The Child's Right to Quality Care
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THE CHILD’S RIGHT TO QUALITY CARE 1 THE CHILD'S RIGHT TO QUALITY CARE REVIEW OF THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS GUIDELINES FOR THE ALTERNATIVE CARE OF CHILDREN IN WESTERN BALKAN COUNTRIES 2 THE CHILD’S RIGHT TO QUALITY CARE Save the Children is the world’s leading independent organization for children. OUR VISION is a world in which every child attains the right to survival, protection, development and participation. OUR MISSION is to inspire breakthroughs in the way the world treats children, and to achieve immediate and lasting change in their lives. The child’s right to quality care - Review of the Author: Dr Nevenka Žegarac implementation of the United Nations Guidelines for Team Leader: Nevena Milutinović the alternative care of children in western Balkan Proofreading: Profis Sarajevo countries Design: Arch Design Sarajevo Print: Amos Graf Sarajevo Publisher: Circulation: 200 Save the Children International, Sarajevo Ljubljanska 16 71000 Sarajevo This publication was produced within the project “Pro- Bosnia and Herzegovina tection of children in migration in north west Balkans”. Tel: +387 33 290 671 Save the Children implemented this project with support Fax: +387 33 290 675 of Save the Children Norway. http://nwb.savethechildren.net/ [email protected] All rights reserved. Contents of this publication may be used or copied for non-commercial purposes only with CIP: 342.726:364.4-053.2 full attribution. ISBN: 978-9958-0998-3-0 © Save the Children 2014 During the preparation of this analysis, I had a great support from the organization Save the Children, which recognized the need and importance for this study and initiated its development. I owe special thanks to Aida Bekić for the substantial discussions we maintained during the last year. The wholehearted support came from the entire team of this organization, especially from Nevena Milutinović. SOS Children’s Villages in Bosnia and Herzegovina also deserve great appreciation for the courtesy of allowing me to use the methodology for assessment of guidelines developed within this organization, as well as the results of analysis they conducted in Bosnia and Herzegovina. During data collection and analysis, Jasmina Ivanović provided valuable help and assistance. Her knowledge, awareness and commitment to the rights of the child are an outstanding support and resource for the development of policies in this area. Nevenka Žegarac, February 2014, Belgrade 2 THE CHILD’S RIGHT TO QUALITY CARE CONTENTS Foreword 4 Introduction 6 Necessity and appropriateness – base principles of the Guidelines 8 How this document is organised – what questions are answered? 10 Methodology 11 Terms used in this document 12 Review of definitions used in the legislation of the Republic of Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina 16 The context of child welfare in countries of the Western Balkans 19 Institutional mechanisms and development of policies for alternative care of children in the Western Balkan countries 20 Measures and programmes for the prevention of separation of children from parental families and for family reunification after alternative care 23 Families with children using financial assistance in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina 24 Community services available to children and families in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina 27 Measures in support of deinstitutionalisation in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina 30 New services for family preservation and prevention of separation of children 32 The gatekeeping mechanism 35 The gatekeeping practice in Serbia and Montenegro prior to social welfare reforms 37 The gatekeeping practice in Bosnia and Herzegovina 38 Reformed procedures for intake, assessment and placement in Serbia and Montenegro 39 Reformed procedures for defining objectives of alternative care and creation of individual plans in Serbia and Montenegro 40 Reformed procedures for review of alternative care arrangements in Serbia and Montenegro 41 Implementation of newly introduced procedures for alternative care of children 42 Capacities for alternative care of children in the countries of the Western Balkans 43 Availability of different forms of alternative care 47 Deinstitutionalisation and development of family-based care in Serbia 49 Deinstitutionalisation and development of family-based care in Montenegro 51 Deinstitutionalisation in Bosnia and Herzegovina 53 THE CHILD’S RIGHT TO QUALITY CARE 3 Children in alternative care 54 Reasons for alternative care of children in Western Balkan countries 54 Children from minority groups 56 Alternative care of children aged 0-3 57 Siblings in alternative care 60 Unaccompanied children and youth 61 Adoption 63 Leaving alternative care 66 Duration of alternative care 66 Planning and preparation for leaving care 67 Supervised independent living arrangements 69 Quality of formal alternative care 71 Structural conditions 71 Personnel 75 Best interests of the child 77 Participation of children and youth and how children’s views affect their living arrangement 79 Restrictive interventions 82 Complaints mechanism 86 Records and documentation 89 Informal care arrangements 92 Financing, supervision, ensuring quality of alternative care – supervision, inspection and monitoring 94 Budgets and financing 94 Supervision, inspection and monitoring 96 Visibility of the UN Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children in the national policies and practice 98 Conclusion: What is the same and what is different for children in alternative care in the three countries? 99 Recommendations 102 4 THE CHILD’S RIGHT TO QUALITY CARE FOREWORD You are holding in your hands the publication “The child’s right to quality care - Review of the implementation of the United Nations Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children in Western Balkan countries”, intended for decision makers and practitioners working to secure the rights of the child to live in their own family or in alternative care and possibly reunite with family when possible. The review of the implementation of the United Nations guidelines for alternative care of children provides information on the capabilities, achievements and problems that Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia are facing in trying to operationalize the standards defined in the document entitled “Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children” adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 2009. Save the Children is dedicated to improving the situation of children without adequate care and to promoting children’s right to live in a family setting. Our global objective for the protection of children is a world in which “all children develop in a healthy family environment, and no child is placed in the institution that is damaging to them”.1 In this respect, Save the Children is committed to strengthening the capacity of families to care for their children as well as supporting the development of alternative forms of family-based care for children who cannot remain with their families. The need for some form of residential services for children may be appropriate only as a short-term solution, for small groups of children and should be the last option when no other solution is possible. Researches show that the number of children who grow up without adequate, quality and continuous support and who are in need of alternative forms of care is on the increase. Unfortunately, this usually happens due to rising impoverishment of families, and poor preventive activities aimed at strengthening and promotion of the parenting skills. It has been proved that the lack of timely and quality support to the child inflicts additional damage to children’s physical, emotional and intellectual development, especially when it comes to the placement of children of early age in institutions. It leads to adverse outcomes for the child and ultimately represents a form of child neglect by the institutions and by the society as a whole. In recent years, dramatic progress has been made in reforming the social welfare system, especially 1 Save the Children Child Protection Strategy 2013-15, available at http://resourcecentre.savethechildren.se/ THE CHILD’S RIGHT TO QUALITY CARE 5 in the process of de-institutionalization, development of social services, approach to beneficiaries and general understanding of social work, in terms of making the minimum quality standards. However, there are fears that the current capacities of countries do not promote strongly enough the proactive actions and procedures for reunification with the family. That way these children are brought into a special situation of vulnerability and are additionally exposed to risk of abuse and exploitation. Therefore, the intent of this publication is to review existing practices and highlight the need for affirmation of proactive versus reactive measures, primarily aimed at supporting families to overcome the current situation and provide optimal conditions for the full development of the child in the family environment. It is also important to note that the Guidelines and their application do not concern only the state institutions, but all stakeholders in the various communities. Therefore, this publication is an important starting point and a tool that can serve as information and guidance to practitioners and decision makers, organizations and institutions working on the best possible rights-based solutions for children. In this regard, we hope that this document will serve to decision and policy makers