Statement taken from World Vision

Why do we need community-based services?

Community-based services should allow the fulfillment of basic needs of the citizens of Serbia, both children and adults.

Services are intended for those to whom society needs to provide additional support to be able to participate in everyday life in the community in which they live - to go out of the house, to buy food, to bathe, to get medical treatment, to go to school, to be surrounded by other people, to develop their abilities.

There are different forms of these services - some services are provided to beneficiaries in their homes, some in specially equipped premises, while some facilitate the functioning of beneficiaries outside of their homes. These are, for example, home help for the elderly and children with developmental challenges, drop-in centres for children living and working in the streets, safe houses for victims of violence, various kinds of day-care centres - for children with risky behaviour, children with developmental challenges, etc.

Community-based services can be performed by service providers from the public, private and civil sectors, on the basis of public procurement tenders, from a range of services envisaged by law and deemed necessary by the local self-government.
Community-based services are needed not only by those who use them directly, but also by their families and community.

Why are the services for children in the community being discontinued?
The suspension of work and discontinuation of services for children in the community are ongoing in the territory of Serbia.

The provision of services is chronically at risk as a consequence of the lack of understanding of the need for them by national and local authorities, and recently also as a result of the way of the implementation of austerity measures and reduction of the scope of public sector.

The Amendments to the Law on Budget System, adopted towards the end of 2013*, prohibit the employment of new staff in the next two years, while the number of temporarily engaged associates in the institutions financed from the budget is limited to 10% of the total number of employees. Although the law provides exceptions to these restrictions for some users of public funds**, the social protection sector is not among them. Thus, the restriction on the number of associates without exemption applies also to social protection institutions (social welfare centres) that often provide community-based services through the engagement of associates - for example home care assistants for elderly people or for children with developmental challenges.
In addition to the national Law, the Decision on Amending the Decision on Social Protection Rights and Services for the City of Belgrade, adopted on 22 April 2014***, revoked two necessary services from the range of services provided by the law – Drop-in Centre and Personal Assistance. These services have not been adequately supported by the City of Belgrade even before adopting this Decision and they are now deleted as unnecessary, which prevents service providers from raising funds from donors for these particular services. Also, by revoking the services intended for a group of citizens, without prior evidence on these services being unnecessary or providing alternative solutions to meet the needs of beneficiaries, the attitude of the government and society towards citizens is brought into question.

We recall that in Serbia there have been investments for years in the development of local services, which should respond to the needs of citizens in their place of residence, without separation from the family and community. Great amounts of funds from international donors, including the funds from the European Union and individual EU member states, have been directed precisely on encouraging the introduction of new services, which should be sustainable after the completion of donor-supported projects, and taken over by local communities and funded by municipalities.**** Paradoxically, this kind of austerity measures has resulted in spending the resources invested by international donors, as well as our national government and local self-governments (for each of these services it was necessary to train personnel, equip premises, buy working material or vehicle) .

We consider it extremely harmful to prevent in this way the functioning of the services on which the exercise of basic rights of beneficiaries and their families directly depends. We invite stakeholders in the government - including the Ministry of Labour, Employment, Veteran and Social Affairs, the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government and the Ministry of Finance, to find a way, as soon as possible and in cooperation with local self-governments and social welfare centres, to align the austerity measures, reduction of public sector size and its reform with the needs and rights of the beneficiaries of social services and their families.

World Vision is an organisation focused on humanitarian and development assistance and the situation of children, working in more than 100 countries, including the EU member states and the countries that initiated the EU membership process. The partner implementing the World Vision’s activities in Serbia is Agroinvest Foundation and the last few years the organisation has been active in the field of monitoring the development of local services (individually and in partnership with the Provincial Institute for Social Protection), as well as through the support of the Network of Organisations for Children (MODS), in partnership with the Open Club (Head Office of MODS Secretariat).
 
* Law on Amendments to the Law on Budget System, Official Gazette no. 108/2013
** Article 6 of the Law
*** Official Journal of the City of Belgrade 37-14. Available at http://www.sllistbeograd.rs/pdf/download/707/
**** One of the most recent big investments was the donation of the European Union in the amount of three million euros for the development of community-based services for children with disabilities and their families in 41 municipalities in Serbia in the period 2011-2013. The donation was part of the 2008 IPA Social Inclusion (EuropeAid /130732/L/ACT/RS)