The long-awaited national meeting of social services was held on 25 June, arousing a great interest. A topic for discussion was ‘Social services during the COVID-19 pandemic, new laws and regulations’, and comments and presentations on key issues were given by Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Policy Nadia Klisurska, state expert at the Social Inclusion Directorate to the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy Teodora Lyubenova, ASA Deputy Executive Director Svetlana Angelova, Head of the Social Services for Adults Department at the ASA Venelina Bogdanova, as well as representatives of municipalities and social service managers and providers throughout the country.
The meeting was moderated by Veselina Boteva, director of the Social Policy Directorate of Plovdiv Municipality and member of the NASO Board. For the first time since the Social Services Act and part of its regulations entered into force, a highly informative presentation on the licensing of private social service providers has been given to those working in the social services sector. Nikolina Ivanova, director of the Control, Monitoring and Licensing of Social Services Directorate to the Agency for Quality of Social Services, reviewed the framework of the Act, the documents necessary for issuing a licence, time limits for considering and issuing licences, etc. Teodora Lyubenova, state expert at the Social Inclusion Directorate to the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, went into details and main characteristics of the Implementing Regulations of the Social Services Act, its Regulations, the Ordinance on social service planning and the Ordinance on standards of payment for employees working in the social services sector.
An in-depth discussion focused on getting responses to the questions brought up from the on-site activity of social service providers, managers and specialists. Some of the questions were answered by experts from the relevant state institutions attending the meeting.
