Questions/Answers

The key objective of the initiative is to create an instrument of the welfare state in the form of public services centers being an unprecedented modern advanced model operating on the "one desk" principle in Moscow and Russia, which ensures the availability of most public services. In Moscow, these offices working in each district have a convenient and comfortable infrastructure and provide friendly and sincere service. The concept of creating public services centers is to establish an effective and operational system of interaction between the state and citizens, as well as between various executive authorities. Moreover, public services centers solve the problem of corruption in the provision of public services. Objectives: - optimization of the quality and accessibility of public services for the population; - improvement of the efficiency of executive authorities and inter-authority coordination; - openness and transparency for society; - individual approach in the provision of public services with customer centricity as a key feature. In their day-to-day work centers focus on the needs of residents in the design and provision of public services, and not on technological solutions, taking into account inclusiveness, equality, integration and diversity, which is the basis for the provision of public services to people.

In line with the chosen category "Enhancing the effectiveness of public institutions to reach the SDGs", public services centers are an institution that increases transparency and accountability, as well as promotes harmonization and cooperation in public administration. Public services centers were created in order to establish effective communication between the state and society and tackle the following tasks: -creating interoperability between institutions; -establishing inter-authority cooperation; -ensuring sustainability in the development of public services; -building an open system of dialogue between the authorities and residents; -digitalization of public service delivery platforms (as of November, about 50% of services have been transferred online).

According to the Sustainable Development Goals "My Documents" centers expand access to high-quality public services for everyone, including the most vulnerable, low-income social groups. Good health and well-being: public services centers, along with their main activities, implement various programs to support the health of Moscow residents and promote an active lifestyle. Multifunctional centers (MFC) offer people to check their health in modern diagnostic complexes and medical offices, with the help of androids, cardiac seats and blood pressure monitors. In addition, MFCs have vaccination points against COVID-19 and rapid testing stations. These opportunities of “My Documents" centers make it possible to diagnose diseases at early stages. Decent work and economic growth: MFC employs more than 10.5 thousand people. The staff is constantly expanding with the new centers opened and various projects implemented. Participating in new city projects, MFC professionals advance their skills, and at the same time embrace new career opportunities. Partnership for Sustainable Development: Public services centers being an effective, accountable and transparent institution substantially reduce corruption and bribery in all their forms. An open transparent environment allows to meet the needs of residents and respond effectively to their requests.

First, sustainability of the initiative is ensured by unified requirements and objective decisions with prevention of subjectivity in public service provision. Second, sustainability involves an increase of public services provided by authorities due to the trust justified by the high rates of visitor flow, level of service and effectiveness. Third, sustainability answers the regularly emerging needs of residents for socially significant services. Under the initiative, platforms have been created to ensure greater coverage of the population with health services, which increases the potential in health promotion. Fourth, full financing from the state budget ensures economic sustainability. As a result, all MFC resources are focused on meeting the needs of residents and employees don't have to search for additional income, eliminating the corruption aspect of inter-authority interaction, as well as interaction between society and the state.

In the context of public administration, public services centers have built an effective transparent system of interaction between executive authorities and citizens, excluding petty corruption and any other forms of power abuse. Transparent environment includes electronic queue system, fully glazed offices, pre-registration for a certain range of services, a ban on paying state duties in cash at the cashier desk. One of the main achievements of the public services centers is that residents and authorities save time in receiving and providing public services, respectively. The amount of time was shortened through inter-authority interaction, which made different government bodies equally accessible to all citizens of the Russian Federation. Another eliminated shortcoming in public administration was the lack of uniform standards and a single body for the provision of public services. Therefore, it was crucial to create a modern management mechanism to ensure sustainable development.

Public services centers ensure equal access to public services regardless of gender and any other factors. Each resident receives public services through a common electronic queue under established laws and regulations, and no subjective circumstances can affect this process.

There are two main target groups - citizens who seek public services, and executive authorities that provide these services. It has become more comfortable for residents to interact with the authorities. Every citizen who needs to solve a complex of issues highly appreciates the opportunity to do it at ”one desk". Public services are provided faster, all in one place in convenient modern offices, which all have the same working hours, and this increases the level of public confidence in state structures. It is important to note that public services centers are fully equipped for comfortable visits of people with limited mobility. Inter-authority interaction ensures a faster and easier process of providing public services, and MFCs took over the function of collecting and delivering documents from the applicant to the authority. MFC employees are also in charge of filling out applications in order to avoid errors and further delay of paperwork.

In 2011, the "My Documents" centers replaced 1,200 reception offices of various authorities, combining more than 100 public services under their roof. At the end of 2014, the Ministry of Economic Development of Russia developed the all-Russian corporate identity of the MFC. It involved renaming of all offices to "public services centers "My Documents", and unified working hours from 08:00 to 20:00 without breaks and weekends. In 2015, Moscow MFC opened the first Training Center in the country to train professionals in public service provision. The curriculum includes two main parts: the provision of public services and customer-centered service, which allowed to bring the quality of service to a new level. The museum and exhibition complex of the history of the civil service, created in 2020, gave employees access to corporate values. Museum atmosphere immerses the employees in the corporate culture and the history of their profession. In 2015, "My Documents" centers developed a special architectural and planning solution for the premises to comply with the principles of an accessible, barrier-free environment in an effort to become accessible to absolutely every resident of Moscow. Every center has offices or reception desks for people with reduced mobility, and Braille signs for visually impaired people. In addition, "My Documents" centers have a remote video translation service into Russian sign language for hearing impaired people. "My Documents" centers are not limited to the provision of services, but have become an entire ecosystem, with various socially significant projects initiated and implemented.

The primary obstacle was the lack of a single functional information system for accumulation of authorities databases and integration between their systems for efficient work of the centers. There was also a need for personnel with experience of work with databases, so MFC selected skilled specialists from receptions of other government bodies. The most important task was to establish standards of public services and the competence of employees. The solution was to create a Training center and a training program that every new employee has to complete. There was also a need for Control Department supervising the provision of services.

The principle of extraterritoriality of service provision is the possibility to receive public services in any Moscow MFC, regardless of place of registration in Moscow, and for a number of services in Russia in general. The efficiency of public services: the average waiting time is 3 minutes, and the whole process takes no more than 40 minutes. The elimination of corruption in the provision of services is due to interaction of government and society according to clearly regulated standards, as well as the ability to issue public services in electronic form where there is no place for corruption.

Moscow brought the service provision to a brand new level: convenient working hours and unified standard of functioning for everyone. In 2014, Moscow Mayor approved the standard of public services that implied that the MFC staff should not only be experts in public services, but also be customer-centered. In 2015, Moscow, in line with the Western practices of supporting vulnerable social groups, entered the top three in terms of accessibility, comfort and queue management, and also proved to be the absolute leader in establishing a dialogue with visitors (2015 PwC research). The average waiting time in all centers is 3 minutes.

All public services centers have implemented an electronic queue system and pre-registration for services, which allowed minimizing the waiting time. More than a hundred public services that are provided by ”My Documents" centers are also available to residents online. Since 2020, public services centers have been using cryptobiobooths to issue a passport with an electronic data carrier. The digital device allows you to send the biometric data of a resident directly to the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

“My Documents" centers are open throughout the Russian Federation. Moscow is the undisputed leader in this field, as evidenced by regular delegations from other regions and even countries that are interested in Moscow's expertise of developing public services centers. On September 9-11, 2021, a thematic conference "A city for people. How public services centers set trends in customer service" took place. The plenary session "Client-centric model as a driver of state development" was held with the participation of Anastasia Rakova, Deputy Mayor of Moscow for Social Development, as well as a number of other panel discussions: "People come first. New standards of sincere service", "Approaches that simplify the dialogue between the city and the resident", "A universal tool for the city". MFC representatives of 62 regions of Russia visited the business conference of the public services centers; the main headliner was the world-famous expert in the field of service culture John Tschohl. On September 11, under the educational and cultural program conference participants went on a guided tour "Journey to Moscow Service" in flagship centers of public services.

The idea and mechanisms of creating a convenient modern model for the provision of public services determines the potential for transfer to other contexts: cities, countries. In addition to the established interdepartmental cooperation, “My Documents” centers have a developed network of internal corporate communications and events. There they can use the database with all the necessary services, documents and laws, communicate with colleagues, as well as learn the latest company news. The centers provide public services using electronic ticket queues; official website of “My Documents” centers has a workload schedule by days of the week and hours, available for all residents, which allows one to choose the most convenient time to visit the center, as well as the possibility of pre-recording. There is no similar experience of creating a single comfortable system, where more than 280 services and a number of additional services are collected, as in Moscow. That is why the centers of public services receive delegations from other regions and countries in order to transfer the experience.

When public services centers appeared in 2011, the MFC staff consisted of 48 employees, mainly those who had previously worked in the receptions of government bodies. Over time, the number of centers and employees increased. Today their number exceeds 10.5 thousand. All specialists are trained at the Training Center, master the processes of providing services of various authorities, and regularly improve their skills. This is the first Training center in the country that trains personnel specifically for the MFC.

In 2021, public services centers celebrated their 10th anniversary. Since 2011 the number of centers in Moscow has increased (134 centers for each district, including flagship centers and Public Services Palace), the number of services has grown to more than 280, and the number of authorities whose services are available in MFC has increased accordingly. The response from residents remains positive: 96% of applicants give a positive service assessment on the quality assessment panels at reception desks. The number of requests remains consistently high - about 70 thousand people a day and almost 200 million requests over 10 years.

Yes

In 2015, PricewaterhouseCoopers conducted a comparative analysis of 18 cities by 22 indicators in 4 areas characterizing the customer-centered approach of the centers for the provision of state and municipal services. Moscow has an Active Citizen e-polling system that allows residents to evaluate city initiatives and express their wishes for the development of initiatives. "My Documents" centers embrace opinions of citizens. Using these polls residents chose convenient opening hours of flagship offices and additional services provided in the centers.

The research covers 4 areas: availability of services (city coverage, common working hours 7 days a week, opportunity for receiving services on an extraterritorial basis and the range of services for life situations), queue managment (average waiting time, workload of centers and the possibility of pre-registration and notification of document readiness), comfort (dress code, assistants at the entrance to the center, hall administrator, visual navigation, instructions for the services, additional services, for example, copier, photobooths, children's corner, free Wi-Fi, etc.), dialogue with citizens (principles and rules of providing services, the number and types of feedback).

According to the findings of the PwC research, the public services centers “My Documents" of Moscow entered the top three world leaders in terms of such indicators of the development of public services centers as accessibility, comfort, queue management (average waiting time is only 3 minutes), and also turned out to be absolute leaders in establishing a dialogue with visitors. There are several ways of feedback in public services centers: call center, social networks, official address, a feedback book, service quality assessment panels at reception desks, etc. According to the research, the quality of service in Moscow public services centers is not below the world standard in any indicator, meets it in 8 indicators and surpasses it in 6, being a leader and an example to follow. Moscow was the only participant that became the leader in all four categories for which the assessment was conducted.

Public services centers have become a single point of inter-authority interaction, therefore, all partners are interested in expanding the list of services available in MFC. As of November 2021, the public services centers cooperate with 37 executive bodies to provide public services and implement joint social projects. As a result more than 280 services are now available online. Partners include 13 federal, 22 regional and 2 municipal institutions, and the cooperation involves different levels of governing bodies.

Public services centers interact with residents via 8 communication channels, which assume various formats, both face-to-face in the MFC itself, and remote with the help of digital technologies (social networks, e-mail, chatbot, electronic reception, call center, electronic survey system, written inquiry to public services center or face-to-face visit). We communicate with the audience of other authorities through inter-authority interaction and within the framework of joint projects. For example, "My Health" project, jointly with Moscow Healthcare Department, provides universal health coverage with the aim of early warning, reducing and regulating national health risks. The platform of the program is represented by several projects: medical offices, a modern diagnostic complex for a quick check-up - "Health Corners", cardio seats in open access, the project "Sports Weekend", which lets everyone engage in their favorite activity with professional sportspeople for free. "My Job" project, jointly with the Employment Center, is the largest personnel operator for job search, comprehensive assessment of skills, vocational training and advanced training.

Public service centers continue to develop, expanding the list of services, opening new centers and improving their infrastructure. 98% of more than 280 services are available for residents at any MFC, regardless of the place of registration and residence; moreover, public services are actively transferred online and popularized. The adjustments made to the MFC's work because of the coronavirus pandemic set a high bar in rapid response to challenges and threats. During the pandemic, the public services centers together with the city authorities, implemented unprecedented measures to assist the population. During active spread of coronavirus infection, MFC specialists came to aid the city, becoming operators of the call center of the Social Development Complex, as well as helping medical personnel in hospitals and laboratories, delivering sick leaves to residents on self-isolation. This example showed that multifunctional centers are ready for any work for the benefit of society and the well-being of residents. The call center continues to operate in November 2021. Operators call sick Muscovites, monitor their condition, accept incoming applications for social assistance, answer residents' questions about coronavirus infection and provide the necessary support. Employees of the "My Documents" centers also help at vaccination points throughout the city.