NGOs as well as communal councils should
evaluate the work of institutions providing social services

The
Ministry of Labour has suggested that the quality of the services provided by
social institutions would be enhanced if community supervision were to be put
in place. It has thus announced involving community councils set up by
government agencies in the evaluation of service quality.This will make it
possible to identify the best of these institutions and to apply sanctions to those
hospitals, schools and libraries whose performance is substandard. People who
are well informed on the subject think that NGOs, trustee councils or members
of the federal and regional citizens’ chambers might perform the oversight
function. They would evaluate the competence of the professionals, the
convenience of the arrangements and the accessibility of the services. The
ministry will be submitting a bill for the purpose to  the government on 1 April.It is planned
subsequently to carry out pilot projects in a number of regions.

A
meeting is to be convened to discuss the subject which will be chaired by
Dmitry Medvedev, prime minister of the Russian Federation.

Maxim
Topilin, minister of labour and social welfare, believes that an independent
evaluation of the work of the social institutions can be obtained only if the
views of the public are known. It will be for the community councils to arrange
for institutions to be rated and canvass the views of the users of social
services. It is only in this way that the authorities will be able to ascertain
how the public rate the services provided and call negligent or unscrupulous
chief executives to account. This will result in improvement in the quality and
accessibility of the services. The criteria on which an evaluation would be
based could be how much information about an institution is available, how
convenient for clients the arrangements for service delivery are, waiting
times, and the kindness, politeness and competence of the staff. It is open to
members of the community councils to add to this list.

It
was Elena Topoleva, chair of the federal citizen’s chamber social policy,
labour relations and quality of life committee, and head of the working group
on the development of NGOs

set
up by the presidential council on the development of civil society and human
rights, who suggested that NGOs should be involved in maintaining oversight in
addition to the community councils. She believes that it would not be desirable
to adopt a single model and that there should be flexibility. Also, Ms Topoleva
has suggested that experience of communal oversight over social institutions
should be taken into account, e.g. the work of trustee councils in schools.

http://www.asi.org.ru/asi3/rws_asi.nsf/va_WebPages/0FFE66464684F26A44257B1F004B8DFARus