The training programme “Steps for Specialists. Arranging Social Services in Municipalities” was launched on April 2. 90 social protection professionals from 45 municipalities with a population of under 50,000 have joined.
Valerii Mikulich, Head of the Working Group on Social Protection and Adviser at the Regional Office of U-LEAD with Europe in the Zhytomyr Oblast, spoke about it as follows:
“During six weeks of training events — designed specifically for those responsible for arranging and providing social services in the municipality — the participants will improve their professional competencies, learn about the procedures to facilitate systemic efforts in this direction and master methods and tools for eliminating conflict situations in the provision of social services.”
The programme consists of five seminars, three training sessions and a study visit, during which the participants will learn about best practices in arranging social services in municipalities. In order to master the theory better, participants will have homework.
At the first event, they learned about client orientation in the provision of social services, as well as the procedures and techniques that can be used to set up a client-oriented system for the provision of social services. U-LEAD experts Iryna Zamysna and Nataliia Kuziak told the participants about this.
“Client-oriented approach applies to the market of all services, and social services are no exception. The main purpose of implementing the approach is to study people and their needs. Our main clients are the population, for whom we need to improve their well-being and standard of living in the municipality,” said Nataliia Kuziak.
The expert explained the principles of the client-orientated approach to the participants. Among other things, it is about listening to and understanding the needs of customers, understanding their rights, taking the necessary steps to improve services, ensuring proactive interaction, communicating in a way that meets the needs, developing skills to help, etc.
The expert also gave advice on arranging social services according to the new standards. To do this, the municipality needs to assess its social protection needs, develop rules, standards and policies for the provision of the services, ensure communication with the public using a client-oriented approach and establish communication channels.
Next, the participants will attend the training session “How to Organise Customer Service When Providing Social Services?”