On October 23, the XVII International Forum «Senior Generation» started at ExpoForum. One of the first events of business program was the discussion «New format of the register of social service providers: keeping up with technological developments» with participation of specialists from St. Petersburg, the Leningrad Region, Yugra, Chuvashia and a number of other regions.

The event was organized by the Social Policy Committee of St. Petersburg, the St. Petersburg State Institution «Social Services Organization Centre», and the St. Petersburg State Institution «City Information and Settlement Centre».

The moderator was Olga Balabolkina, Chief Specialist of Social Services Development Department of the Social Policy Committee of the city. She reminded that in 2015, Federal Law No. 442 on the right of citizens to choose a provider of social services – both state and non-state – came into force; in addition, since then, a register of social services has been maintained in all regions of Russia.

«The main goal of register creation is to form a single register of complete and reliable information on social services. The register is a competitive platform and today the register of St. Petersburg includes 120 providers of social services. The recipients are more than 280 thousand people, who are provided with more than 12 mln. services per year», – noted O. Balabolkina.

According to her, today in St. Petersburg the issue of modernizing the register has become urgent: it should be a modern, simple and convenient resource, it should be a guide to quality supplier, a source of up-to-date information about eagerly sought services.

Vladislav Rakhimov, Head of the Digital Transformation Department of the St. Petersburg State Institution «City Information and Settlement Centre», spoke about the history of creation and the specifics of work of the register of social services providers in St. Petersburg. For example, a list of tariffs is formed here annually, a form of service, tariff or standard is set for each service and the register itself is linked to the ecosystem of city services «Digital Petersburg».

«Since 2019–2020, we have been working on prototyping a new version of our system as a whole – we have developed a prototype using open technologies. But due to the new rules for system certification, we cannot put it into operation. Starting this year, we are designing a new system based on Russian solutions. Implementation horizon is 2026–2027», – noted V. Rakhimov.

Elona Arkhipova, Head of Social Service Office of Social Development Department of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug – Yugra, shared experience of the region in maintaining a register of social services providers. An information portal for population, socuslugi-ugra.ru, was created here, companies were given the opportunity to get into the register through a single portal of state and municipal services, and later the «Social Services Portal» was launched – «a state analogue of Avito» (socportal.admhmao.ru). With its help residents of Yugra can find out about payments, appointment of support measures and other opportunities.

«For the recipient this portal is an opportunity to choose a service provider without leaving home, to receive information about support and suppliers; for the supplier this is a chance to expand the customer base, scale up operations, reduce costs; and for the state this is the reduction in costs and decrease in complaints from recipients and providers», – underlined E. Arkhipova.

Alexey Gorbachev and Galina Belyavskaya, the representatives of the Department on Monitoring and Analysis of Individual Program of Provision of Social Services of the St. Petersburg State Institution «Social Services Organization Centre» spoke about register of social services providers in St. Petersburg and opportunities for increasing the efficiency of its use. Thus, specialists update electronic directories, provide citizens with recommendations regarding providers and conduct consultations.

«How to increase the efficiency? To connect all providers to the information system, to add recipient categories in accordance with the order of the Social Policy Committee (including by population groups), and to form a list in accordance with the services declared by the provider in the register», – noted A. Gorbachev. He also spoke about the prospects for automating the process in terms of the list of social service providers.

Alexey Mavrin, CEO of Social Geriatric Centre «Opeka» LLC proposed modernization of social services register in St. Petersburg: to create personal account for the recipient, to introduce rating system, to integrate new technologies (chat bots), etc.

«You can already use a voice bot with the help of neural network, for example, in Telegram», – noted A. Mavrin. He demonstrated the work of ChatGPT neural network, which instantly answers a question regarding social services.

According to the expert, it is necessary to create a personal account not only for the recipient (client), but also for the services provider – this will allow to track applications and to simplify interaction with clients.

«The future register is like a chat in Telegram, and I submit everything there. And there I receive quick information from the same robots that, for example, something is wrong with me», – he shared.

Olga Vasilyeva, methodologist at the Organizational and Methodological Department of St. Petersburg State Budgetary Institution «Social Services Complex Centre of the Moskovsky District», underlined that the register should be client-oriented and should serve as an assistant for citizens. According to her, it must contain complete and reliable information.

We propose to include the St. Petersburger Unified Card in the register, and also to place the register on the Government Services website», – said O. Vasilyeva.

Svetlana Belaya, Director of St. Petersburg State Autonomous Institution of Social Services «Psychoneurological Boarding School No. 10» named after V. G. Gordenchuk, shared her experience of information openness of stationary social service institution – she spoke about website promotion and work in social networks. She noted that the register of social services providers requires accessibility and transparency.

In turn, Svetlana Krylova, manager of the Department for Reception and Consultations of Citizens of St. Petersburg State Budgetary Institution of Social Services «Centre for Social Rehabilitation of Disabled People and Disabled Children of the Kalininsky District of St. Petersburg», named a number of problems of St. Petersburg register. Among them there is insufficient data relevance, complex search algorithm, insufficient integration with other information systems and low level of interaction with users. The speaker made proposals on automating data updates, adding comparison functions, creating feedback of users and developing mobile applications and digital platforms, etc.

Antonina Kovaleva, Director of the St. Petersburg State Institution «Centre for Registration and Social Services for the RF Citizens Without a Certain Residence» spoke about the role of the register as business card of social services organization. In her opinion, the register should be convenient for both the client and the services provider.

The participants of the discussion talked about the need to modernize registers in the regions, as well as the capabilities of St. Petersburg «Social Services Navigator» website. As V. Rakhimov noted, modern information systems must become proactive – provide citizens with information they need.