services beneficiaries, needs assessment, and comprehensive planning of services

Project “Professional support in establishment of local social services for children with disabilities and their families in Serbia” Improving capacities of services provider to deliver efficient and quality community based services for children with disabilities Increasing number of children with disabilities who receive local, community based services that would support their inclusion.

Tre Role of the PISW: 1. Training for professionals on how to establish and develop Home care and Respite care services for children with disabilities and their families (73 service providers from 68 municipalities in Serbia) 2. Mentor support to service providers, to establish Home care and Respite care services (service providers from 42 municipalities) 3. Developing Manuals on establishing local services for children with disabilities (download at )

Additional research on state of in municipalities: Along with this project, in its’ final stage, with the support of World Vision, the Institute conducted the research on current state of affairs in 3+12 municipalities in Serbia, in order to explore the level of decentralization of the social protection system.

What was analysed with this research? Number ald level of development of services for children The level of institutionalisation of services within local communities Level of development of local government mechanisms in selection of services providers and establishment of services Finances and sustainability of services Needs for development of new local services Availability of services Quality of services comparing to the national quality standards Aspects and quality of intersectorial cooperation

The findings 3: All municipalities have targeted children in their strategic documents, and predicted measures for improvement quality of life and position of children in their communities Lack of continual and sufficient local budgetary allocations for services for children (although there are separate budgetary lines in the municipal budgets for these services, there is no money) Low level of involvement of municipal administration in needs assessment, planning and monitoring of services that they are financing

Dominant services providers are still public institutions-residential inst. And centres for social work, while civil society organizations are on margins or receiving less funds for the same services Intersectorial cooperation and coordination is very weak, and if there is present it is more informal and the pillars are again centres for socail work There are no developed monitoring systems nor professional supervision of local services for children The services are more available for children from urban areas then those from rural areas The findings 2:

The reccommendations to share with you: To improve intersectorial cooperation and coordination To improve position of civil society organizations-services providers To establish equal access to services for all children To provide municipalities with their sources of income (fiscal decentralization) To raise awarenes of local administration on their ownership on services and the reponsibility that the ownership brings To build capacities of local administration to supervise and monitor local services that they finance

THANK YOU for your attention Provincial Institute of Social Welfare Bulevar Mihajla Pupina street, No Novi Sad +381/ ; / ;