Social protection of the population of Ukraine at the level of the territorial community.
Abstract
The article examines current issues relating to ensuring social protection for the population at the level of the territorial community. The relevance of the study stems from the increase in socially disadvantaged population groups during the military aggression of the Russian Federation, the need to provide social guarantees, the expansion of the range of social services, the transfer of a significant number of powers in the field of social protection to the local level, and the reduction in the share of the state budget allocated to guaranteeing the social rights of citizens.
The author has conducted an analysis of the regulatory and legal framework using comparative legal methods and the practice of implementing social policy at the level of the territorial community, using the example of the executive bodies of the Kharkiv City Council. Specific institutional, financial and organisational instruments for implementing social policy in the community have been examined.
Based on an analysis of the implementation of the 2021–2025 Programme for supporting safe living conditions in the field of social protection in Kharkiv, the article proposes directions for developing the social protection system at the municipal level. The study substantiates the introduction of a unified digital platform for social service users that integrates a beneficiary register, a digital case archive, performance statistics, and tools for monitoring service users’ satisfaction. The need to adapt digital tools to the actual needs of users (creation of electronic services, use of mobile applications) has been identified. Practical experience has shown that the participation of non-governmental organisations in the implementation of social policy at the municipal level (grant competitions and public contracts) needs to be formalised. The need to develop a targeted programme for the further training of social protection system staff has been established.
Directions for further research on ensuring social protection at the territorial community level have been proposed. These involve identifying measures to overcome administrative barriers in the network of social service providers through the use of digitalisation tools and developing methodology for the advanced assessment of social problems in order to identify their patterns, to search for effective ways to eliminate such problems and to save municipal resources.
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References
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