25.08.2017

President Putin has endorsed a series of instructions for government departments following a meeting with the civil sector in Petrozavodsk on 26 July.

According to these, the status of volunteer organisations (volunteerism), as well as of organisers of voluntary activities and of volunteers, must be clarified by the end of the year. The concept of social entrepreneurship will also feature more dominantly in legislation. Income in kind received from voluntary work will be excluded from the tax base. President Vladimir Putin’ instructions were issued with the participation of the Federal Public Chamber and the Agency of Strategic Initiatives and are to be carried out by the 25 December. An inter-departmental commission on volunteering will also be set up. The president recommended that leaders of the federal regions should appoint officials to bear personal responsibility for work with volunteers.

The deadline also applies to establishing an extended definition of palliative care. The form in which this should be provided to outpatients and at home is to be clarified. The same applies to the way in which social services are offered to the terminally ill. Standard guidelines for end of life care are being devised.

Different forms of live-in care for disabled people will be established by law. Best practise for allowing close relatives and friends into intensive care units to visit patients will also be analysed.

During the Autumn session of the State Duma, the government is required to complete procedures for including non-governmental organisations in the register of providers of socially useful services.

The president has also instructed the Cabinet to consider including pro bono legal consultations, provided by volunteer law students, in their length of service record and to examine the issue of standardising tariffs for social work, based on the needs and outlays of providers, including non-commercial organisations.

The 2018 budget and the planned budget for 2019-2020 will make provision for costs incurred in the development of a single portal for information about volunteering. The head of the Association of Volunteer Centres, Artem Metelev, said at the Petrozavodsk meeting that the necessary outlay to meet the targets set would be 27 million roubles.

By 30 October, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and the CEO of the Agency of Strategic Initiatives, Svetlana Chupsheva, will present the head of State with a report on the progress of a pilot project on long term care for the elderly. By 31 August 2018, the head of the Ministry of Health, Veronika Skvortsova will also report on the professional training of nurses in Russia.

The full text of the President’s instructions may be found on our site. They include plans for ways in which the authorities and the volunteer force can cooperate in the search for people who have disappeared, strategies for expanding rehabilitation services, and other projects.

Source: https://www.asi.org.ru/news/2017/08/25/vstrecha-putina-s-nko-porucheniya/