Background

The European Social Network (ESN) is an independent network for public social services with over 110 member organisation in 33 European countries. Amongst our members, there are national associations of directors of public social services for adults and children, welfare agencies, regional and local authorities, development and research centres, quality and monitoring agencies. Our mission is to promote knowledge exchange and to link European with local policy and practice.

ESN has been working on aspects related to children policies and services for the past 6 years. In 2008-2009, ESN had a working group on children and families, and as result of their works, ESN published the report “Breaking the cycle of deprivation” in 2010. In 2011, ESN organised the seminar “Investing in Children: Early Years Services and Child Protection”, which explored the relationships between early child care and specialist children’s services, such as child protection.

Throughout 2011 and 2012, ESN participated in consultations with the European Commission and Member States’ representatives to feed the results of the seminar and contribute to the drafting of the European Commission’s (EC) Recommendation “Investing in Children: Breaking the cycle of disadvantage” that was published on 20 February 2013. This Recommendation outlines Access to quality services as an essential pillar, together with access to resources and child participation. Within the services pillar, the European Commission recognises 5 types of services:

·  Reduce inequality at a young age by investing in early childhood education and care

·  Improve education systems’ impact on equal opportunities

·  Improve the responsiveness of health systems to address the needs of disadvantaged children

·  Provide children with a safe, adequate housing and living environment

·  Enhance family support and the quality of alternative care settings.

ESN is contributing to the implementation of the EC Recommendation with the project “Investing in Children Services, Improving Outcomes”, an analysis of the national legal and policy frameworks in 14 European countries focusing on the services pillar of the Recommendation and linking this dimension to other aspects such as access to benefits and children’s participation.

Methodology

ESN selected a member organisation with responsibilities in children services policy’ implementation from each of the 14 countries and prepared a questionnaire with the aim of gathering information about the legal and policy framework in each country and compare national frameworks with the framework set in the European Recommendation.

In addition, ESN is organising three peer reviews bringing together a delegation from each country consisting of representatives from children services directors, national government and private/not for profit children services providers. The first peer review took place in 2013 and featured Ireland, France, Sweden and Bulgaria. The second peer review took place in 2014 bringing together representatives from another five EU Member States: Spain, The UK, Germany, Poland and The Netherlands.

Some of these member states feature a decentralised approach to the organisation of services, and that is why in some cases we are only focusing the analysis on some parts of these countries, such as Catalonia and Scotland. This document provides a summary of some of our findings in regards to the legal and policy framework of children services in three of the 9 countries that have been covered so far: Bulgaria, Ireland and Spain.

Bulgaria

In Bulgarian childcare, the dominant theme is currently de-institutionalisation (DI) and the development of community based services for children, particularly children with disabilities. Our analysis reveals the emergence of areas of concern as expressed by the Bulgarian government in its annual assessments of progress in DI and the perspectives of other authoritative commentators, including the need for a holistic approach and the operational effectiveness of the community based services developed.

Investing in children services: Appeal for a holistic approach

The most significant action relating to childcare and family support is the implementation of the Action Plan linked to the National Strategy "Vision for the De-institutionalisation of Children in Bulgaria" agreed by the Council of Ministers in February, 2010. As a result, it is expected to reach complete closure of the classical type of institutions, while the institutionalisation of children from 0 to 3 should end after the reform. One of the specific sub-targets of the instrument is closing the 137 children institutions existing in December 2009 within 15 years. Some elements of this overarching reform include:

·  Work with families and social workers experts to prevent children’s abandonment;

·  Development of alternative forms of care, with focus on foster care;

·  New financing approach with resources directly addressed to children services;

·  Sustainability: total costs of new services will not exceed current costs of the 130 institutions;

·  Improved service quality: improved personnel-children ratio, increased number of children in foster care;

·  Improved outcomes: improved general health and physical development; educational attainments; acquired social skills;

·  Significantly lower number of children in the care system;

·  Improved effectiveness and efficiency of state investment in social and health services

The Ministry of Labour and Social Policy produces annually a monitoring report relating to this action, which lists key challenges and makes recommendations for addressing these issues. In its 3rd Monitoring Report (MR) on progress in de-institutionalisation, the Bulgarian Ministry of Labour and Social Policy makes reference to the need for legislation to be “improved in other key areas related to child well-being such as health, education, justice, social welfare and family policy”. This appeals holistic approach to childcare that – in this particular instance - derives from the recognition that positive steps relating to the closure of residential institutions and the development of alternative services can be undone by shortcomings in other areas or inconsistencies between projects.

Key theme: Are childcare and family support services fit for purpose?

A significant theme emerging from the MR concerns the rapid multiplication of childcare and family support services and the resultant demand for state financing and whether these services are actually answering care priorities in the context of a national transition to community-based services. That is why there have been calls for a shift of focus on the types of services needed towards the operational effectiveness or consolidation of existing services and a review of the best means of structuring and financing delivery.

The MR emphasises that the consolidation of existing services needs to be accompanied by more work in the field of prevention of risk, which also has implications for other services, such as education and healthcare. The intervention of community health mediators and social workers in maternity units (prevention of abandonment) has been effective as a component of a coherent, multi-disciplinary action linked to the closure of institutions in nine municipalities.

Ireland

In spite of the economic downturn and Ireland’s budgetary constraints, a number of key changes have taken place in supporting children and families in the past years. In 2011, a Department for Children and Youth Affairs was established with a full Ministry at cabinet level for the first time. The Department identified a number of priorities; for example, to hold a referendum to the Constitution that strengthens children’s rights; to establish a dedicated agency for children and families; and to put child protection on a statutory footing.

Investing in children services: Improve services’ coordination, monitoring and evaluation

While the coordination in services delivery for children and families has improved in the last years, families are still often dealing with numerous officials (often from the same agency), either in person or the duplication of information collection through numerous reviews and reports. A national infrastructure of local Children’s Services Committee’s (Local Authority areas) is in development. However, their potential is limited by interagency data sharing issues. Protocols for improved coordination need to be agreed so as to ensure maximising the potential for inter-agency work.

A clear monitoring and evaluation of all services (statutory, non-statutory and voluntary) for children and families needs to be achieved. While statutory services do have systems of monitoring and evaluation and the Ombudsman for Children’s Office can investigate complaints in relation to the rights to service provision, the establishment of an infrastructure for monitoring and evaluation is to be provided through the new Child and Family Agency. With regards to children in state care, 90% of them currently live with families. In the words of Paul Harrison, Director of Policy and Strategy at the Child and Family Agency: “When I started as a social worker, 90% were living in institutions. I am glad we managed to reverse this situation”. A wide range of reforms are currently in development; these changes aim to achieve an improved infrastructure for children services’ planning, coordination, monitoring and evaluation.

Key theme: Reforms for better children services’ coordination

The amendment to the constitution has been passed and the new Child and Family Agency was established on 1 January 2014, with a subsequent major sectorial infrastructure embedded in the delivery of services that should lead to a more equal, coordinated and focused improvement in the delivery of support for children and families nationally. The Agency’s responsibilities include child welfare and protection services (including family support and alternative care); child and family-related services (including pre-school inspections, and domestic, sexual and gender-based violence services); the Family Support Agency; the National Education Welfare Board; and community-based psychology services. Additional services may be transferred following further consideration.

Spain

The 2008-2013 economic and financial crisis has exacerbated the chronically high levels of child poverty in Spain. Pro-child policies began to take off at the beginning of the last decade with the first Plan for Childhood and Adolescence (PENIA) 2006-2009. Thanks to this plan, there was an improvement in the provision of child benefits and services, but it was limited and disparate across regions, and failed to stop the impact of the crisis on the labour market for households with children. With the crisis, severe cutbacks, resulting from fiscal consolidation policies, have affected the quality of education, prevention and support services for children at risk of exclusion.

Investing in children services: Improve governance between national, regional and local levels

The strategic targets of the II PENIA 2013-2016 include the development of healthcare rights for children and adolescents, from the promotion of health to rehabilitation. Even though the Plan recognises the need to prioritise the “most vulnerable”, it does not provide details in regards to specific actions. Regarding access to affordable quality services, the Territorial Council of Social Services approved the “Social services reference catalogue”, which includes a number of instruments aimed at “family support and intervention”. These services are to be tailored by the Autonomous Communities (regions), which are responsible for planning and providing children services.

A regional case study: Catalonia

The budget for social policies has been reduced 20% since the beginning of the crisis, whilst child poverty has increased to more than 25%. As a result, there has been a need to undertake an integrated approach to the development of children and family policies, reducing some universal benefits and introducing more targeted allowances, such as benefits to meet housing debts of large families or the needs of families with children identified as being at risk. Representatives from the local level have raised concerns about the level of cuts in early childcare services provided by the municipalities, particularly in the 0-3 age range.

A range of reforms have taken place with the aim to achieve an improved infrastructure for children services’ planning, coordination, provision, monitoring and evaluation. For instance, the Pact for Children is an agreement signed by all social, economic, civil, institutional and political stakeholders to promote comprehensive policies for children and young people. It consists of a Monitoring Committee made up of representatives appointed by the National Children’s Board and representatives of the signatory organisations to assess its implementation with a focus on social inclusion, health and quality of life of children and adolescents.

The National Children Board of Catalonia, together with the Territorial Children Boards and Local Children Boards, are collective bodies which enhance, coordinate, promote and foster public policies for children across Catalonia ensuring the participation of all governmental departments, the federations of municipalities, county councils with responsibility in children policies, and the Observatory of Children Rights.

Some preliminary conclusions

Key child poverty challenges identified in the countries reviewed included difficulties in accessing early childcare (due to costs, large social gradient, lack of use) or the insufficient impact of family benefits. The evidence presented showed that starting investment in the early years and sustaining it throughout childhood increases the efficiency of public investment, saving money in the process and offsetting costs of long-term under-investment in human capital. However, still only a few European countries provide a continuum of support during childhood and there remain gaps in many countries, often during the early years.

Looking at the organisation of children services, the economic crisis is impacting upon the landscape within which services are delivered; consequently, new ways of delivering services have been needed to tackle newly emerging issues. These may include temporarily freezing some universal services and delivering more targeted solutions to reach out to those most in need. The analysis also shows that there is a need to ensure that the concept of child poverty not only accounts for material poverty, but also for social development, education and participation. For this, there is a need for a systematic and evidence-based approach and the development of policies reinforcing the role of local authorities in bringing together professionals across sectors and building a more outcomes-focused system.