What have we learned about reforms in child protection?

Vesna Bosnjak

• Good practices in reordering child protection services

• Good practices in regulating change processes• Overcoming specific constraints to

deinstitutionalization• Campaigning for change in institutional culture

and staff attitudes• Making change understandable to everybody• Wider system reforms

What we have learned about reforms in child protection:

Good practices in reordering child protection services

• Institutions providing new services for their present service users and for their potential (future) service users

• Statutory services (commissions, guardianship and social service departments, courts) overcoming duplications, adopting individual case management and gate keeping

Good practices in reordering child protection services - cont.

• NGOs accredited, sourced out and financed by the government to provide child protection services

• All new services targeted primarily to accommodate children who should be prevented from entering institutions or should be returned either to their families and/or communities

Good practices in regulating change processes

• Laws and bylaws define the mandate and standards for functioning of variety of services, dismiss the obsolete institutional mandates and practices and reallocate resources

• Planning introduced as an obligatory means of system’s regulation with the same power as enactment and enforcement of the laws

Good practices in regulating change processes - cont.

• Plans at national, regional and institutional levels defining quantitative targets over short, medium and long term, corresponding (re)allocation of resources, deadlines and accountabilities

• Protocols and other type of guiding instruments for participation of different sectors in provision of complex services (children with disabilities, in conflict with law, child abuse, trafficking etc.)

Deinstitutionalization

• Specific areas for deregulation, temporary regulation and enactment of new rules

• Legal determinants of the institutional setup and functioning

• Financial regulations, sources and flows• Administrative and technical guidelines

Deinstitutionalization - cont.

• Decisions on entry in and exit from the institution

• Institutional internal regulations (i.e. job descriptions, working methods, etc.)

• Staff involvement, their rights, entitlements, interests etc.

• Rules about use of institutional properties and other assets

Making change understandable to everybody

• Hypotesis - 100 children have to leave the institution which employs 60 staff memberso all alternatives for children and staff to be considered

• Probable distribution of children: 15 children return to family of origin 35 children–foster or kinship care 30 children–small group homes (up to 5 children) 15 children (18 years of age) after-care through

grants and individual coachingo Available resources = institutional budget

Hypotesis - continuation ...

• Staff = 50 staff to be deployed in: Day care and family outreach services (50

children now in families, plus 30 new service users, 30 staff)

Small group homes (8 staff) Support to foster and/or kinship families (1 staff) Support to children in after-care (2 staff) Management and administration (7staff) Laying off the already retired but working staff

memebers and retirement or early retirement for 12 staff

• The value of institutional infrastructure is often higher then the needed resources for the infrastructure for day care and small group homes

• Additional costs for the system are “transitional”- i.e. planning, trainning and capacity-building team over a period of one year

• In the long run, the State would spend on 100 of the above profile of children less then if present trends continue

Wider system reform

• Incorporation of child and women’s rights standards in legislation, standards for services and professional codes of conduct

• Introduction of intergovernmental financial transfers for basic services from central level to municipalities with low level of revenues

• Balancing universal and targeted poverty reduction assistance in favour of the poorest children and families

Wider system reform - cont.

• Make children at risk (disabled, parentless, in substitute family arrangements, etc.) beneficiaries of a larger part of general cash assistance schemes and government-introduced safety nets

• Inclusive health and education policies, etc.