Starting from 2000, the Republic Centre for Support of Persons with Intellectual Disability – PORAKA is actively involved in creating conditions for implementation of the reform process of deinstitutionalization in our country, i.e., prevention from institutionalization by establishing social services for support of persons with intellectual disability and their families in the community.
The Republic Centre – PORAKA is the first organisation of persons with intellectual disability that started with creation of social services for its members, and at the moment has developed a network of 5 social clubs and 5 day centres for adolescents and adults with intellectual disability. The day centres of the Republic Centre – PORAKA provide support on daily basis, training for gaining independent living skills, occupational programmes, educational programmes and social activities for persons with intellectual disability. At the same time, the day centres offer support for the families by including their members with intellectual disability in the social service during one part of the day, providing them with possibilities for better family functioning and opportunities for employment of the parents for increasing the modest family budget.
During the entire process of service delivery, the Republic Centre – PORAKA acquires significant experiences and accomplishes positive results that are recognised by international and national organisations and institutions and has received several awards and acknowledgements for the quality of its social services. But, at the same time, the Republic Centre – PORAKA faces great challenges in terms of the sustainability of its network of day centres, and for almost a quarter of a century it advocates the necessity of establishing partnership relations with the state in the process of service provision, by creating efficient mechanisms for pluralisation of the social services sector (including licensing and financing the associations that provide social services).
In that direction, in 2019, the Republic Centre – PORAKA supported the adoption of the Law on Social Protection, which introduced positive innovations and opportunities for inclusion of associations as social service providers. Unfortunately, the by-laws (more specifically the Rulebook on day care social services for persons with disability) that regulate the norms and standards for obtaining license for day centre for adults with intellectual disability, instead of encouraging the associations, they limit the licensing process. This particularly refers to the conditions set in terms of spatial possibilities, equipment and personnel needed for a day centre for adults with intellectual disability.
1. Regarding spatial possibilities, we would like to mention that the day centres of the Republic Centre – PORAKA are mostly set in municipal premises that have been assigned to the Republic Centre – PORAKA for a long-term use, and they have been renovated and adapted to meet the needs for successful functioning of the social service. However, some of the facilities of the Republic Centre – PORAKA’s day centres of cannot fulfil part of the criteria set in the rulebook. These are some of the examples:
- Article 29 of the Rulebook states that the day centre should have its own parking space, something that it is not possible since, as we have mentioned, the facilities for the day centres of the Republic Centre – PORAKA are assigned by the municipalities and some of them do not have technical possibilities for parking space.
- In Article 31, the Rulebook determines the size of the premises in fixed square meters, which is not suitable, since the size should depend on the number of users. Moreover, the technical characteristics are limiting (for example, the floor should be with an elastic base, and in most of the day centres of the Republic Centre – PORAKA the floor is with granite tiles that are easy to maintain).
- The Rulebook determines that the administrative and the economic-technical premises must be separate (Article 35 and 36)), which is not technically possible in some of the existing facilities of the day centres.
2. Regarding the necessary equipment (Article 37 of the Rulebook), the fixed determination of the type and amount of equipment in the day centres is not adequate because it depends on the programme contents and the number of users (e.g., different occupational activities require different equipment. Also, specifying that there should be 12 chairs in the dinning room is not appropriate if there are 20 users).
3. Regarding the number of staff that is stated in the Rulebook, there is a great concern that any citizens’ association might fulfil. These are the reasons:
- In Article 39, the provision that one professional and one carer should be provided for every six users is inappropriate when it comes for day centres for adults with intellectual disability who gain independent living skill in these day centres (maybe carers are needed for child age). Carers are not hired in the day centres of the Republic Centre – PORAKA, only professionals who are responsible for a group of 5 to 8 users, and the number of users in one group depends on the possibilities and potentials of the users. Additionally, the obligation to provide carers unnecessarily burdens the budget framework, i.e., it almost doubles the financial resources needed for the regular functioning of a day centre.
- In Article 40, the provision that a day centre for persons with disability should also have a cleaning person, and that in a day centre where users prepare their own meals, there should be a cook, does not correspond to the goals of the programme activities of day centres for adults with intellectual disability, whose main function is gaining independence of the users. In the day centres of the Republic Centre – PORAKA, users are trained how to maintain hygiene of the premises and how to independently prepare meals and operate kitchen appliances.
The Republic Centre – PORAKA proposes a revision of the Rulebook by including associations that have experience in providing day care services, in order to enable:
- Minimum realistically achievable standards that will be necessary to fulfil by each association.
- Greater flexibility of the criteria and possibility for differentiation according to target groups, especially when it comes to day centres for different groups of persons with disability, since it is not appropriate that the same standards apply for different groups (for example, for adults with intellectual disability and for children with cerebral palsy).
- Greater focus on the quality of the service provision process, in accordance with the modern frameworks for the quality of social services, by introducing provisions that will regulate the individual approach and personal planning, the use of modern work methods and techniques, as well as including the users in the processes of planning and delivering the service.
