Mechanisms for guiding the evolution of Russia's social services system: Regulatory structures, processes, statistics and analytics

This article introduces a methodology for guiding the state's social services system's evolution, particularly in implementing a long-term care framework. It provides statistical and analytical data regarding Russia's social services system from 2019 to 2021. The methodology was validated using this empirical data. The proposed methodology includes analytical work in regulatory and legal principles of functioning of the social service system, a set of proposed social services and mechanisms for ensuring access to them, the professional and informal resources involved to ensure the provision of services, costs, financial and economic issues of its functioning, as well as a comparison of the main statistical and analytical parameters of the functioning of the social services system of the state with relevant international benchmarks. The proposed methodology may be particularly in demand in countries where the social services system is in process of formation and the issues of its modernization are most relevant - the countries of the former USSR, a number of South American, Asian and African countries. Mechanism for determining and developing specific directions for the development and modernization of social services industry on example of the Russian Federation is proposed as a result of research.