One of the key goals of the social services reform launched in Romania in 2004 was to increase the quality of social services by introducing an accreditation system for social service providers. The system sets minimum quality standards that both public and private providers have to respect in a bid to better respond to beneficiaries' expectations.

Host Country : Romania

Place and date : Bucharest, 29. - 30.6.2010

Peer countries : Belgium - Croatia - Estonia - Lithuania

Stakeholders : ESN, Eurodiaconia

Accreditation is awarded at a decentralised level and is based on a methodology inspired from the concept of total quality management, which implies that quality standards must not only apply to the service but also to the organisation in charge of providing the service.

Service providers must comply with 45 criteria relating to 9 "principles of excellence", such as efficient leadership, respect for ethics and beneficiaries' rights, user participation, public-private partnership and continuous evaluation. The standards are fairly flexible in order to promote a multidisciplinary vision, while also making it possible to compare the quality of different services.

The Peer Review will provide an opportunity to evaluate the role of accreditation systems and quality standards in improving social service provision and to discuss the possibility of developing EU principles of excellence for social services.

Peer Review manager

Ms Monika Natter (ÖSB Consulting GmbH)