The present Law establishes, pursuant to the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus, to universally recognized principles and norms of international law, the fundamentals of legal regulation of the system of social care, determines sources of its financing, the order of rendering and receiving social services.

Article 1. Basic Terms Used in the Present Law

For the purposes of the present Law the following basic terms will be used:

social care – activities of legal entities and individuals of provision of social support, rendering of domestic, medical, psycho-pedagogical, legal services, and of rendering of material aid, creation of conditioning for social adaptation and rehabilitation of citizens and families who occurred in a difficult life situation;

difficult life situation – a situation, objectively violating the normal habitability of a citizen (full disablement because of age or physical disability, inability to self-service in connection with an illness, orphanhood, neglect, absence of permanent residence, conflicts and brutal treatment in family, loneliness, natural disasters, catastrophes, etc.) and complicated for his/her independent resolution;

social worker – a specialist having the necessary qualification corresponding to the requirements and nature of work, executed by him/her, and prone by his/her personal qualities to rendering social services;

social volunteer – an individual who is voluntarily rendering social services;

social refuge – a temporary place of residence, upbringing (education), maintenance and provision of everything needed to children-orphans, neglected children who remained without any wardship and guardianship, persons who have no housing, persons who suffered from physical violence or mental effect, natural disasters, catastrophes, etc.;

consultation-information services – rendering of information to citizens about their right for social help, about forms and conditions of receiving it, and also about social institutes and specialists capable to help most effectively in solution of a problem;

social-rehabilitation services – help in medical, professional, labour, psychological, pedagogical rehabilitation and adapting of citizens and families who occurred in a difficult life situation;

mediate services – contributing to installation and extension of links between citizens, families and social institutes, activation of contacts between them.

Article 2. Main Principles of Social Care

Social care is based on the following principles:

addressability;

humanism;

social justices;

social equality;

accessibility;

voluntariness;

confidentiality;

general preventive (prophylactic) direction.

Article 3. Aims of Social Care

The aims of social care are as follows:

rendering of assistance to citizens in overcoming of difficult life situations, which they are not capable to resolve through their own means and available capabilities;

prediction and prevention of origin of difficult life situations;

activation of own efforts of citizens and families, creation of conditions for independent solution of originating problems.

Article 4. System of Social Care

The system of social care comprises the following:

state bodies executing control in the field of social care within the limits of their competence;

centers of social care of families and different categories of population requiring social care (children, youth, citizens of elderly age, invalids and other categories of citizens);

social-rehabilitation centers; special clinics for hopelessly ill people (hospices);

social refuges;

centers of psychology-pedagogical help; centers (departments) of social home care; centers of temporary (day and night time) stay and patronage; fixed entities of social care (boarding houses for elderly people and invalids, psychoneurological boarding houses, children's boarding schools for children with peculiarities of psychophysical development special houses for lone elderly persons, etc.);

gerontological centers;

organisations of social care manufacturing rehabilitation means (prosthetic-orthopedic articles, invalid's engineering, etc.);

rehabilitation-labour workshops;

other legal entities rendering social services within the limits of their competence pursuant to the legislation;

individuals, including individual entrepreneurs rendering social services, whose right to be engaged in social care within the framework of the system of social care is officially confirmed in the order established by the legislation.

Article 5. State Minimum Social Standards in the Field of Social Care

Social care should correspond to state standards regulating the requirements to the volume and quality of social services, order and conditions of rendering them.

The state minimum social standards in the field of social care are established pursuant to the legislation of the Republic of Belarus on state minimum social standards.

Article 6. Right for Social Care

Citizens of the Republic of Belarus shall enjoy the right for social care.

Foreign citizens and persons without citizenship permanently living in the territory of the Republic of Belarus have the right for social care and execute the respective duties in equal with the citizens of the Republic of Belarus, unless otherwise is defined by the Constitution, laws and international treaties of the Republic of Belarus.

Article 7. Types of Social Services

The social services include the following:

rendering of consultation-information services;

rendering of material aid in monetary and natural form;

provision of a temporary place of stay at social refuges;

provision of day time stay in institutions of social care;

execution of social care at stationery institutions of social care and at home;

rendering of social-rehabilitation services;

rendering of mediate services;

rendering of other social services, defined by the legislation.

The order and the conditions of rendering social services are established by the legislation of the Republic of Belarus.

Article 8. Grounds for Rendering Social Services

Social services are granted in cases of:

scanty means;

orphanhood;

homelessness;

neglect of persons requiring constant care, upbringing and other social help;

unemployment;

disability;

temporal incapability or restricted (lost) professional capability;

inability to self-service in connection with age or for other reasons;

toxicomania, drug addiction, alcoholism;

family troubles;

returning from places of confinement;

natural or ecological disaster, technogeneous catastrophe;

in other cases, when social support is necessary.

Article 9. Order of Addressing for Receipt of Social Services and Order of Rendering Them

Social services are granted on the basis of an address (call) of a citizen, his/her guardian, trustee, other legal representative, state body, public association, persons executing care of those who require social care.

Any limitations of the right of citizens to address for rendering social services are forbidden.

Social services are granted, as a rule, in the place of permanent or preferential residence of the persons who need social care.

Pursuant to the legislation of the Republic of Belarus, the persons who address with petitions about rendering social services, must hand over to social workers and other specialists engaged in the system of social care all the necessary information for rendering of the asked social services.

State bodies, other legal entities, and also individuals who are rendering social services, shall guarantee the confidentiality of the information obtained.

Limitation of rendering social services guaranteed by the state, is allowed only in cases, envisaged by the law, in the interests of national safety, public order, protection of the morals, health of the population, rights and freedom of other persons.

Article 10. Payment for Social Services

Social care is carried out on gratuitous and paying bases.

No fee is charged for consulting or rendering of information about possible types, order and conditions of rendering social services.

The order and conditions of rendering gratuitous and paying social services by state bodies, other legal entities and individual entrepreneurs are established by the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus.

Article 11. Control of System of Social Care and Co-ordination of its Activities

The control over the state system of social care is carried out by the Republican bodies of state management entrusted with the liability for holding state policy in the field of social protection, labour, public health and education.

Co-ordination of the activities and scientific-methodical support of the system of social care are carried out by the Republican body of state management in the field of social protection.

Article 12. Authorities of Republican Bodies of State Management in the Field of Social Care

The Republican bodies of state management in the field of social care within the limits of the competence shall:

take measures to implement the state policy in the field of social care and to bring in proposals on its improvement;

design state minimum social standards in the field of social care and execute control over observance of the above standards approved by the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus in the order, established by the legislation of the Republic of Belarus;

bring in proposals on a unified Republican system of statistical registration and accounting in the field of social care;

organize training and qualification improvement of social workers and other specialists engaged in the system of social care;

execute establishment, control over and support of activities of organisations, institutions of social care which are in the state ownership;

render methodical help, execute design of drafts of normative acts, spread progressive experience of organisation of social care;

organize and coordinate in due order holding of scientific researches in the field of social care;

develop international cooperation in the field of social care;

execute other authorities pursuant to the legislation of the Republic of Belarus.

Article 13. Authorities of Local Executive and Administrative Bodies in the Field of Social Care

Local executive and administrative bodies in the field of social care within the limits of their competence shall:

design, coordinate and implement social programs and social projects in the Oblast, region (city, town);

create their own structural subdivisions responsible for organisation of social care in the Oblast, region (city, town), including for rendering social services in the respective territory;

be able to create legal entities of the system of social care, execute in due order reorganization and liquidation of them;

organize the necessary work of ensuring social care, finance legal entities of the system of social care in the order established by the legislation and execute control over rendering social services in the respective territory;

collect and analyze in the order, established by the legislation, the information necessary for rendering social services, about citizens and families in need of social care;

take, in the order established by the legislation, respective measures for receiving of the necessary information about the level of incomes and about the property composition of citizens who are addressing in concern of rendering social services;

organize training and qualification improvement of social workers and other specialists engaged in the system of social care;

execute other authorities pursuant to the legislation of the Republic of Belarus.

Article 14. Excluded.

Article 15. Conclusion of Agreements on Social Care

Rendering of social services may be carried out on contractual and non-contractual bases.

Local executive and administrative bodies may conclude, on the competitive basis, agreements with legal entities and individual entrepreneurs who are rendering social services on conditions of rendering social services, financing of rendering social services and control over their activities.

The legal entities and individual entrepreneurs who have concluded contracts on rendering social services with local executive and administrative bodies shall report annually about spending the assets that were allocated to them by local executive and administrative bodies.

Article 16. Persons Rendering Social Services in the Field of Social Care. Main Rights and Duties of Persons Rendering Social Services

The activities on social care are ensured by social workers, and also by other specialists having professional education, corresponding to the requirements and nature of the work they do, and prone by their personal qualities to rendering social services.

Social volunteers may be attracted to activities of social care. Social volunteer may render social services under guidance of a social worker, unless otherwise stipulated by the legislation of the Republic of Belarus.

The qualifying requirements to social workers and other specialists engaged in the system of social care, order of certification of the above persons are determined by the legislation of the Republic of Belarus.

The persons who are rendering social services have the right for creation of conditions necessary for rendering social services, including periodic improvement of their professional qualification in the established order (for persons rendering social services that require special skills and knowledge).

The persons who are rendering social services, are obliged to:

render honestly social services to persons who are in need of them;

be guided in their activities by the principles of social care, respect the dignity of citizens, families and their right for self-implementation;

avoid inhumane and discriminative actions in relation to citizens and families who are obtaining social services;

provide to persons under service complete information about the types of social help that are due to them;

keep confidential the information obtained during execution of their duties, and also the information that may be used against the person under service;

take care about maintenance of the necessary level of his/her knowledge, required for rendering social services.

Article 17. Financing of the System of Social Care

Financing of the system of social care is carried out at the expense of means of the Republican and local budgets, special funds, assets obtained from repayment for rendering social services, and also handed over as charitable help.

Financing of the system of social care may also be carried out at the expense of assets of legal entities and other sources not forbidden by the legislation of the Republic of Belarus.

Article 18. The Order of Appealing Against Actions (Inactivity) of Legal Entities and Individuals Rendering Social Services

Actions (inactivity) of legal entities and individuals who are rendering social services pursuant to the present Law may be appealed against at the Republican bodies of state management, local executive and administrative bodies and (or) in the court.

Article 19. Enactment of the Present Law

The present Law enters into force from the date of its publication.

Article 20. Bringing of Acts of Legislation into Conformity with the Present Law

The Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus shall, within three months after the date of enactment of the present Law:

draft and introduce in the established order into the Chamber of Representatives of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus proposal on bringing of the legislative acts of the Republic of Belarus into conformity with the present Law;

bring the resolutions of the Government of the Republic of Belarus into conformity with the present Law;

ensure revision and cancelling by the Republican bodies of state management subordinate to the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus, of their normative acts contradicting to the present Law.