The dissertation presents scientific and practical results that together solve a specific scientific issue for the scientific field of public policy. In particular, it provides theoretical generalization and a new solution of the scientific issue regarding theoretical and methodological support for regional social policy during modern transformations. It offers general characteristic of the issues of formation and development of regional social policy in the conditions of modern transformations as they are examined in research literature. It is established that this trend is gaining more and more topicality and has interdisciplinary nature. The theoretical foundations for the formation and development of regional policy since Ukraine's independence have been most thoroughly researched in the fields of economics, demography, political science, and sociology. At the same time, in the science of public administration, this topic continues to be of research interest and encourages exploration in the context of the European integration movement.
The absence of a well-established terminology apparatus allowed the author to define the concept of "regional social policy" as a special kind of activity based on the principles of joint interaction of state and local self-government bodies with involvement of other public administration subjects in order to achieve the highest level of well-being and quality of life of the local community on the basis of guaranteed security, social competence, and responsibility.
It has been proved that in the period of early independence of Ukraine the transformation of state-administrative approaches in the sphere of regulation of social systems at the regional level took place in an evolutionary way on the basis of the formation of a new paradigm of public administration in the sphere of social policy. The centralized system of general social welfare was gradually replaced by a decentralized form of public administration on the basis of targeted provision of social services in order to ensure social rights and meet the needs and interests of 21 Ukrainian citizens. The regional social policy since gaining independence developed in two stages: the first stage of the post-Soviet reconstruction (1990-2015), and the second stage - the European integration (from 2015 to the present).
The work has formulated and conceptually substantiated state-administrative approaches to the formation of priorities of regional social policy in the period of modern transformations, which are implemented in reality by a regional subject of social policy and are manifested through the unity of three principles: duality of organization and management, social competence, and European integration complementarity. The principle of duality of organization and management in the field of regional social policy actualizes the need to strengthen the social and service functions of management and functions of social development. The principle of social competence of the management entity ensures the development of regional social policy and, accordingly, has an externally oriented dimension. The principle of European integration complementarity of regional social policy ensures the framework unity of the goals of regional social policy in Ukraine and the European Union.
It has been substantiated that the key role in the implementation of regional social policy during the period of social transformation is played by the department of social welfare at the regional state administration, as, according to expert estimates (WHO, report, 2017), it is through this entity that the Ukrainian state provides access to the social services system in almost 90% of cases. At the same time, the private sector in the social services market, unfortunately, remains very limited. It has been established that the functional and content load of the activity of executive bodies in the regions includes more than 165 processes, among which priority is given to provision, coordination, organization and control. They constitute a group of social service content functions. Simultaneously, the functions of the social development group (targeting, forecasting, monitoring, and evaluation) at the regional level require improvement and appropriate development of methodological tools in the conditions of decentralization of management in the social sphere.
