Joint meeting of the Commission for Juvenile Affairs and the Coordination Council for the Implementation of Decree No. 18: Vitebsk region plans to introduce the institution of observation commissions
Currently, this practice is used in the territory of the Osveysk rural council of the Verkhnedvinsk district: acts of inspection of apartments and houses of families that have come to the attention of child protection authorities are attached to social investigation documents, and a comprehensive assessment of the safety of the living space is given by all interested prevention entities.
We remind you that due to legislative changes in 2019, child protection authorities were guided by new criteria for assessing family dysfunction and the procedure for recognizing a child as being in a socially dangerous situation. It would seem that the implemented algorithms should coordinate the joint actions of all prevention entities, however, the analysis of work using the example of Polotsk and Verkhnedvinsk districts revealed certain shortcomings.
– On the one hand, an interdepartmental system for identifying children in a socially dangerous situation (SDS) has been formed in the districts, taking into account the requirements of Resolution No. 22 of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus, which came into force in February last year. All signals about violations of the rights of minors are checked. On the other hand, there are problems with the timely informing of education authorities about facts of alleged dysfunction, – Tamara Olekhnovich notes. – In the Polotsk district, along with reports from the internal affairs department, the court, and educational institutions, 30% of signals came from citizens and employers who are not included in the regional Unified Regulation for interdepartmental identification of family dysfunction. At the same time, in the Verkhnedvinsk district, half of the reports were received from settlement centers, from energy sales. Often, informants perceive the education department as a means of collecting debts from parents for the use of utility services. Certain shortcomings have been identified in conducting social investigations.
Tamara Vitalievna noted the low executive discipline of feedback from prevention entities regarding received requests. The prolonged time taken to assess the family situation often forces the educational institution to independently decide on the presence or absence of indicators of a socially dangerous situation.
As an example, consider the case of a large family in Polotsk. During the social investigation of dangers to children, none were identified. However, during monitoring, employees of the regional Directorate of the Ministry of Emergency Situations discovered that the heating boiler was faulty and emitting smoke into the premises. An autonomous fire alarm was installed in only one room, while the residents had dismantled the others – all of these are obvious risks. And yet, the family has five children. Similar examples also occur in the Verkhnedvinsk district.
The introduction of the inspection commission institute can help eliminate such shortcomings and systematize the work of prevention entities in practice, strengthen interdepartmental interaction, in order to promptly identify family distress and, if necessary, take measures to protect the child.
Incidentally, over the past year, 8 children in the Verkhnedvinsk district and 21 children in the Polotsk district received the status of children left without parental care, which is less compared to 2018.
Summing up the year on the implementation of Decree No. 18 in the region, the Deputy Chairman of the Regional Executive Committee, Vladimir Penin, noted the systematic work of state bodies aimed at improving the situation of children and supporting families in difficult situations.
Compared to 2018, 80 fewer children in the region have been recognized as needing state protection, and the amount of reimbursement by negligent parents for the state's upkeep of their children has increased by almost 3%.