Abstract

Abstract

The coronavirus pandemic has led to drastic economic and social disruption, increasing the need for social support and social services. The purpose of this study is to trace changes in the system of social protection and social services induced by the COVID-19 pandemic, and identify the related challenges faced by Russian regions. The objectives of this study include building a survey toolkit, conducting expert interviews with representatives of regional ministries responsible for social protection of the population and analyzing the data obtained. The methods used include expert interviews, analysis, comparison and generalization. The study explores the difficulties in organizing assistance to the population during the COVID-19 pandemic, analyzes the decisions made and the potential for making social assistance more effective, which underscores the importance of the study. The object of the research is the system of social protection of the population at the level of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation. The subject of the study is the social security system’s experience during the coronavirus pandemic. The results of the study show that the pandemic has necessitated quick decision-making and completely new approaches, and exacerbated problems such as poor interagency coordination, low salaries of specialists, underdevelopment of digital technologies and people’s insufficient readiness to use remote access technologies. Nevertheless, the period of the pandemic has pushed the social protection system to develop in several aspects. First of all, this concerned the development of digital technologies for administrative purposes as well as for informing the population and providing services, and efforts to meet the needs of the population and reduce bureaucratic barriers in providing social support and social services. Еxploring opportunities for using digital technologies to improve the availability and quality of social support and social services is very important and may be considered as a subject for further research.

Abstract

Implementing the goals related to the modernization of the sphere of public services requires revising the reform stages that have been completed and assessing its current results. This study proposes an integrated approach to the development of a methodology for such an assessment, as well as a communication environment that creates an effective demand for the data obtained. The research objective is to develop and test a methodology for assessing the customer focus of government institutions. The tasks are: to formulate a problem, build a research methodology, form an array of data, assess the general perception of the public services sector by the respondents, identify the most problematic sectors of public services in the public perception, and analyze the respondents’ proposals. The research methodology is based on analytical procedures related to the collection and processing of primary and secondary data, conducting opinion polls and interpreting research results. The study is aimed at identifying the public perception of the level of customer focus of public service providers and government agencies, which determines the relevance of this work. The object of the research is the socio-economic situation of the population of Russia. The subject of the research is the satisfaction of the public with the quality and procedure for the provision of public services. The survey was conducted on March 23-27, 2021 on a non-random river sample. In total, 2110 people were interviewed. The sample is not representative and does not represent the population of Russia; however, it allows us to formulate significant hypotheses and highlight the characteristic features of the perception of the quality of public services by various social groups. The results of the study show that the public has a generally positive attitude towards public services: the maximum value of the Index for assessing the quality of public services reveals the top three (migration registration services, obtaining personal vehicle documents, medicine). Nevertheless, the high assessment of the quality of medical services contradicts the data of other surveys that state the Russians’ critical attitude towards the healthcare sector. Approval of the depersonalization of the service provider in areas such as education and health deserves in-depth study.  

Abstract