The aim of this event was to take the outcomes of the first event (“Ten Core Values”) and translate it into policy proposals that we can later send to policy-makers and government bodies.

We selected experts who have substantial experience and knowledge of policies and services that support persons with disabilities to live in the community such as, social policy experts with a public administration background, legal experts, experts and advocates of disability organisations, experts of service providers, academics with experience in social services, experts with experience in deinstitutionalisation programs.

The meeting was a very well-focussed discussion helped us to better use the available time these senior experts could join us for.

During the event experts discussed the following question: what would be the ideal / most easily achievable / and most urgent measures the government should take to improve community-based services that adhere to the “Ten Core Values” document.

The outcome of the meeting was a list of recommendations to the government to improve community-based services and policies across the country. The suggestions included a broad variety of proposals, including the following:

• Currently many services are only available to clients in a limited time – these, especially services aiming to support people in their own homes should be available 24/7.
• The state should amend legislation and allow clients to combine services that are currently mutually excluding, in order that people can enjoy enough support appropriate to their real needs.
• Services should be encouraged and supported to answer the real needs of clients and local communities. Also, different regions may feature different local populations with different needs so services should be tailored to their actual support needs instead of the current ‘one size fits all’ system.
• Accessibility should be improved across the social services sector. All future EU-funded infrastructural investments should be accessible to all disability groups.
• A new, national research project should be launched to survey the real needs of persons with disabilities, including those who are not recipients of services today.
• The current services of rehabilitation should be improved to answer the needs of those who become disabled as adults. The new system should use multi-disciplinary approaches, building not only a purely medical, but also social and psychological and peer support arrangements, also available to people who wish to use these services in their homes.
• The social services system currently deals with huge amounts of mandatory administration (including service providers’ obligations as well as bureaucracy impacting individuals). This should be changed and simpler and more accessible administration should be used, building on IT-solutions.
• Currently, monitoring of services focuses mostly on administrative issues. Monitoring of services should put the quality of services in the centre, also measuring clients’ satisfaction and their quality of life.
• Transparency should be improved in social policy and social services. Support should be given to clients so they can fully understand the kinds of benefits and services available to them and support them to make informed choices.
• Currently, there are major differences in the number of services available to people in different regions of the country. This problem should be tacked and services should be licensed in a way that supports the establishment of services in deprived regions.

The outcomes of the meeting and the recommendations of ‘Ten Core Values’ will send to policy-makers of the ministry responsible for social affairs. In our letter to the ministry we urged decision-makers to consult organisations of disabled people and use all available funds – including EU Structural and Investments Funds – to improve community-based services.