Project Starting Date: 15 July 2015
Project End Date: 15 July 2017
Project Budget: € 1.366.250,00
Contractor: WYG International Ltd in consortioum with ESEP Limited (UK) and WYG Consulting Ltd (HR)
Final Beneficiary: Ministry of Labour and Social Policy (MLSP)
Overall objective:
To improve the system, services and professional capacities for social inclusion of disadvantaged men and women and promotion of equal opportunities in the labour market.
Purposes:
- To develop and implement vocational rehabilitation and personal assistance services for more intensive and quality integration of persons with disability into the labour market.
- To improve the delivery and monitoring of the services provided to the vulnerable groups, through further automation of the business processes in the social protection institutions and facilitation of the data exchange between the competent institutions.
Expected Results:
- Designed, tested and introduced standardized vocational rehabilitation services of people with disabilities for their successful integration in the labour market;
- Built capacity of professionals in the area of vocational rehabilitation for direct work with people with disabilities;
- Established cooperation between social protection, employment and educational organizations for implementation of vocational rehabilitation;
- Designed, tested and introduced personal assistance services to promote employment and economic self-sufficiency of people with disabilities;
- Existing social protection services software upgraded with new functionalities and modification of existing functions and data exchange between the institutions in the field of social protection intensified.
Target groups:
- Relevant staff of the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, Centres for Social Work, Institute for Social Policy, Institute for Social Affairs, care institution, special schools and other training and education providers, Employment Service Agency, academics, local authorities, business community, social partners, NGOs and in particular organizations representing people with disabilities, and other relevant stakeholders;
- Existing care practitioners and potential personal assistance providers, in particular unemployed people including those with experience in the provision of social services.
Key project activities:
The project is comprised of three components:
- Component 1: Promoting vocational rehabilitation and employment for people with disabilities;
- Component 2: Introducing personal assistance services for people with disabilities;
- Component 3: Upgrading of the existing IT monitoring system and networking.
COMPONENT 1:
PROMOTING VOCATIONAL REHABILITATION AND EMPLOYMENT FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILTIES
Sub-component 1: Designing a system of quality vocational rehabilitation of people with disabilities
- Developing a proposal of a relevant model of vocational rehabilitation for the country.
- Organizing a study-visit in a Member state with a good experience in vocational rehabilitation services, especially in quality standards.
- Designing standards for vocational rehabilitation for people with disabilities.
- Developing vocational and employment rehabilitation programmes.
- Developing training programmes and competences certification for professionals providing vocational rehabilitation services.
Sub-component 2: Implementing the system of vocational rehabilitation:
- Designing and implementing pilot actions in selected day-care centers and/or other organizations to test and evaluate the efficiency of the proposed system.
- Preparing amendments to the regulatory framework, guidelines and procedures where needed for implementation of the vocational rehabilitation.
- Training/retraining of professionals according to the developed training programs.
- Introducing the new system in other daily centers and/or other potential providers by guiding them to implement activities necessary for delivery of vocational rehabilitation services.
- Assessing spatial infrastructure and equipment in the day-care centers needed for provision of vocational rehabilitation services.
- Preparing recommendation for further promotion of vocational rehabilitation services.
COMPONENT 2:
INTRODUCING PERSONAL ASSISTANCE SERVICES FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES
- Conducting a field research to assess the needs and demand for personal assistance services
- Developing a relevant and sustainable model for provision of personal assistance
- Piloting and evaluating the proposal of personal assistance in performing both daily living activities and work related activities.
- Support to Ministry of Labour and Social Policy in developing and putting in place legal framework, policies and procedures that should govern the provision and use of personal assistance services:
- Updating the legal framework by preparing amendments to the social protection law and by-laws;
- Developing written guidelines and procedures for standardized provision of the personal assistance services;
- Designing a programme for supporting the provision of the personal assistance services;
- Implementing capacity building activities (e.g. trainings) for entities that will be involved in the field of personal assistance;
- Creating tools for supervision of the performance of the personal assistance services;
- Designing and implementing trainings, information and publicity activities.
COMPONENT 3:
UPGRADING OF THE EXISTING IT MONITORING SYSTEM AND NETWORKING
- Development of a detailed work programme and project time schedule, including key milestones, deadlines and the critical points/ critical path.
- Development of “Functional Specification“ document and its presentation to the Beneficiary for the approval.
- Preparing a “Design document” and its presentation to the Beneficiary for the approval
- Developing the software, producing a “System Implementation Manual” and its presentation to the Beneficiary for approval.
- Development and implementation of a Plan for testing of all functionalities of the new system and preparation of a Test Result report
- System deployment according to the Deployment Plan (part of System Implementation Manual document) and training of end users, analysts and administrators
- Provision of corrective maintenance for solving the errors and helpdesk of the delivered system
