Children with disabilities will be helped periodically – Newspaper Kommersant No. 16 (7461) dated 01/30/2023

Several Russian regions have changed the scope of guarantees of free assistance for children with disabilities. Federal legislation establishes for them the right to social services, however, each region determines the list of services and the frequency of their receipt independently. In the Sverdlovsk region, officials changed the wording “as needed” to “a certain number of services per year”, a similar situation in the Jewish Autonomous Region and the Volgograd region. Public organizations argue that because of this, the availability of free assistance has sharply decreased. The Ministry of Labor says that a clear frequency will “eliminate abuse”.

Federal Law No. 442 “On the Fundamentals of Social Services for Citizens” establishes: unprotected categories, including disabled children and their parents, can receive social, medical, household, psychological and legal assistance free of charge in the amounts they need. Such support can be provided by both state and non-state social service providers under the IPPS document (individual program for the provision of social services). As explained to “Kommersant” in the Ministry of Labor of the Russian Federation, the general principles for the provision of social services are established at the level of the federation. And “on the ground” further work is organized and carried out by the regions – at the expense of the regional budget.

The charity foundation for helping children with autism and other mental illnesses “I’m Special” told Kommersant about the order of the Ministry of Social Policy of the Sverdlovsk Region “On Amendments to the Standards of Social Services …”, which came into force on January 23. The organization is confident that this decision will significantly reduce the amount of free assistance for children with disabilities. In the new order, the wording “as needed” was replaced with “a certain number of services per year.” At the same time, the tariffs at which service providers operate remain the same. For example, the service “Individual socio-psychological counseling” is now offered to be provided a maximum of twice a year – at a rate of 116 rubles. 45 kop. at a time. Training a family to help a seriously ill relative is limited to four services per year for a total of 155 rubles. 24 kop. “Socio-psychological patronage” is represented by two services per month at a rate of 174 rubles. 68 kop. (349 rubles 36 kopecks per month, or 4192 rubles per year).

Kommersant checked whether similar restrictions appeared in other regions. A similar situation arose in the Jewish Autonomous Region, Kristina Mazurova, general director of the Fidget Center for Psychological Assistance, told Kommersant. She has already sent an appeal to the department of social protection of the population of the government of the Jewish Autonomous Region. In it, she points out that the families of children with disabilities are concerned about “an unreasonable reduction in the volume of social services to be provided to them in the newly issued IPSS”. “For example, the IPPSU establishes the frequency of providing the service of socio-pedagogical correction, including diagnostics and counseling, twice a week. At the same time, social and pedagogical correction includes classes with a defectologist, a speech therapist, a specialist in adaptive physical education, classes in sensorimotor integration, music classes and group general developmental classes. By choosing twice a week between these classes, the recipient of social services is deprived of the opportunity to visit all the necessary specialists, ”the appeal says. The answer has not yet been received.

Elena Stroeva, head of the Teply Dom social and labor rehabilitation center of the Volgograd public charitable foundation Children in Need, confirmed that the volume of free assistance to disabled children is also declining in the Volgograd Region: “When we first entered the register of suppliers eight years ago, there was specific package of services. For example, adaptive physical education, necessary for children with disorders of the musculoskeletal system, was every day – and now classes have been cut to 12 services in three months. Ms. Stroeva notes that the duration of the service starts from 20 minutes and is limited to 60 minutes on average.

Aleksandrina Khaitova, President of the I am Special Foundation, believes that children with disabilities and impaired social adaptation in the Sverdlovsk Region “from now on can no longer hope” for high-quality regular assistance from the state: “Highly qualified specialists will not be able to work for meager prices. Accordingly, with a high degree of probability, the number of non-state centers that work with special children will decrease.” State centers will provide assistance only once or twice a year in the form of short rehabilitation courses, Ms. Khaitova said. And children with mental disabilities need to consolidate any skills and knowledge on a permanent and intensive basis – according to research, at least 40 hours a month.

Alena Chuvirova from the city of Berezovsky, Sverdlovsk Region, told Kommersant that her daughter with cerebral palsy had actually lost help. Until recently, specialists from the “I am Special” center worked with her daily, and progress was made: “Since the child does not yet have speech, we began to learn to communicate using cards, hand motor skills improved, more sounds appeared.” On December 9 last year, according to Ms. Chuvirova, local social security asked them to “fix” the IPPSU, as extra actions were allegedly prescribed there by mistake: cutting nails, changing bed linen, taking out the trash. “I was told that if the social worker fulfills all these points, I will need to be deprived of parental rights,” says Ms. Chuvirova. In the department of social policy, Chuvirov and several other families “retroactively” reprinted the IPPSU – according to the woman, with the same date and number, but without the wording “as needed.” According to preliminary calculations by lawyers, because of this, the volume of assistance has decreased by at least ten times: out of 35 hours of ABA therapy per month, daughter Alena Chuvirova will have three.

The Ministry of Social Policy of the Sverdlovsk Region told Kommersant that in the order the frequency of providing social services “is set not less than the actual volume of consumption of social services for three years.” The agency assured that the reduction of the types of social services is not provided. And she stressed that the frequency established in the order was formed on the basis of “suggestions developed during various round tables, professional discussions held in 2021-2022.”

The Ministry of Labor of the Russian Federation noted that the organization of social services is “a regional authority, and the establishment of a minimum and maximum frequency of the provision of services is a practice used in many regions.” The ministry assured that this approach eliminates the subjective factor in the appointment of the volume of social services and abuse. For example, when organizations subjectively refuse to provide a particular service or, on the contrary, social services actually replace family care and educational services.

The director of the Far Eastern Research Center for Local Self-Government, Nina Polichka, sees the root of the problem in the fact that federal law No. 442 prescribes an “exemplary” list of social services. However, standards, funding norms, implementation mechanisms are not defined, and each region comes up with them on its own. “Therefore, the same service in one subject costs 6 rubles. 90 kopecks, in the other – under 100 rubles, and in the third – 3 thousand rubles, – says Ms. Polichka. – Each region, based on its own conclusions, interprets the concepts, which then become the basis for building the system and the practice of its functioning . There is nothing wrong with that, unless in Russia the task is to ensure equal rights of citizens to social services, regardless of their place of residence.”

Natalia Kostarnova; Nikolai Yablonsky, Yekaterinburg