Czech Gov't Agency for Social Inclusion publishes Methodology for a Coordinated Approach to Socially Excluded Localities

23 January 2015

6 minute read

The Czech Government Agency for Social Inclusion has published a document that will be the basis of its work in towns and villages during the next EU-funded programming period. The detailed material is called the Methodology for a Coordinated Approach to Socially Excluded Localities.

The Agency has prepared the publication in collaboration with the Czech Labor and Social Affairs Ministry, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport, and the Ministry for Regional Development. It presents in detail the so-called Coordinated Approach to Socially Excluded Localities (KPSVL) that will be applied in towns and villages addressing the issue of social exclusion that have decided to take advantage of the Agency’s support.

The handbook describes the role of the Agency, municipalities and other actors in the process, how to prepare a local strategic plan, and how to coordinate the approach being applied in various areas and spheres (education, employment, family policy, housing, security, social services). The KPSVL is a tool for helping associations of municipalities, as well as individual towns and villages, with the social inclusion of socially excluded residents by using the financing available from the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) for local support through the Agency.

The KPSVL is based on the practices used by the Agency today in its collaboration with municipalities. The Agency proceeds according to proven methods, from analyzing a situation and putting together a local partnership (between the authorities, employers, the municipality, nonprofit organizations, police, the public, schools and school facilities and other relevant stakeholders) to writing a Strategic Social Inclusion Plan (SPSZ), implementing and evaluating it, including revising the plan for the next programming period.

Collaboration between the Agency and a municipality lasts three years. In addition to support for the development of social policies (on education, employment, housing and security) in the municipality, the Agency concentrates on the efficient use of Structural Funds and provides municipalities and other partners an extensive service of writing and implementing projects and ensuring their sustainability.

The aim of the KPSVL is to ensure the appropriateness, consistency, coordination and synergy of local social integration measures based on local needs. The measures will be implemented through a specific financing mechanism from ESIF funds.

The basic starting point for this approach at the level of a specific town or village is its strategic plan. This is a broadly-conceived strategy for integrating the areas of debt issues, education, employment, housing, security, social services and support for social cohesion generally, as well as the development of a municipality or region in the context of the available resources.

Such a strategy overlaps with various other types of strategic documents, most often with community plans for social services, with integrated plans for urban development, with municipal and regional crime prevention plans, and with municipal and regional plans for integrating Romani people and other minorities, etc. The SPSZ is a kind of overarching strategy that respects strategic documents already in place as long as they do not constrain or weaken the plan.

The key actor in the SPSZ is the association of municipalities or the individual town or village that has applied to collaborate with the Agency. The basic criteria for being chosen for this collaboration are the absorption capacity of a municipality and its relevant partners; the comprehensiveness of the planned intervention; the intention to use financing from more than one operational program (OPZ – Operational Program Employment, OPVVV – Operational Program Education, Science and Research, IROP – Integrated Regional Operational Program); the level of need; the potential of the measures to improve the situation of their target groups; and support from the municipal leadership for collaboration with the Agency and for introducing pro-inclusive measures.

The implementer of the plan is the association of municipalities or individual town or village, but other entitles may also apply as part of the KPSVL; those eligible to apply will be defined by the various operational program tenders. The KPSVL is intended for a municipality that wants to systematically address the problem of social exclusion on its territory (in particular socially excluded localities) and that will need support from ESIF funding for those solutions, in particular for:

Municipalities that presume they will take advantage of more than one operational program. The tenders for submitting projects to OPZ, OPVVV and IROP will be coordinated as part of the KPSVL.
Municipalities that presume they will file more than one or two projects, because the projects will be well-connected as part of the SPSZ and will be linked to municipal social policy.
Municipalities that already have set up professional staffers or a team to design and implement ESIF projects, as well as those inexperienced with projects, which will be served by the Agency providing support in designing and implementing projects to the extent negotiated.
Municipalities that presume they will take advantage in particular of the OPZ because the Czech Labor and Social Affairs Ministry will tie funding allocated for projects planned as part of the SPSZ to it.
Municipalities that want to take advantage of the opportunity to build or reconstruct apartment units for social housing purposes, as there will be a tender as part of IROP that will be meant exclusively for municipalities and partners collaborating only within the KPSVL regime, which will reduce the competition.
Municipalities that have already implemented extensive projects and that plant o develop them further (with a view to the conditions of sustainability for the outputs of the existing projects).

On the other hand, the KPSVL is not appropriate for:

Municipalities that do not want to address all or most of an area affected by social exclusion in a coordinated way (i.e., through education, employment,housing, security and services),
Very small villages with a small number of socially excluded residents.

The KPSVL presumes there will be a relatively high allocation of funding based on territory, but also presumes the financing will be efficiently used for the stated purposes, which means a sufficient number of eligible recipients of support among the target groups must exist. For small villages, therefore, it is appropriate that they join forces in their area with other entities with which they are naturally linked.

The KPSVL will include possible collaborations with at least 70 other associations of municipalities or individual towns or villages. There are 20 municipalities currently involved in the KPSVL with which the Agency is now collaborating.

In the next waves of enrollment another 10 municipalities will become involved in the KSPVL starting in March 2015; as of January 2016 another 17 municipalities will join; as of July 2016 another eight municipalities will join; as of July 2017 another nine will join; and as of January 2019 at least another nine will join, depending on demand, for a total of 17 municipalities and perhaps more joining in July 2019. The methodology is in effect as of 19 January 2015, has been distributed to Regional Authorities, towns and villages, and has been published on www.socialni-zaclenovani.cz.