“We need modern childhood policies based on recognised international norms and taking into consideration the specific features of our large country.”
Transcript of the beginning of the meeting:
Dmitry Medvedev: Colleagues, let’s get down to work. Today we are considering several issues related to state policy on children.
There has always been a special focus on children. We need modern childhood policies based on recognised international norms and taking into consideration the specific features of our large country. We have done a great deal over the past few years, but we have not resolved all the issues, in particular within the framework of programmes to improve the demographic situation, support families with children and improve healthcare for mothers and children. Substantial funds have been allocated for the modernisation of schools and for the national education programme. We have recently approved the National Children’s Strategy until 2017. The government is to adopt a plan of priority actions until 2014 to implement the key provisions of this strategy. I will focus on several tasks which we need to fulfil.
First, improving the demographic situation and supporting families after they have their third and subsequent children remain a priority. The point at issue is above all free allocation of land plots and monthly allowances for these families.
Second, we need to create effective mechanisms to prevent child abuse and any kind of violence against children. We have considered amendments to the Criminal and Administrative Offences Codes in terms of responsibility for minors. I hope that these amendments to the Criminal Code and the Administrative Offences Code will produce the desired effect. It is imperative that we create a child-friendly justice system; this is an issue we need to focus on.
Our third priority is to improve the quality and accessibility of education and to create conditions under which children can obtain modern and in-depth knowledge. We spoke about this during a videoconference yesterday ahead of the new academic year. We also need to modernise preschool education, expand the opportunities for variative education, and improve conditions for the private sector so that all children have access to preschool education. Of course, we have to ensure there are enough places at preschools. In the coming years we have to get rid of waiting lists, as we agreed.
Fourth, every child should be involved in creative activities; we have to create the right conditions to help children develop their talents. We have approved a strategy for identifying and supporting talented children, which the federal and regional authorities are implementing. We are creating a national coordinating centre for supporting talented children. Today we will consider a government resolution to this effect.
The government should take special care of children with special needs and orphans. All of us understand how important it is for them to have an opportunity to become integrated into society. The best practices and socialisation models should be adopted across the country. This year, 263 million roubles will be allocated to the regions for this purpose. We will discuss the distribution of these funds at today’s meeting.
Sixth. We need to pay special attention to children’s health, including the mandatory medical check-up programme for schoolchildren.
And the last thing. It is absolutely correct that the draft plan on the implementation of the strategy makes provision for monitoring the effectiveness of these measures. The measures need to be properly monitored. We will consider the plan now and, after any possible amendments, approve it.
Another issue that we need to discuss is the introduction of social norms of consumption of utilities resources. I’d like to remind you that the social norm is the minimum needed, enough to live on and an affordable amount of electricity, water, heating and other services. This is a very sensitive subject. We have said many times that the tariff policy in the utility sector should be civilised, and the rates reasonable. At the same time, groups entitled to benefits, like single pensioners for example, should be denoted separately in all these documents to protect them from unjustified utility rate rises.
In 2013, the experimental introduction of social consumption norms will begin in several pilot regions. In 2014, the dual-rate principle (social and above the norm) will be adopted throughout the country. Again, this will apply first of all to electricity. The new water supply rate system will be introduced in 2015. Social consumption norms for utility services like heating and gas will only be introduced as a final measure and only if previous experience in this area is considered successful. It’s important that the new system takes into account the needs of the end user first, but also a region’s climate. For example, the consumption norms for electricity in southern Russia must differ from those of the regions near the Arctic Circle. Besides the geographical conditions, the rates will vary according to the type of the settlement (village or city) and the number of residents in a building. We need to encourage consumers to install meters – we have been discussing this issue for years – and we also need to learn how to calculate how much water, heat and electricity we are using. I have repeatedly stressed that, unfortunately we don't understand that we are not only saving our own money, but also the natural resources if we use them wisely.
In addition, the introduction of social consumption norms will lower the costs of cross-subsidization, thereby lowering the financial burden on business.
Another issue that needs to be discussed is increasing the transparency of the activities of self-regulated organisations, which has a direct impact on many kinds of economic activity. Such organisations cannot be closed in this sense, they cannot be self-contained entities, and information about their activities should be open to citizens and to their business partners. I mean self-employed entrepreneurs, legal entities working in a certain field. So, first of all, a self-regulated organisation should post full and comprehensive data about its activities on its website. The mandatory data should include the structure and standards of the organisation, a list of their members, and its financial obligations to consumers. All these requirements are listed in the corresponding draft law, including the issue of administrative responsibility for violating the rules.
Let’s go back to the first issue, the plan for priority measures until 2014 to implement the most important provisions of the National Strategy for Children’s Interests for 2012 - 2017. The speaker is, naturally, Dmitry Livanov. Please, over to you.
Dmitry Livanov (Minister of Education and Science): Mr Medvedev, colleagues. The National Strategy for Children’s Interests for 2012 – 2017 was approved by the president on 2 June, 2012. This is a new type of document in terms of its contents. Similar strategies that we adopted before mainly related to a level of protection similar to that during Soviet times: the revival of mandatory general education, mandatory medical check-ups in schools, organising recreation for children and supporting adoptive parents. Today, due to the measures approved in the last two decades, we can speak of certain achievements in child protection. In the past five years alone, the number of orphans listed in the state register has gone down by 51,000, almost a third. Today there are 126,000 orphans, which is still too many. The number of parents deprived of parental rights has reduced by 20% (this figure regards 12,000 children). The share of children registered with the Interior Ministry agencies has been cut by 130,000 or by 37%. The number of children who have an opportunity to receive education in modern conditions has grown from 2 million to 11 million. As many as 240,000 children with disabilities, or over 54% of such children, are attending ordinary schools alongside their able-bodied peers, and this figure keeps growing every year.
However, we do have major problems. There are dangerous health trends among teenagers. Approximately 20% of children aged up to 16 years live in low-income families. Over 80% of children without parental care are effectively orphans even though they have living parents. Figures for violation of children’s right remain considerable. Over 93,000 children were victims of crime in 2011.
It can be said that extensive measures are no longer enough to improve the situation. We should introduce new effective tools and mechanisms. At the initial stage of the national strategy over the next two and a half years, we will take priority measures to enhance positive dynamics, analyse and promote positive experience and ensure further progress in the solution of these issues.
Here is what we plan to do. First of all, we will improve legal regulations. A considerable part of child protection legislation has been modernised over the past few years, but some provisions should be amended to incorporate modern requirements, including the provisions of international agreements in child protection. The government has recently decided to sign the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography and the Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse. In June this year, the president instructed the Foreign Ministry to sign these international documents. We also plan to develop new healthcare standards for mothers and children and the procedure for medical check-ups and follow-up care for children.
Another vital group of measures concerns the creation of new tools for the protection of childhood. This provides for introducing effective techniques for social, psychological-pedagogical counselling and medical assistance to children and families, including those at social risk or facing a difficult life situation. In particular, we will continue improving the system of state social assistance to low-income families based on social contracts. Special attention will be given to dealing with the issue of social orphans [children whose parents may be alive but are no longer fulfilling their parental duties]. As I have said, there are 126,000 such children in the national database, which is too many, especially since they account for most of the growth in the number of children living without families. These efforts will be based on the positive experience of several Russian regions such as the republics of Tatarstan and Karelia, the Krasnodar, Krasnoyarsk and Perm territories, the Belgorod, Pskov, Samara, Sverdlovsk, Tomsk and Tula regions, Moscow and other regions. There are grounds to assume (relevant studies offer the necessary proof) that well-organised assistance to low-income and socially deprived families, the families which do not have the necessary social and cultural background to ensure the well-rounded development and socialisation of their children, can prevent such parents from being deprived of their parental rights.
Seeking to expand opportunities for the socialisation of orphans, we will modernise the state database of children left without parental care and improve the work of orphanages and boarding houses for such children. Their efforts will be redirected to helping find new families for such children and to providing follow-up care for them after their graduation from boarding houses. These and other measures will be crucial for achieving a major objective, which can be formulated as “Russia Without Orphans.” This is our objective for the next few years.
In the near future we will adopt new school standards, with regulations on the results of education and the conditions for providing it. When developing these regulations, we will take into account the specific features of providing education to children with special needs and provide government assistance to making feature films and cartoons for children.
The third priority is to involve civil society, including children and teenagers themselves, in tackling the acute issues of child protection. These efforts should include assistance to the non-profit establishments that provide services for families, in particular in the field of preschool education, psychological-pedagogical counselling and foster parent education. Conditions must be also created to promote the operation of youth and children’s public associations aimed at involving more children in social life and in taking decisions that concern their interests.
We need a separate system to monitor efforts to implement the national strategy. In accordance with the action plan, this system should be created by December 2012. The action plan has been coordinated with other strategic documents stipulating priorities of the national childhood policies, such as the Socioeconomic Development Concept through 2020, the Concept of the National Demographic Policy through 2025, national priority projects, federal and state programmes, as well as regional strategies and action programmes regarding children.
All of 31 measures that have been included in the plan are a result of discussion and coordination of proposals by the ministries and departments concerned. The plan also contains a number of proposals made by representatives of the Federal Assembly chambers, the Public Chamber and other public organisations.
Needless to say, the proposed plan does not encompass the full range of measures that will be carried out to implement the strategy. Some important measures are already being implemented under the relevant plans, for instance, a package of measures to create an accessible environment for children with disabilities under the government programme Accessible Environment, the action plan to upgrade general education in 2011-2015, and steps to implement the concept of the national system for scouting and developing young talents. When the plan on priority measures was elaborated, we received other important proposals requiring additional study and serious public discussion. I’m referring to proposals to form instruments of public and government influence on goods and services for children, to elaborate a national upbringing strategy, a system of social standards and the like. Needless to say, these issues are very important and require wide-ranging professional, expert and public discussion. It is essential to draft effective measures instead of adopting declarations. We will organise the discussion of these issues in the near future. Relevant measures will be proposed during the second stage in the strategy’s implementation from 2015 to 2017.
Implementation of this plan will help us fill in gaps in legislation and law-enforcement practice, introduce new methods of child protection on a national scale, and, hence, create the necessary foundation for successful implementation of our strategy. I’d like to ask you to support these suggestions.
Dmitry Medvedev: Thank you. We may start our discussion. Who would like to comment on this plan?
Svetlana Orlova (deputy chair of the Federation Council): I would.
Dmitry Medvedev: Ms Orlova, please, go ahead.
Svetlana Orlova: Mr Medvedev, ladies and gentlemen. Today is an important day in our country because we are discussing a specific plan of action to protect children. We have been working toward this for many years. You spoke about this issue in your address when you were president and you have spoken about it today. Indeed, much has been done.
When we discussed the national strategy on child protection in the Federation Council, we invited children to take part, and we discussed it together with them. This was a very broad discussion. Now Ms Matviyenko has sent letters to all regional governors so that each could also draft a concrete plan of action. This plan is very important today. The Ministry of Education and Science had a difficult task because it had to coordinate the plan with all interested ministries and departments. That said, we believe this plan should be integrated into the strategy of national socio-economic development because children’s issues concern today all ministries and departments, all regions and municipalities.
There are some things I’d like to point out. First, we think, the Federation Council thinks that it would be advisable to have a common federal portal, which would allow us to get a clear picture of what is going on. We are referring to monitoring the implementation of all these measures.
Second, I’d like to thank the minister for taking care of children’s products… because the plan has already dealt with animation, and the production of goods for children is a vital subject that concerns their health. We would like to receive support for this proposal – it has been submitted by many regions.
Mr Medvedev, now I’d like to say a few words on what you mentioned. I’m referring to the rehabilitation of abused children. Of course, this is a very sensitive and complicated issue. A number of serious legislative acts have been adopted in the last few years and we continue to monitor developments in this sphere. We could discuss a number of measures in this respect. We have transferred responsibility for 51 measures to the head ministry. I think if this issue could be discussed on a broad scale as the minister requested… Perhaps this could be done in the format of the Open Government because there is hardly a family in this country that is not concerned about this issue… We believe the adoption of this plan is a good signal for the entire country and the regions, that the issues of childhood, child protection and family support should be a top priority of our development, including for the economy. It is very important to take specific steps to resolve them. Thank you very much.
Dmitry Medvedev: Thank you very much. What do you think? Well, I think this issue has been analysed but, as they say, the sky’s the limit and probably there are subjects that could be made part of the plan. I discussed this with Ms Matviyenko yesterday (Valentina Matviyenko, chair of the Federation Council)… Let’s agree – we’ll allow two weeks to polish it up and then discuss it, maybe at the Open Government as well (I think this is the right thing to do). After that we’ll consider the adoption of this plan. Agreed?
Svetlana Orlova: Yes.
Dmitry Medvedev: Thank you. Then we’ll take the decision.
Okay, let’s proceed with our agenda. Next is the endorsement of the distribution of subsidies to the regions for implementing the federal targeted programme on modern models of child socialisation throughout the country. Mr Livanov, you may speak from your seat.
Dmitry Livanov: Thank you very much, Mr Medvedev. The federal targeted programme to develop education provides for the formation of a network of professional development courses (at least 70) in all federal districts for over 45,000 education workers in 2011–2013. The best regional development programmes will be selected at a contest. Based on its results, agreements will be signed with regions on subsidies from the federal budget. In 2011, we set up 35 professional development courses in 26 regions that received 177 million roubles in subsidies. In 2012, we plan to establish another 30 professional development courses in 24 other regions – 228 million roubles have been allocated for this purpose, plus another 35 million roubles to support the courses set up last year. In 2013, we will extend this experience to the remaining regions. We submit for your consideration a draft government resolution endorsing the distribution of subsidies from the federal budget to establish such courses as part of the federal targeted programme on education. We have coordinated it with the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Regional Development and ask you to support it.
Dmitry Medvedev: No objections? Then we’ll take the required decision.
And the third item – it is also in keeping with the general concept of your speech – is the national coordinating council to support young talents. Please speak on this.
Dmitry Livanov: Ladies and gentlemen, we are presenting a draft government resolution on the national coordinating council to support young talents in Russia. It was elaborated in line with point five of a package of measures on implementing the concept of the national system for identifying and developing young talents, which was approved on May 26, 2012. The draft establishes this council and defines its main activities, functions and tasks, and formulates relevant procedures. The composition of the council will be approved by the government in line with appendix №2 to the draft. The draft was duly coordinated with the Ministry of Culture and passed through legal and anti-corruption expert assessment in the Ministry of Justice. Its adoption does not require extra funds from the federal budget. I’d like to ask you to support it.
Dmitry Medvedev: Shall we support it? I see it will be chaired by a deputy prime minister, right?
Remark: Yes.
Arkady Dvorkovich: Sorry, but I haven’t seen the composition in the government’s materials.
Dmitry Medvedev: The composition is endorsed by a separate government resolution.
Arkady Dvorkovich: Still by a separate one, right?
Dmitry Medvedev: Absolutely. The draft reads that the council will be chaired by a deputy prime minister. The composition will be approved accordingly. If you don’t have any objections, let’s take this important decision as well.
Okay, let’s continue our work.
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