Civil Law Constructions in Social Service Legislation

Abstract

The article analyzes the problems of legal regulation of social services that arise in connection with the use of private law principles in the legislation on social services (contractual structures, the involvement of non-state providers of social services, the introduction of competitive principles, etc.). On January 1, 2015, the Federal Law of December 28, 2013 No. 442-FZ “On the Basics of Social Services for Citizens in the Russian Federation” entered into force, which made significant changes to the system of social services. In this regulatory legal act, a complex of legislative novelties was implemented, aimed at overcoming the crisis situation in social services. It was assumed that ensuring a competitive environment, including through the provision of social services on a contractual basis, would improve their quality, and the involvement of non-governmental organizations would solve the problem of the availability of social services. However, an analysis of the provisions of the current federal legislation and the legislation of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation revealed certain problems of legal regulation that impede the achievement of the goals set (violation of the continuity of legislation, the use of certain private law elements of legal regulation in the regulation of public law relations, etc.). Based on the results of the study, the Author concludes that the goals set for the legislator have not been fully achieved. The involvement of non-state providers of social services did not solve the problem of accessibility of social services. At the same time, at the federal and regional levels, a legal space has been created for “delegating” certain state functions to private organizations, the effectiveness of which raises objective doubts. The use of some private law elements of legal regulation (for example, the legal structure “contract”) does not serve the purpose of ensuring the guarantee of social services, but entails further “commercialization” of relations in the field of social services. The article also examines the experience of using so-called hospital-replacing technologies in certain constituent entities of the Russian Federation (creation of foster families for disabled people and citizens living alone). The Author comes to the conclusion that hospitalreplacing technologies can hardly be considered a really effective means of solving the problem of the availability of social services due to the low level of fees received for caring for single citizens and (or) disabled people.