A working group meeting on implementation of the tasks of the reform of local self-government and territorial organisation of power in Ukraine was held at the Ministry of Social Policy, under the chairmanship of Olha Krentovska, First Deputy Minister of Social Policy, on 12 July, with the participation of the World Bank specialists.

The Ministry of Social Policy, with the support of the World Bank project “Modernisation of the Social Support System”, is taking measures to implement a comprehensive reform of the system of executive bodies and local self-government in order to provide the population with high-quality and accessible services in the field of social protection of the population and protection of the rights of children.

Since 2017, pilot projects have been carried out to introduce an integrated model for administering social support services and protect the rights of children within the activities of amalgamated hromadas.

Personnel training is being provided and 172 workplaces of specialists of structural subdivisions on social protection of the population, children's services and social work specialists are equipped with computer hardware in 40 pilot hromadas.

Besides, during the current year, within the framework of the mentioned project, it is envisaged to appropriately equip administrative service centres, established in the Transparent Office format, in the cities of oblast significance and in rural, settlement and urban hromadas.

At present, the Ministry of Social Policy is monitoring the activities of AHs in the field of social policy and defines measures aimed at increasing their ability to provide accessible and high-quality social services to residents at the hromada level.

In particular, in 2018, it is planned to purchase additional computer equipment to arrange workplaces of specialists of structural subdivisions on social protection, social work experts of the rural, settlement and urban AHs.

During the meeting, the proposals of oblast state administrations concerning the pilot project, an approximate list of indicators for assessing the implementation of new functions in the field of social protection of the population and protection of the rights of children at the AH level were considered.

Olha Krentovska stressed the importance of creating a developed system of social services for the population in the context of the decentralisation reform, improving their quality and accessibility for the Ukrainian population.