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Medvedev to hold meeting with social workers

Taking part in the meeting will also be Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets and Minister of Labour and Social Protection Maxim Topilin

MOSCOW, June 8 (Itar-Tass) — Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev will meet on Friday with the winners of the professional competition for the “Best Social Worker,” timed to the professional holiday – Social Worker Day, the RF government’s press service reported.

The meeting participants are expected to discuss such important issues as wages and social welfare of the workers, raising the prestige of this difficult and highly responsible profession.

Taking part in the meeting will also be Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets and Minister of Labour and Social Protection Maxim Topilin.

In the evening Medvedev will visit a function at the State Kremlin Palace devoted to Social Worker Day.

The social worker profession received official status in the country in 1991. This work is linked with the organisation and provision of assistance and social services to citizens who are in difficult life situations.

Social services in the Russian Federation cover about 19 million people - the elderly, the disabled, families with children, persons with no fixed abode, and other needy citizens. At the present time, a diversified system of social services, which includes 11,640 institutions providing social, socio-medical, social, domestic, psychological, rehabilitative and other services has been formed in Russia. About 480 thousand people are employed in the social services sphere.

According to presidential decree of October 27, 2000, Social Worker Day is annually observed on June 8.

In accordance with the government resolution of March 1, 2011, adopted pursuant to Medvedev’s instruction on the results of a meeting of the State Council on October 25, 2010, the all-Russia competition for the “Best Social Worker” is held from 2011 in order to enhance the prestige of the social worker profession.