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Current stage of social work in Romania

Current stage of social work in Romania. Ancu ța Daniela Tompea, PhD Professor Victor Nicolăescu , PhD Professor University “Petre Andrei” Iasi Ch ișinău, 2nd June 2016. Premises:.

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Current stage of social work in Romania

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  1. Current stage of social work in Romania Ancuța Daniela Tompea, PhD Professor Victor Nicolăescu, PhD Professor University “Petre Andrei” Iasi Chișinău, 2nd June 2016

  2. Premises: Romania has been recorded a rate of 40.4% of the population at risk of poverty or social exclusion (2013), after a period of economic crisis that has deeply affected all social categories. Discussions: • To asses the main social functions of the State • To rethink in a much more precautionary ways the "universalist" interventions of social protection • To put in practice social work measures more concentrate and effective as impact and results

  3. Summary: 1. Romania - Profile Country 2. Capacity building of the national system of social work 3. Development of social services 4. Professionalization of social workers in Romania

  4. 1. Romania - Country Profile According with National Census, on October 2011 Romania's stable population was 20,121,641, of which 10,333,064 women (51.4%). The situation compared with the previous census - the resident population has decreased by 1559.3 thousand (of which 779.2 thousand women).

  5. 1. Romania - Country Profile In the period 2008-2013, the number of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion in the 27 countries of the European Union increased from 117 million to 121 million, wa reduction in poverty until the lowest number reached 114 million hile in the previous period 2005-2009 recorded people affected by poverty. In 2012 it recorded a peak of poverty 123 million people, and in 2013 was revealed a reducing of approximately 2 million people. Surely this trend is due to the economic crisis of 2008 and the recession that followed in most European countries. In respect of people suffering from poverty, Romania recorded a share of 40.4% of the population at risk of poverty or social exclusion.

  6. 1. Romania - Country Profile From the perspective of poverty in Europe, the list of the 20 poorest regions in Europe, Romania is part of the six areas, which cover almost the entire country (Stanciu, M. Mihailescu, A., 2011: 9).

  7. 1. Romania - Country Profile Children and youth from poor families • Some 320,000 children (0-17 years) were living in extreme poverty in 2010. Children in rural areas and Roma children are the most affected. The urban child poverty rate in 2010 was only 3.5% but in rural areas was 12.4%. Rates are significantly higher for Roma children: 27.3% for Roma children in urban areas, compared with 2% for Romanian children, and 41.1% compared to 10.6% in rural areas.

  8. 1. Romania - Country Profile Children in residential or family-based child care institutions In November 2011, there were registered 1,432 children aged 16-18, about to leave the child protection system and 1,541 young people 18+ at risk of exclusion.

  9. 1. Romania - Country Profile Children with parents working abroad • At the end of 2011 there were 83,658 children in this situation. Most, but not all of these children, are relatively well-off in material terms, but may be subject to emotional deprivation that harms their development. Lack of parental care and supervision may have serious effects on personality development, quality of nutrition and performance in school, including dropout rates.

  10. 1. Romania - Country Profile Single parent households and households with three or more children. • Whilst the relative poverty rate of childless households has dropped slightly in recent years, in households with children it has risen. Among these, in 2013 were registered single-parent families (51,776 families, representing around 20% beneficiaries) and households with RO 49 RO three or more children (50,425 households of which 29,035 with both parents) are faced with a risk of poverty that is 1.5-2 times greater.

  11. 1. Romania - Country Profile People who are jobless or who have low incomes • According to Eurostat, the in-work poverty rate in Romania in 2012 is the highest in Europe: in work at-risk-of-poverty rate by education level 51.2% (compared to the EU 28, 18.1%), in work at-risk-of-poverty rate 19.1% (compared to EU 28, 9.2%) and in work at-risk-of-poverty rate by household type 22.2% (compared to EU 28, 12.8%).

  12. 1. Romania - Country Profile Elderly people • In Romania the majority of dependent elderly are in the care of their family. However, people aged 65+ who live alone, account for 4.2% of the population and are considered a vulnerable group, especially in terms of access to health and social services. The share of 65+ population has already increased to 16.1% in 2011, compared to 11% in 1992 and it will reach over 26% in 2060.

  13. 1. Romania - Country Profile Roma people • Two-thirds of Roma live in poverty and half of them are exposed to extreme poverty. While some 619,000 people, 3.2% of the population (Census 2011) are declared Roma, social research by national a. • Low participation in education is a major cause of poverty among the Roma population: international bodies suggests an actual number of Roma that is much higher. • Low educational attainment, combined with discrimination, leads to large disparities in labour market outcomes and in extremely low productivity rates. Some 38% of Roma work as unskilled, 32% skilled occupations (workers, vendors, traders), 9% are workers in agriculture and 13% traditional Roma occupations.

  14. 1. Romania - Country Profile • Poverty is significantly concentrated in Romania's rural areas, where it is paired with housing deprivation mostly related to poor sanitation (restroom, bathroom, running water, sewerage infrastructure, etc.). • Although investment in basic infrastructure (roads, water supply and sewerage infrastructure) and services in rural areas has been supported both by national and EU funds, it is still underdeveloped, hampering economic growth, employment, attractiveness to investment and having a negative impact on quality of life of the rural population.

  15. 1. Romania - Country Profile People suffering from addictions, those affected by domestic violence, human trafficking and persons deprived of liberty or on probation • Stable trends • Reducing trends • Pressure to supervise

  16. 1. Romania - Country Profile Persons with disabilities. • In 2013, the number of persons with disabilities in Romania was 700,736, a ratio of 3.71 persons per 100 inhabitants. • The vast majority (683,921 persons, respectively 97.6%) are in the care of their families and/or are living an independent life.

  17. 1. Romania - Country Profile Deinstitutionalization • In December 2012, there were 1,210 public residential services and 356 private services providers for children at risk of separation from the family or separated from the family. • These services include: classic residential centres (120), modulated residential centres (102), apartments (444), family-type home (711), maternal centres (61) and emergency reception centres (63), other services (such as services for independent life, day and night shelters: 61). A number of 387 residential services are for children with disabilities. The number of children with disabilities protected in these services was of 8,511 at the end of 2012

  18. 1. Romania - Country Profile Poverty and social exclusion, which predominantly affect Romania's less developed regions, have their roots in: • the low-level of economic activity; • the high dependence upon low productive subsistence agriculture, fisheries and related activities; • unsustainability of past models for regional diversification, leading to deindustrialisation and migration.

  19. 1. Romania - Country Profile Romania remains subject to: • extensive poverty and social exclusion; • high levels of deprivation in rural areas and urban pocket; • social problems and antisocial behaviour, which particularly affect the poor and deprived; • low quality and unequal access to health and social services

  20. 2. Capacity building of national system Legislation The process of social inclusion comprise measures and multidimensional actions in the areas of social protection, employment, housing, education, health, information communication, mobility, security, justice and culture, for combating social exclusion and ensuring the active participation of people at all economic, social, cultural and political society. (According to Art. 6 letter cc) of Law no. 292/2011 - Law on Social Assistance

  21. 2. Capacity building of national system Legislation on Social Work Law no. 292/2011 - Law on Social Assistance Law no. 466/2004 – Law on Statute of Social Worker Strategies The national strategy on social inclusion and poverty reduction for the period 2015-2020

  22. 2. Capacity building of national system Classification of countries from the fifth wave of EU-enlargement by institutional changes of social protection systems (Stanescu, S.M., 2015)

  23. 2. Capacity building of national system Source: Lazar, F. (2015). Asistenţă socială fără asistenţi sociali? Bucuresti: Tritonic, 6 CENTRAL LEVEL MMFPSPV: Ministry of Labor, Family, and Social Protection ANPDCA: National Authority for Child Protection and Adoption ANESFB: National Authority for Equal Opportunities for Women and Men ANIMSS: National Agency for Labor and Social Security Inspection ANPD: National Authority for People with Disabilities ANPIS: National Agency for Payments and Social Inspection ANOFM: National Agency for Labour COUNTY LEVEL DGASPC: General Directorate of Social Assistance and Child Protection AJPIS: County Agency for Payments and Social Inspection AJOFM: County Agency for Labour LOCAL LEVEL SPAS: Public Social Service

  24. 2. Capacity building of national system Over a third of rural areas and ten percent of small towns do not have public social services, while expenditures for social services represents less than 0.6% of GDP in the first half of 2015 (MMFPSPV, 2015).

  25. 2. Capacity building of national system • World Bank 2014 census of SPAS sites (which included 3,140 municipalities in total) revealed that 38% of municipalities in rural areas and 9% of those in cities very small (max. 10,000 inhabitants) had not established SPASs, although from 2011 the law 292 social assistance requires all municipalities to have such services. • The same document states that in rural areas the average number of employees SPAS was 1.3 employees and 9.7 in urban areas (cities up to 50,000 inhabitants) with large variations depending on the size of the village. • In rural areas 31% of SPAS existing sites had at least one professional social worker, while in urban areas the percentage rises to 60%. • Staff shortages in spass was estimated to rural areas and towns of up to 50,000 people in 2300-3600 people, and the overall system of social assistance to 11,000 people (in the final 2012).

  26. 2. Capacity building of national system By 2020, Romania is committed to put in place a set of policies and programs to • lift at least 580,000 persons out of relative income poverty by 2020, compared to 2008; • break the inter-generational cycle of poverty; • prevent the recurrence of poverty and social exclusion; • ensure equal access to social assistance, cash transfers and services, such as to strengthen social cohesion.

  27. 3. Development of social services • Social services in Romania - organized at the level of local authorities, in a decentralised manner. • Local authorities have financial autonomy and are responsible for the development and management of social services. • Public and private providers operating in a regulated framework under a system of accreditation, in line with general and specific quality standards.

  28. 3. Development of social services The development of social services in the community is correlated with the need to address the issues related to vulnerable groups. Misunderstandings regarding vulnerability and vulnerable groups Social protection system is still faced with many gaps and inconsistencies, being unevenly developed especially in rural areas.

  29. 3. Development of social services • The monitoring process led by the European Commission has highlighted that Romania has greatly improved the system of social services, but it is still lagging behind many EU Member States in terms of employment in the sector. • The application of current legislation concerning the development of primary social services is hindered by lack of flexible forms of employment (for example, part-time), a very reduced share of social service expenditure in the GDP (Romania ranks bottom in the EU for this indicator), and the headcount and training of human resources. Romania has to submit twice a year to the European Commission administrative and statistical information alongside monitoring reports on social service developments based on the European Commission Recommendation on the active inclusion of people excluded from the labour market

  30. 4. Professionalization of social workers • The number of social workers in Romanian is nearly 5,000 active social workers (almost 3,500 of which are registered with the National College of Social Workers). • According to Law no. 292/2011, one social worker should provide services to not more than 300 beneficiaries.

  31. 4. Professionalization of social workers • Law 466/2004 on the status of the social work profession provides that within 5 years (ie until end 2009) all those who had not qualified social worker to obtain the recognition of the social work competencies • Improving the quality of human resources in the system (with qualitative and quantitative components) proposing the hiring of social workers / SPAs suitably qualified, with a target for 2011-2013 as SPAS 50% of employees are social workers / suitably qualified persons

  32. 4. Professionalization of social workers Lazar, F. (2015). Social work without social workers? (Asistenţă socială fără asistenţi sociali?) Bucuresti: Tritonic Main coonclusions - The small number of employees in the social welfare system in rural areas (average 1.27 per municipality) - Disparities rural - urban in the number of people employed in charge of social assistance (1.27 vs. 5.75) - Regional disparities in ensuring staff SPAs (counties with 1-2 employees on average vs. counties with more than 6)

  33. 4. Professionalization of social workers Lazar, F. (2015). Social work without social workers? (Asistenţă socială fără asistenţi sociali?)Bucuresti: Tritonic Main coonclusions: - Insufficient presence of social workers based in social assistance system, at the local level - The presence of important functions that require basic training in social assistance to people who have no such studies (approx. 70% do not have Social Studies) - Predominance of administrative functions to the detriment of those who comply train employees and / or type of qualifications required to post (over 80% have positions of inspector, advisor or referent).

  34. 4. Professionalization of social workers The National College of Social Workers: The College has follow main tasks: • adopt and elaborate the Code of Ethics and practical guidesfor ethical principles; • proposes ministry rules and regulationssocial work; • coordinates and supports the application of regulations andCollege rules by social workers bodies,public and private in Romania; • approves and issues the certificate of free practicesocial worker;

  35. 4. Professionalization of social workers The National College of Social Workers: The College has follow main tasks: • monitorregulations and rules of social workers,regardless of work, and apply sanctionsdisciplinary • collaboratewith ministries, administration institutionscentral and local government, educational institutions andresearch, NGOs, companies andother: • manages the National Register of Social WorkersRomania

  36. 4. Professionalization of social workers Recommendations to the National College of Social Workers (Lazăr, F., 2015, Profilul asistentilor sociali din Romania, Timisoara: Ed. Universitatii de Vest, p. 38) 1. To continue to support social workers to improve their social position, professional identity, the image of the profession and professional involvement in promoting societal level, but also among other social professions. 2. Adjusting database of the National Register of Social Workers to allow regular updating and retrieving aggregate data but also incorporate new information (eg. The residence / practice, continuing training courses, etc.). 3. Regularly updating the information contained in the database (this depends on the cooperation of social workers) to have a record of changes in the professional career of registered social workers.

  37. Conclusions • through the efforts undertaken to develop a system of social assistance correlated to dynamics of socio-economic risks • through lessons learned and results achieved Romania • may be perceived as a model built on social pressures and structural innovation in terms of adaptation and implementation of new functional mechanisms that requires validation given the fact that there is a certain duality between theory and practice.

  38. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION!

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