Even after 16 years and the expenditure of hundreds of millions of Czech crowns, the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (MLSA), together with the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MoEYS) and the Ministry of Health (MoH) have not completed the transformation of the system of care for children at risk that they began in 2009. Although the scope of foster care is gradually increasing, the number of children in institutional care has not substantially decreased. The care system has not been unified under one department and all the necessary quality standards for foster family and institutional care have not been developed. The Child Protection Act, which has been planned for many years, has not been adopted. The Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs has also failed to provide child welfare workers with the information system required by law, which makes their work more difficult and burdens them with unnecessary paperwork. An audit by the SAO focused on this issue.
Over the past 12 years, a total of CZK 701 million has been provided through EU projects to support the transformation of the system of care for children at risk. CZK. Projects of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs for CZK 498.4 million. CZK 7.5 million have not brought a significant shift in the reduction of the number of children in institutions or in the support of foster family care. And in the projects worth CZK 202.9 million, no progress has been made in foster care. CZK, which were mainly implemented by social service providers, the beneficiaries repeatedly created similar, mutually transferable analyses and methodologies. Moreover, in the period when the MLSA was creating its own, nationally usable materials. The effectiveness of the funds spent in this way was significantly reduced.
Between 2015 and 2023, the number of children in institutional care fell from 8434 to 7341, a decrease of 1093. The number of children in foster care increased by 2050 from 10,923 to 12,973. The transfer of vulnerable children from institutional to foster care has been slow. The ministries spent a total of CZK 86.75 billion from the state budget on foster care, the operation of institutions and the social and legal protection of children. Total annual expenditure increased by 61 % during this period.
The audit showed that there is a lack of uniformity in the social and legal protection of children. Since 2015, at least 32 strategic and conceptual documents have addressed the issue, but according to the MoLSA's assessment, they have not been coordinated with each other. By the time the SAO audit was completed in August 2024, there was no new legislation (the Law on Child Protection and Family Support), the draft of which the MoLSA was tasked by the Government to prepare by December 2014. Disagreements between the audited ministries caused the failure to unify services for vulnerable children under one ministry.
For 12 years, the MLSA has failed to fulfill its legal obligation to maintain an information system that would provide child welfare workers with the necessary data, for example, on applicants for adoption or children on the registry. To date, the MoLSA has not provided the system. It has spent CZK 2.1 million on its preparation since 2018. The Ministry has spent CZK 2 million on the process. Since 2023, the Ministry has started to create a different way of registration in the form of shared simple MS Excel spreadsheets. The MoLSA plans to spend up to CZK 6.4 million on this temporary solution, which also does not comply with the law, by the end of 2025. CZK 6 million.
According to the SAO's findings, the social-legal protection of children authorities address the lack of computerisation of the agenda by purchasing their own information systems, which they have spent public funds on from commercial suppliers, but which are not subject to the SAO's audit competence.
As a result of the inaction of the MLSA, social-legal protection workers are burdened with unnecessary paperwork and do not have the necessary information that would facilitate their work and speed up, for example, the placement of children in foster families. This is also confirmed by some of the answers from the questionnaire survey conducted by the SAO in connection with the audit with a total of 671 respondents, 515 of whom dealt with the placement of children in foster family care. For example, respondents stated: "Despite the time it takes to process the paperwork, I can hardly get to the counseling or prevention activities... We are still keeping paper registers, which is very burdensome given the number of families in our town... We are still waiting for a unified program from the MLSA - an information system that we must use according to the 2013 law, but it is still not available." Among other things, there is a lack of up-to-date and verifiable data on available capacity in institutions, so social workers search for suitable facilities by telephone: "We don't have any bulk info about possible vacancies, we just call the facilities and find out what's available," said another respondent.
Detailed statistical data on institutional and foster care in the years 2015 to 2023 in the regions and the whole Czech Republic as well as the results of the SAO survey can be found here: https://www.nku.cz/scripts/detail.php?id=14313.
Number of children in institutional and foster care and related expenditure
SAO/ gnews - RoZ
ILLUSTRATIVE PHOTO - pixabay
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