Transcript Reform of the Child Care System: Taking Stock and Accelerating Action, Bulgaria, Sofija Smajl Joldić, Director, Centre for Social Work Srebrenik, Tuzla Canton, Bosnia.

Reform of the Child Care System:
Taking Stock and Accelerating Action,
Bulgaria, Sofija
Smajl Joldić, Director, Centre for Social Work Srebrenik,
Tuzla Canton, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Case Management and Other
Innovations in Statutory Services at SubNational Level:
Case of Tuzla Canton
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Bosnia and Herzegovina
Social protection in Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Post-war period and transition
- Significant changes of the social protection system (organisation,
quality and level of services, financing)
- Changed and increased needs to address (displaced persons,
increased poverty, family facing greater risks).
• Social protection regulated at the level of Entity and District
Brčko, as well as at the level of Cantons, and not at the level of
state (14 laws on social and child protection; combination of
decentralised and centralized systems).
• Financing of social and child protection is not uniform at the
level of BiH; there is no social security minimum (in different
locations different entitlements and payments/amounts).
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Bosnia and Herzegovina
Social protection system in BiH
BiH
COUNCIL OF
MINISTERS
RS
Ministry of Health
and Social
Protection
Public Fund for
Child Protection of
RS
(44) CSWs +
(18) DEPT. FOR
SOCIAL
PROTECTION
Brčko District
FBiH
Department for
Social Protection
Ministry of Labour
and Social Policy
NGOs and local
community
(2) Institutions for
children without
parental care
(10) Cantonal
Ministries
(14) Institutions fpr
ChDPC + (3)
religious ones
(2) Cantonal CSW
(Sarajevo and
BPC)
(57) CSWs +
(22) Dept. for
social protection
NGOs and local
community
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Bosnia and Herzegovina
Tuzla Canton (TC)
Sociodemographic and other caracteristics
• Area: 2649 square km
• Tuzla Canton makes 10,14% of FBiH territory or 5,17% of
territory of BiH
• TC has around 506 000 inhabitants; Tuzla town, the
administrative centre of the Canton, has around 175 000
inhabitants
• TC is important and the most developed industrial and mining
region in BiH
• Comprises 13 municipalities, each municipality has a Centre for
Social Work
• Total number of unemployed in TC is 87 197 (May 2007)
• In 13 CSWs, 80 staff are employed (50% professionals)
• The number of children without parental care in TC (Dec 2006)
is 552 (institutional placement 192, foster families 360)
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Bosnia and Herzegovina
Development of Standard Professional
Instruments in the area of social and child
protection (2001– 2006)
• Project of Promotion and Development of Alternative Forms of
Care (SC UK, USAID)
– Development of a model of foster care in TC
– Standardisation of services and improvement of policy and practice
of protection of children deprived of parental care.
• Reasons for the development of the instruments:
– Legislative framework does not provide clear guidance (lack of by-laws,
procedures and instructions)
– Different interpretation of legislative provisions
– Different levels of professional expertise of CSWs staff
– Different approaches in working with beneficiaries
– Improvement of protection and facilitation of the work of the CSW.
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Bosnia and Herzegovina
Development of Standard Professional
Instruments – Continued
• Partners
–
–
–
–
Ministry of Labour and Social Policy of Tuzla Canton
14 Centres for Social Work (TC and Brčko District)
Save the Children UK
Association of Foster Parents of Tuzla Canton Familija
• Process
– Local practitioners and professionals as authors, multidisciplinary
working groups
– Extensive field testing within everyday work of CSWs
– Process took several years
– Publishing (forms and instructions, including electronic version of forms)
– Formalisation (through by-laws)
– Expansion to other areas in BiH (Republika Srpska, Una-Sana Canton,
Hercegovina-Neretva Canton; 37% CSWs in BiH use or partially use the
instruments).
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Bosnia and Herzegovina
Development of Standard Professional
Instruments – Continued
RESULTS ACHIEVED
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Improved quality of protection and work of CSW (‘the work without standard
professional instruments is unimaginable’- a social worker; instruments provide the
lacking professional guidelines)
Uniform approach in service provision – standardisation of services (procedures,
registration/identification, assessment, treatments, monitoring and reporting)
More systematic and efficient work of CSW
Less time spent on administrative tasks, more time spend on rendering professional
services
Creation of preconditions for better organisation of work
Better quality data and information, that can be processed and analysed, and a more
comprehensive and better quality case documentation
Participation of beneficiaries/child in the decision making on care/protection
arrangements - Individual Care Plan
Increased CSW capacities with respect to the protection planning and monitoring
In addition to the state/statutory, usage by NGO sector
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Bosnia and Herzegovina
Development of Standard Professional
Instruments – Continued
CATEGORIES OF STANDARD FORMS - LAW
1.
2.1.
2.2.
2.3.
2.4.
2.5.
2.6.
2.7.
2.8.
2.9.
3.
GENERAL FORMS
CHILDREN/PERSONS WITHOUT PARENTAL/FAMILY CARE
EDUCATIONALLY NEGLECTED/UNCARED FOR CHILDREN
CHILDREN WHOSE DEVELOPMENT IS DISTURBED BY FAMILY
CIRCUMSTANCES
PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES
PERSONS WITHOUT SECURE INCOME AND UNABLE TO WORK
PERSONS WITH SOCIALLY UNACCEPTABLE BEHAVIOUR
PERSONS EXPOSED TO ABUSE AND FAMILY VIOLENCE
PERSONS AND FAMILIES IN SOCIAL NEED WHO, DUE TO
EXTRAORDINARY CIRCUMSTANCES, RQUIRE APPROPRIATE SOCIAL
PROTECTION
PROTECTION OF CIVIL VICTIMS OF WAR
PROTECTION OF FAMILY WITH CHILDREN
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Bosnia and Herzegovina
Standard Professional Instruments and case
management
CATEGORIES OF STANDARD FORMS – CASE MANAGEMENT
• Registration/Identification of beneficiary
• Assessment of the situation of the child and identification of short-term and
long-term needs of the child (with participation of the beneficiary/child)
• Individual Care Plan for the child
- The best interests of the child
- Participation of the child (participation in finding a solution and decision
making)
- Inclusion of resources from the social network (immediate and wider family, local
community)
- Key tasks, responsible persons and organisations/institutions, and deadlines for
realisation of the plan
• Monitoring and review of the care plan realisation (regular and as needed
reviews)
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Bosnia and Herzegovina
Changes in the work of Centre for Social Work
• Organisation of the work in the CSW – case
management (one person in charge of a case)
• Improved planning and monitoring of protection (care
plan produced and review of the care plan conducted)
• Partnership with and participation of beneficiary in the
decisions re his/her protection
• Involvement of all relevant actors from the
beneficiary’s environment
• Improved professional social work and usage of
modern methods of work with child and family
• Cooperation with NGO sector and other actors in the
community (eg. involvement of Familija)
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Bosnia and Herzegovina
Changes in the work of Centre for Social
Work - Preconditions
• Human capacities
– Adequate number of professional staff and sufficient time to work on a case
– Development of skills and knowledge of CSW staff – training (child rights and
child participation, individual approach in working with clients, social work with
family, case management, work in local community: coordination, networking and
work in partnership, computer usage, etc.)
• Strengthening of specialised work and CSW reform
– Organisation of work which enables specialised work
– By-laws which regulate new way of work
• Material and technical equipping
– Financial resources for work - salaries, premises, transport, services
– Support by local community/municipality in additional financing
– Technical equipping
• Normative/regulative framework
– Formalisation of instruments (still pending in TC – CSW not obliged to use the
instruments; complicated process for BiH)
– Harmonisation of normative framework
– Regulating of supervision/monitoring of professional work
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Bosnia and Herzegovina
Preconditions for introduction of standard
instruments in the work of Centres for Social
Work
•
•
•
•
Human capacities
Training of staff
Equipment (computers)
Formalisation through by-laws
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Bosnia and Herzegovina
Results
• Standard instruments developed and introduced in the
work, and being replicated to new locations
• Securing of financing from several sources (cofinancing)
• Development of capacities of Centre for Social Work
• Specialisation of professional staff
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Bosnia and Herzegovina
Lessons learned
• Work in partnership
• It is possible to work on the improvement of child and social
protection without waiting for specific laws to be passed
• Participation of children/beneficiaries in the process of
protection is important
• With some organisational changes, Centre for Social Work has
successfully fitted into these processes
• Centres for Social Work and their staff present a significant
resource for replication of new approaches and models of work
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Bosnia and Herzegovina