Identification data of the project
Project starts: June 2009
Project ends: December 2010
Main goal
The main objective of the project is to create an assessment tool that will allow the social workers responsible for social and legal protection of children at the local level to explore and qualify the situation of children in the family. This tool will be developed on the basis of cooperation with Norwegian partners by using their experience, and tried out in collaboration with social workers in two Czech regions. Social workers will get an instrument for a fairer and more objective examination of the situation of children and families at risk. The creation of this methodology should help to reduce the number of children which are under the threat of being put into institutional care. The project goals are in line with the priority challenges No.6 (from the call for proposals), which is focusing on support of approaches that help achieve the deinstitutionalisation of childcare.
The Czech Republic is among the countries with the highest number of children growing up outside the family. Over the past 20 years the number has almost doubled. In practice residential care is the most common decision when the court decides that a child cannot continue to live in his or her own family. A key role in this decision making is played by the social workers who propose the approaches that help achieve children from families to the court, and the court respects their view in most cases. These social workers are not adequately equipped for the qualification of the situation of children and their families. As yet, there is no methodology that provides a tool for an objective assessment and qualification of the situation of the family. The social workers decide subjectively according to their individual experiences.
According to recent surveys led by the Department of Social Work Faculty of Arts, or Sirius Foundation social workers are aware of the lack of a proper methodology, and they consider this approaches that help achieve to be one of the greatest obstacles in their work. When the safety of children is endangered, workers tend to propose institutional care more often than necessary. A knowledge-based assessment tool can contribute to reducing the number of unnecessary placements.
Overall Objective
The specific objective of the project is the creation of assessment tool available for the daily work of social workers at the local level, and to other professionals who are helping families at risk of having their child places in residential or foster care. In the Czech Republic there are about 1500 social workers in regions and municipalities who are responsible for the social and legal protection of children. In addition about 350 NGO´s are involved who don´t have decision making power, but who provide a range of services to families at risk. An assessment tool like the one we propose to develop and try out would very necessary and beneficial to their work as well.
The tool should evaluate each area of life of the child and his family, describe relevant risk factors, but particularly in accordance with current knowledge in the field. The tool will also aim to identify unused resources within the families and their social network. This specific approach focused on the strengths of families as a way of addressing crises is a fundamental principle on which the instrument will be based. This approach will allow the social worker and the family to identify and realize that there are, despite the difficult situation in which the family is, perhaps some resources available and that these could be strengthened. The family should be a partner, not a passive object in the assessment process. The tool will be discussed with an expert panel consisting of experts from partner organizations and social workers from the field, for whom the tool will be designed. This mechanism will provide continuous, critical discussion and good relevance for the practitioners. Also, the resulting tool should be user-friendly so that possible formalism in the use of the tool can be avoided.
The project will also include a pilot verification of the tool in practice, with particular reference to several target groups - families at risk of having a child removed to institutional care, families who already has a child in institutional care/ children in institutional care, applicants for foster care, foster families, and kinship foster families.
Rationale
Outputs from the project should contribute significantly to the improvement of the situation of children and families at risk, through a knowledge-based, equitable and efficient approach to the qualification of their situation. As already mentioned, the Czech Republic is at present trying to cope with high number of children in institutional care, and for that is repeatedly criticized by international institutions (Commission for the Rights of the Child (UN)). By contrast, Norway is a country that has a highly developed system of service and care for children and families at risk. As the main alternative to placing the child outside the family are used alternative forms of foster care. The proportion of the numbers of children living in the institutional and alternative forms is almost the opposite from that in the Czech Republic. Institutional care is the least used option.
Our Norwegian project partner, Norwegian Social Research (NOVA), is a research institution with a long tradition in this area. Its experts have extensive experience not only in research but also in the field. Such connections are considered very beneficial for the project. Norwegian experiences and proven practices will bring inspiration and the necessary distance from the problem, for example in terms of ethnically sensitive approaches to the families of minorities, which is an issue that Norway has had to confront for many years.
Financing
The project is financed by the EHP Mechanism and Norway Financing Mechanism.
