Transformation of the social welfare system in Poland after 1989 - Selected Issues

Abstract

Three periods can be distinguished in the history of social assistance in Poland. The first of them includes the so-called public charity, carried out mainly by the Catholic Church since the Middle Ages. The second period was shaped by the Act on Social Welfare of 1923 and constituted the legal basis of the social welfare system at that time, while the third period was related to the organization of the social welfare system under the Act on Social Welfare of 1990. This development of social assistance in Poland after 1989 took place in two dimensions: vertical - creating an undeveloped organizational structure from 1990, consisting only of social assistance centers and voivodeship social assistance teams, and from 1999 - horizontal changes were introduced, which resulted in the creation of a complex network of social welfare institutions operating at many organizational levels of state administration and local government. Among the changes in the social welfare system after 1989 indicated in this article, the issues related to the amendments to the Act on Social Assistance (1990 or 2004) are noteworthy, as well as the presentation of new tasks and professional groups (such as family assistants and foster care coordinators) included in the social welfare system - after the introduction in 2011 of the Act on supporting the family and the foster care system - Additionally, important issues stated in this article are contemporary trends in the development of social welfare in Poland and indication of the perspective of new challenges or possible changes within the social welfare system.