On 29th January 2016 at the headquarters of the Polish Press Agency there was held a press conference at which Korczak Social Innovations Institute presented the report The family of 500+. Under what conditions the program has a chance for success? ". The conference was chaired by Prof. Julian Auleytner from the Korczak Social Innovations Institute. Other participantts included Prof. Miroslaw Grewinski, Dr Pawel Kowal, Dr Arkadiusz Durasiewicz and as well Deputy Minister of Family, Labour and Social Policy Bartosz Marczuk and as well The President of Association of Enterpreneurs and Employers Cezary Kazmierczak.
Prof. Julian Auleytner stressed that the program "Family 500+" should be treated as a joint project, not as a political one. He also stated that the program is interesting and innovative, but it must be monitored and evaluated against the implementation of the plans. Expert of institute spoke about the risks associated with the project, including about the risk of wasting money, the limited organizational capacity of local governments and not easy predictions about consequences for the labor market. However, he stressed that starting the debate on the family policy and taking out the stigma from large families, can be treated itself as a advantages of discussion on the program.
The Minister Bartosz Marczuk reminded about the draft of legislation on state support in the education of children which would be introduced through a program "500+ Family". He also stated that there are proposed mechanisms to combat the potential misuse of benefits received by families. He added, however, that he could not imagine that officials pointed precisely on what parents can spend money because "parents are the best friends of their children." He also stressed that family policy is not social policy, but an investment policy.
Prof. Miroslaw Grewinski said that the program is important because of the demographic processes, which should be viewed in the long term. He said that the program has a chance to be a part of investment social policy, if it will be accompanied by social services development. He also added that there is an urgent need for the simultaneous reform of the system of social benefits and social welfare system. Currently there is a chaos in this area and for instance there is a lack of integrated information systems that would indicate who receives which benefits.
Experts of Institute estimated that the program must be seen as a social investment. Among others, they have recommended creation of an observatory which will monitor the implementation of the project and to verify the legislation related to the family, auditing of the state budget in terms of ability to meet the needs of families, creation of an uniform system of registration for social benefits and finally launching a broad discussion on the social pact for the family treated as nation treasure.
