SOCIAL SERVICE CENTERS – NEW ORGANIZATIONAL UNITS IN THE MUNICIPALITY

Abstract

Social services related to activities aimed at meeting the basic needs of society are an important factor activating local communities. Commune self-governments undertook such projects on the basis of general provisions of the Act on Public Finance and commune self-government. On January 1, 2020, the Act on the provision of social services by social service centers, adopted on July 19, 2019, entered into force, specifying the scope of social services, the method of creating social service centers and their organizational structure. The study presents the basic issues concerning the definition of social services in the doctrine and in the aforementioned Act, and moreover, attention was paid to the method of establishing centers provided for by law: either as new organizational units of the commune or transforming the existing social welfare centers. Tasks in the field of social services were defined as own, non-obligatory tasks, therefore communes were left to assess the need to create such centers. The organizational structure of the center is also briefly presented, with attention being paid to the legal position of the director of the social services center