Kind en Gezin
We care about small children!!
1. About Kind en Gezin
1.
Mission and Values
2.
Our assignment
3.
Organisation
4.
History
1.1 Mission and values
Kind en Gezin,
along with its partners,
is committed to creating a maximum
of opportunities for every child,
wherever and however
it was born and raised.
1.1 Mission and values
• Attention for:
 Diversity
 Children’s rights
• Kind en Gezin staff are committed to being:
1.2 Assignment
Contributing to the well-being of young
children and their families in an active
way
Through 3 policy areas:
• Preventive family support
• Childcare
• Adoption
1.2 Assignment
• Preventive family support
 Free guidance for parents (to be) from pregnancy
until the child is 3
• Childcare
 No organiser but general director of
childcare (Flanders and Brussels)
• Adoption
 Information to and guidance of adoptive and
birth parents
1.3 Organisation
Kind en Gezin: Internally autonomous agency
with legal responsibility
1.3 Organisation
• Central divisions
 Coordinating services: management and
development, internal support
• Provincial divisions
 Implementation of the services provision
1.3 Organisation
Complaints dept
Kind en Gezin
contact centre
Internal and
external
communication
1.3 Organisation
Covering the 3 policy areas
• Kind en Gezin – Contact centre
 Questions and counselling (3 policy areas)
 Making/changing appointments for house calls,
consultations
•
Complaints department
 Complaints about the Kind en Gezin services
provision
 Complaints about institutions or individuals
employed within the Kind en Gezin sector
1.3 Organisation
•
Internal and external communication
 External communication addressed at parents
and partners
- One-to-one consultations
-
Website (per theme/stage in infancy)
-
Newsletters on pregnancy, the evolution from baby
to toddler, childcare, adoption and family support
(per age/ad hoc)
- Brochures, leaflets, posters, accounts, annual reports
- Video material
- Social media
- Campaigns
-
Information evenings and fairs
(pregnant women) , starters markets
(childcare)
1.3 Organisation
- Training sessions and refresher courses
(childcare)
- Online learning modules (professionals)
 External communication for doctors
- Extranet
1.3 Organisation
 Internal communication
- Intranet, news items
- De Schakel (staff magazine)
- Website
- Online learning modules
- Accounts, annual reports, in-depth information
- Training sessions and refresher courses
1.3 Organisation
Advisory
committee
Advisory committee
on adoption
1.3 Organisation
• Advisory committee
 Issues advice (request by the Administrator
General – own initiative)
 Touchstone of policy implementation
•
Advisory committee to the Flemish Centre for
Adoption
 Issues advice to this organisation
1.4 History
•
1904: Start organised child care
 First efforts by volunteers
•
1919: National Work for Child Welfare (NWK)
 Organised at national level
• 1984: Kind en Gezin
 Organised at Flemish-Community level
•
1987: Kind en Gezin as a Flemish
public institution (VOI)
•
2006: Kind en Gezin as an internally
autonomous agency with legal
personality
2. Preventive
Family support
1.
Assignment
2.
Target group
3.
Prenatal services
provision
4.
Postnatal services
provision
5.
Partners
6.
Innovation: Huizen van
het Kind (one-stop
shops)
2.1 Assignment
Kind en Gezin guides parents (to be) from
pregnancy until the child is 3.
• Characteristics of the services
 Preventive
 On a voluntary basis
 Free of charge
 Demand-driven customised care
 Supportive of a positive attitude
 Acknowledging parents’ possibilities
 Reaching out to socially vulnerable groups
2.1 Assignment
• Key themes
 Healthy food and exercise
 Body care and hygiene
 Health and full set of vaccinations
 Safe living and sleeping environments
 Optimal development
 Positive parenthood
2.1 Assignment
• Organised in district teams
 District team managers
 District nurses
 Family support workers
 Supported by provincial consultants, lactation
specialists and provincial consulting physicians
 In infant welfare clinics too: physicians
and volunteers
Districts in Antwerp
Districts in Limburg
Districts in East Flanders
Districts in West Flanders
Districts in Flemish Brabant and Brussels
2.2 Target group
• Parents to be
(prenatal services
provision)
• Families with children aged 0-3
(postnatal services provision)
2.3 Prenatal services provision
• Info evenings and maternity fairs in cooperation with
maternity clinics
• Information
 Pregnancy booklet
 Brochures
 Kind in Beeld: information conveyed through
pictures and pictographs
 Website
 Kind en Gezin – contact centre
 Newsletters on pregnancy
 Social media
2.3 Prenatal services provision
• Guidance of (socially) vulnerable pregnant
women
 E.g. teenage pregnancies, addiction,
financial problems, individuals without
identity papers, disabled individuals, …
• Prenatal support centres in some of the bigger
towns
 Prenatal consultations and house calls
 Referral to mainstream services provision
 Smaller towns and municipalites: house calls
by the district nurse
2.4 Postnatal services provision
• Introductory visit (in maternity clinic or at
home)
• House calls
• Hearing test
• Provision of services on education
(incl. Consultation on Education Support)
2.4 Postnatal services provision
• Consultations at infant welfare clinic
 Weighing and measuring (volunteers)
 Preventive medical examination by a
physician
 Vaccinations
 Eye test at 12 and 24 months
 Discussion of questions
2.4 Postnatal services provision
• Information
 Child booklet
 Brochures
 Kind in Beeld: information conveyed
through pictures and pictographs
 Website
 Kind en Gezin – contact centre
 Newsletters ‘Van baby tot kleuter’ (from
baby to toddler)
 Social media
2.5 Partners
• Partners registered and subsidised by Kind en
Gezin
 Authorities organising infant welfare clinics and
prenatal support centres
 'Inloopteams‘ (supplying educational support to
deprived families)
 Childcare and family support centres
 Education shops
 Maternity care expertise centres
 Confidential centers on child abuse and neglect
2.5 Partners
 ‘EXPOO' (expertise centre on education
support)
 'Opvoedingslijn' (contact centre for eductional
issues)
 Initiatives geared at enhancing play and
encounter
 Local projects
-
E.g. Domo volunteers (helping with education
through support)
-
E.g. Enhancing schooling opportunities
2.5 Partners
• Other partners
 Maternity clinics
 Gynaecologists
 Self-employed midwives
 Maternity and family care services
 Paediatricians and GPs
 Centres for General Welfare
 Women’s shelters
 Centres for Overall Family Care
2.6 Innovation: Huizen van het Kind
Partnership
• Kind en Gezin
• Local organisations
committed to assisting
(future) families and
young people
2.6 Innovation: Huizen van het Kind
 Open to all parents (to be)
 One-stop shop for education and growing-up
 Preventive health care, education support and
promotion of encounter and social cohesion
as a minimum services offer
 Local offer geared to local needs and harnessing
local opportunities
3. Child care
1. Assignment
2. Types of child care
3. Functions of formal
child care
4. Central and local policy
5. Monitoring and inspection
6. Subsidies for child care
7. 1 April 2014: new parliament
act on child care
3.1 Assignment
Contributing to the well-being of young children and
their families in an active way through high-quality
childcare
 Preparing the Flemish policy on childcare
 Implementing legislation
 Supporting parents and childcare
 In Flanders and Brussels
3.2 Types of childcare
Kind en Gezin oversees:
•
Formal childcare for babies and toddlers
 Informal childcare – formal childcare
-
Informal: voluntary childcare taken up by grandparents, relatives,
neighbours,…
-
Formal: regulated, organised childcare
 Home-based childcare – centre-based childcare
-
Home-based childcare: max. 8 children
-
Centre-based childcare: starting from 9 children
3.2 Types of childcare
 Fee: related to income – ad hoc
•
-
Fee related to income: parents pay according to
income
-
Ad hoc: fixed fee, fixed by the childcare provider
After-school childcare
 Initiatives for after-school childcare
 Self-employed after-school childcare
3.2 Types of childcare
•
Childcare provision likely to be extended
 Inclusive childcare (for children with specific
care needs)
 Flexible childcare (early in the morning, late in
the evening, during the week-end, …)
3.3 Functions of formal childcare
• Economic function
 Parents can take a job and earn an income
 Child care = job opportunities for lots of people
• Social function
 As a means of combatting the exclusion of
disadvantaged groups (both children and parents)
 As a means of promoting integration
3.3 Functions of formal childcare
• Pedagogical function
 Provides care and security
 Enhances children’s physical and psychological
development
 Is a space for interaction with other children
 Teaches how to interact respectfully with other
children
3.4 Central and local policy
• Kind en Gezin = Central director
• Local authority (municipality and OCMW):
responsible for local childcare policy
• 3 instruments
 Local Childcare Policy Plan
 Local Childcare Consultation
- Municipality can organise its own childcare
 Local Childcare Desk
- Supports parents in their search for childcare
3.5 Monitoring and inspection
• Kind en Gezin doesn’t carry out ANY inspections
• Inspections are effected by the Flemish Care Inspectorate,
which draws up an inspection report with recommendations
• Kind en Gezin makes decisions based on the report and
recommendations of the Flemish Care Inspectorate
3.6 Subsidies for childcare
Level 3
Level 2
Subsidy ‘plus’
–
–
Vulnerable families
Priority rules
Level 1
Base subsidy
Individual
special care
zorg
Subsidy on
income-based
fee
Subsidy on
income-based
fee
–
–
Fee based on income
Priority rules
Base subsidy
Base subsidy
–
–
Use of Dutch
Open 220 days a year
Individual and/or structural
special care
4. Het Vlaams Centrum
voor Adoptie
(Flemish Centre for
Adoption)
1.
Assignment
2.
Legislation
3. Domestic adoption
4. Intercountry adoption
4.1 Assignment
Supervises all adoptions of minors, both
domestic and intercountry adoptions
4.2 Legislation
The Hague Convention (1993) and Belgian
legislation
•
2 major principles:
 Adoptability
(free and fully informed consent)
 Subsidiarity
(Intercountry adoption as a last resort: after
adoption by own relatives and domestic
adoption)
4.3 Domestic adoption
Child resident in Belgium adopted by
parents resident in Belgium
•
Unknown child (through adoption agency)
Procedure:
 Information session and preparation for
parents as required
 Social enquiry into prospective adoptive
parents –guidance and support for birth
parents – placement of child and after-care
through adoption agency
 Adoption verdict pronounced in court
4.3 Domestic adoption
•
Known child (stepparent, co-mother, foster child)
Procedure:
 Applications through VCA
 Preparation by ‘EVA-vorming'
 Adoption proceedings before the juvenile court
 Adoption verdict following a social
enquiry, if required
4.4 Intercountry adoption
Child resident abroad is adopted by parents
resident in Belgium
Procedure:
 Info session (Adoption Support Centre) or
individual meeting with VCA (intra-family
adoption)
 Preparation after management of candidate parents
inflow (Adoption Support Centre)
 Social enquiry (3 accredited services)
 Suitability judgement by the juvenile court
4.4 Intercountry adoption
 Mediation by adoption service (3 accredited
services) or independent adoption (via VCA)
 Accreditation by Federal Central Authority
 After-care (adoption services, Adoption
Support Centre, meeting groups)