Individual National Consultancy on Social Service Workforce Practice and Case Management Approach in the ECD and Social Protection Sectors

Contract

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TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR INDIVIDUAL CONSULTANTS

Title of consultancy:

Individual National Consultancy on Social Service Workforce Practice and Case Management Approach in the ECD and Social Protection Sectors

Funding Code

SC 189904 (Education Thematic Fund)

RR Non-Grant

Type of engagement

Consultant

Individual Contractor Part-Time

Individual Contractor Full-Time

Duty Station:

Ashgabat, Turkmenistan

Consultant sourcing:

National International Both

Consultant selection method:

Competitive Selection (Roster)

Competitive Selection (Advertisement/Desk Review/Interview)

Request for:

New SSA – Individual Contract

Extension/ Amendment

If Extension, Justification for extension: Not applicable

Supervisor: Jepbar Bashimov, ECD Specialist

Start Date: 01 December 2021

End Date: 30 September 2022

# of Days: 171

Purpose of Activity/Assignment:

The national ECD Strategy for 2020-2025 is focused on cross-sectoral integration and support for vulnerable children and their families. The Action Plan under the ECD Strategy for 2020-2025 set strategic area 2 in support of building social service workforce across health, education and social protection sectors towards developing integrated cross-sectoral social services for vulnerable children and their families including those for children with disabilities (CwD).

These tasks require systemic interventions to transform roles and responsibilities of medical-pedagogical commissions under the Ministry of Education, the education sector disability assessment and referral mechanism, to become an effective gatekeeping mechanism for CwD and their families. The planned interventions will aim to prevent institutionalization of CwD and support their inclusive education path, empower their families, build referrals among all social sectors, as well as introduce an inclusive half-day pre-primary curriculum, and various pre-and in-service training programs to ensure the required competencies and sufficient cadre of professionals.

Meanwhile, with the UN Joint Programme on Social Protection (JP SP), the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection (MLSP) introduced the social work profession and social services for the most marginalized groups of population in recent years. They are not yet incorporated into the social protection structure and service provision functions and the interlinkage with the child protection statutory bodies, especially Guardianship and Trusteeship and Commission on Minors is not fully determined.

Therefore, a better alignment between local Authorities and MLSP is needed to ensure social work assistance and improved social service delivery through existing Territorial Centers mandated to provide daycare and longer-term care services for the elderly and people with disabilities as well as home visiting and household assistance. There could be potential to extend these services to children with disabilities at etrap level. In practical terms, a comprehensive functional analysis of referral bodies including Territorial Centers along with an estimation of the cost of setting a unit of social assistance at home in each etrap should be initiated to examine the role and functions on social service delivery as set in legislation framing the national social protection system. This will also provide pieces of evidence to create a space for expanding the functions of these Centers to work with families who have children with disabilities.

According to the recent UNICEF Situation Analysis, the social work profession is extremely underdeveloped in Turkmenistan. There are only 45 community-based social workers who were recruited and contracted by the MLSP within the ongoing UN Joint Programme aimed at making a transformative change in the current system of social service delivery in Turkmenistan, to reach out to the most deprived and vulnerable population. While a common understanding of social work and community-based social services among key government decision-makers is emerging, it is not yet clear what should be the structural design of the child protection and community-based service delivery model.

Limited data availability has been observed by UNICEF to be a key concern in all social sector agencies. When it comes to child protection-related issues, this lack of data is particularly problematic, to the extent that for some topics there is no information at all. Besides MICS data, there is no data publicly available on either prevalence or incidence of abuse and neglect, and no systematic means of identifying and supporting children either at risk of suffering or who have suffered such violations. The bodies of Guardianship and Trusteeship mainly collect and maintain data on children left without parental care, children placed to institutional care and family-based alternatives, as well as on potential guardians and adoptive parents.

To address the above systemic interventions including effective responses to the persisting prevalence of child institutionalization, especially of children with disabilities, UNICEF will focus its efforts on strengthening the capacities of the key social service workforce[1] including developing cross-sectoral referrals and integrated services.

In particular, UNICEF will seek to ensure that these professionals:

• build their capacities and competencies in various disciplines (social work, psychology, physical and occupational therapy, early communication, inclusive pedagogy, trans-disciplinarity),
• undertake family and household assessments
• adopt basic social work standards, case management, trans-disciplinary and inclusive approaches to ensure comprehensive service provision for vulnerable children and families
• collaborate across their sectors and receive referrals about children and families in difficult circumstances

Scope of Work:

The scope of work for the national consultancy is focused on maintaining the social work practice and enhancement of the case management approach in the existing ECD, social, and child protection systems. In line with the above priorities, the objectives of the proposed national consultancy will cover the provision of assistance to:

1. strengthen the medical-pedagogical commissions (MPC) as a gatekeeping mechanism for young children and their families in difficult circumstances including those with disabilities
2. develop the capacity of the MoE in planning, monitoring and supervision of the implementation of the inclusive half-day pre-primary curriculum nation-wide in 2022
3. develop in-service short-term training programme on social work
4. promote the incorporation of social work positions in the existing social protection structure

For details, please, find the ToR as per the below link:

TOR NC on ECD- SP-CP Support_final.docx