Notice of the General Office of Shanghai Municipal People’s Government on Printing and Distributing the “Guiding Opinions on Encouraging the Public Welfare Social Organizations of This Municipality to Participate

in Community Livelihood Services”

(October 9, 2009)

SMPG GO G [2009] No. 46

Attention: all District and County People’s Governments, and all relevant Commissions, Offices and Bureaus (Administrations) of the Municipal People’s Government:

The Guiding Opinions on Encouraging the Public Welfare Social Organizations of This Municipality to Participate in Community Livelihood Services have been approved by the Municipal People’s Government. We hereby print and distribute them to you and request you to implement them conscientiously.

Guiding Opinions on Encouraging the Public Welfare Social Organizations of This Municipality to Participate in Community Livelihood Services

With a view to accelerating the social construction with people’s livelihood as the key point, encouraging the public welfare social organizations of this Municipality to actively participate in livelihood services, and meeting the increasing need for community livelihood, according to the Suggestions of the State Council on Strengthening and Improving the Community Service Work (SC G [2006] No. 14) and the Implementation Suggestions of Shanghai Municipal People’s Government on Perfecting Community Services and Promoting Community Construction (SMPG G [2007] No.19), the guiding opinions on encouraging the public welfare social organizations of this Municipality to participate in community livelihood services are hereby set out as follows:

I. Guiding principle

Under the guidance of the spirit of the 17^th CPC National Congress, implement the viewpoint of scientific development in a deep-going way, carry out the national policy of actively promoting employment, and with intensifying the community livelihood service as the goal, vigorously support and develop the public welfare social organizations, and give full play to the advantages of social organizations, to form an operation mode suiting the economic and social development of Shanghai and featuring the provision of social public products and public services in a diversified and multi-level way, to continuously meet the community residents’ diversified livelihood needs, and to construct socialist harmonious communities mutually constructed and shared. 
　　II. Basic principles

1. Persist in orienting the needs for community livelihood. By targeting at residents’ needs for multi-level and diversified material, cultural and living services, especially at the outstanding problems of supply and demand that residents show most concern over and are in the most urgent need of, encourage and support social organizations to continuously expand the fields and projects of livelihood services, get close contact with community residents, and provide personalized services, and to meet the basic livelihood needs.

2. Persist in the principle of public welfare services. By centering on the community residents’ needs for basic living services, encourage and guide the social organizations to, based on communities, with the principle of public welfare and the purpose of non-profit, provide community citizens with good quality, cheap, free or low-priced livelihood services, so as to help people overcome their difficulties and promote the construction of harmonious communities.

3. Persist in combining government support with socialized operation. With transforming government functions as the key point, increasing financial investment as the support, mobilizing the public’s participation as the orientation, and implementing policies and measures as the guarantee, encourage the social organizations to participate in community livelihood services, perfect the mechanism of socialized operation for livelihood services, push forward the social construction and development with livelihood as the key point, to form a livelihood service pattern featuring government leadership, public participation and standardized operation.   

III. Support objects

The public welfare social organizations participating in livelihood services mean those mass organizations, non-governmental non-enterprise units and community mass activity organizations with community residents as the main service objects and meeting the social public livelihood needs as the purpose, which engage in community livelihood services, participate in community public affairs administration and meet the following conditions:

1. handling the registration formalities for social organizations or non-governmental non-enterprise units according to law, and a community mass activity organization shall be kept on file with the sub-district and town (township);

2. being entrusted by or assisting the government in participating in community public affairs administration or public services, or targeting at the community livelihood needs, engaging in public welfare services to promote community construction;

3. all the acquired income is used for the public welfare or non-profit causes as registered, filed for approval or provided in their constitutions, except for the relevant reasonable outlay of the organization;

4. the fund investor does not retain or enjoy any right of property ownership for the organization’s property;

5. the expense for the staff’s salaries and benefits is within the provided reasonable scope, and the organization’s property is not distributed in disguised forms; and

6. under the guidance and supervision of the government and the community neighborhood committee, carrying out the activities in good order.

IV. Service scope

1. providing residents with employment policy consultation, skill training, post development, guidance on new business creation, and such other community employment services;

2. providing living care, spiritual care, right and interest safeguarding and such other community social security services for orphans, the disabled, the aged, the young, women, people of minority nationalities, returned overseas Chinese and their relatives, or objects of special care and preferential treatment;

3. providing charity aid, comprehensive aid and such other community aid services for poor families, residents struck by disasters, vagrants, or beggars;

4. providing residents with disease prevention and cure, health intervention, contraception and birth control, family planning, healthy birth and child care, elementary education for infants/preschool children, or such other community public health and family planning services;

5. providing residents with cultural entertainment, sports and fitness, popular science dissemination, quality training and interest development, or such other community cultural services;

6. providing residents with crime prevention, anti-drug, juvenile aid and education, contradiction and dispute arbitration and settlement, public security prevention, or such other community security services;

7. providing residents with environmental protection knowledge dissemination, public health and sanitation, greenery maintenance, pollution control, renewable resources recycling, public facility maintenance, or such other community environmental protection services;

8. providing residents with homemaking, meal delivery, household appliance maintenance, material donation and contribution and adjustment, service information consultation, or such other community living services;

9. assisting government departments in providing residents with administrative affairs agency services or professionalized social work services; and

10. providing migrant workers in Shanghai with various livelihood services relevant to the abovementioned.  

V. Support policies

1. The registration department shall provide consultation guidance and full range services for those public welfare social organizations applying for the establishment to engage in community livelihood services; for those approved for the establishment, the registration information thereof shall be directly announced for free by the registration administrative department on the website of “Shanghai Administration Bureau of NGOs”, and shall not be required to be announced through other designated media.

2. For those public welfare social organizations specially engaging in community livelihood services, if their service items meet the using principle and scope of the public welfare funds of welfare lottery, the public welfare funds of welfare lottery shall specially grant subsidies thereto by means of public welfare bidding.  

3. Sub-districts (townships/towns) and the relevant departments and units shall give priority and preferentiality to providing their idle houses, fields, facilities or such other reserved resources for the public welfare social organizations, and offer rental subsidies for a certain period, to relieve the creators’ early-stage investment and cost burden.

4. Governments at all levels and their functional departments shall arrange in an all-round way the matters involving community livelihood administration and services, and shall, by means of project bidding or transfer, purchase services for the matters that can be undertaken by the public welfare social organizations.

5. If non-profit income is generated by the public welfare social organizations engaging in community livelihood services from government purchasing service items or from carrying out livelihood services, the various preferential taxation policies shall be implemented according to the State’s relevant provisions on the taxation policy.

6. As to the expense for the water, electricity, fuel gas, cable television, cable network or communications supplied by urban pipe networks occurred in carrying out daily service activities, the public welfare social organizations may enjoy the same treatment therefore as the public institutions of the same kind; if a public welfare social organization begins establishment or expands service scale, and as provided, must undertake the expense for public facility and accessory construction, it may enjoy the same treatment therefore as the public institutions of the same kind.

7. Encourage, guide and support the public welfare social organizations to establish an annuity system that helps to attract talents and stabilize staff, and improve the treatment for full-time staff members during incumbent period and raise the social security level therefore after retirement; the professional competent administrative unit and government functional department may, according to the social benefit generated from the livelihood services provided thereby and such other situation, offer help by various effective means.

8. In the government-purchased services, for the employees engaging in mental rehabilitation, social aid or such other special services, in addition to the provisions of special allowances for certain posts as provided for public institutions of the same kind, corresponding professional insurances should also be provided therefore.

9. Set up a talents pool for the public welfare social organizations, and according to the relevant provisions on residence permit administration of Shanghai Municipality, handle Shanghai residence permits or household registration transfer for the introduced talents.

10. Strengthen the selection and cultivation of the mainstay for the public welfare social organizations, and encourage the excellent social talents and qualified social workers to involve in the public welfare social organizations. Encourage the employees of the public welfare social organizations to participate in the vocation qualification examination for social work. Perfect the personnel management system for professional technicians’ professional and technical title conferment.
    11. Support public welfare social organizations to carry out international exchange activities, and the relevant government departments should provide necessary guidance, service and management for the organizations’ and members’ participation in external exchange, or cooperation and training.

12. The public welfare social organizations that meet the necessary conditions may apply for entering the public welfare social organization incubator base of the registration and administration department, and be given priority in receiving guidance services and enjoying rental reduction or such other preferential support.

13. Encourage all districts/counties to raise funds through multi channels to set up public welfare social organization development funds, which shall be used for the cultivation and development of public welfare social organizations and shall be used as the award for the public welfare social organizations and excellent talents with great contributions to the society and with outstanding performances.

VI. Specific requirements

1. Strengthen organizing leadership. Governments at all levels and their functional departments shall include such kind of work into the overall planning of community construction, and into the overall consideration for administrative system reform and for the construction of a service-oriented government; organize special forces to take charge of the overall coordination for the public welfare social organizations’ participation in livelihood services; based on reality, itemize policies and measures, and strengthen support.

2. Perfect operation mechanism. Governments at all levels and their functional departments shall, on the principle of the division between “government and public institutions, government and social organizations, administration and handling”, gradually establish and perfect the work systems of government purchasing services, public welfare project bidding, third party evaluation, and socialized operation and management, so as to form a long-acting mechanism encouraging public welfare social organizations’ participation in community livelihood services.

3. Intensify supervision and administration. The social organization registration and administration organ and the professional competent administrative unit shall, through close coordination, intensify supervision and administration as well as regulation and guidance on the public welfare social organizations, give full play to the role of accounting and auditing, social supervision, and trade self-discipline, and prevent and prohibit violating policies, laws and regulations, violating the principle of public welfare, prejudicing service objects’ interests, or such other phenomena.