Reform of the Child Care
System:
DEINSTUTIONALISATION –
MAJOR PRIORITY IN THE
STATE POLICY
3-6 July 2007
State Agency for Child Protection
State Agency for Child
Protection
State Agency for Child Protection
14,000
12,000
10,000
ДОВДЛРГ
8,000
ДДМУИ
ДМСГД
6,000
Общо
4,000
2,000
0
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
State Agency for Child
Protection
ICDPC
To 1000 children on 4 - 18 years, in 2001
5.3 children lived in ICDPC, and in 2006
the figure was 4,12 children, taking
account of the demographic tendencies,
the reduction is about 22 %.
State Agency for Child
Protection
IMRCYP and ICYPPD
To 1000 children on4 - 18 years, in 2001
1,4 children lived in IMRCYP and ICYPPD, and in 2006 the figure was 1,04 children,
taking account of the demographic tendencies, the reduction is about 26 %.
State Agency for Child
Protection
IMSCC
To 1000 children on 4 - 18 years, in 2001
13,6 children lived in IMSCC, and in 2006 the figure was 9,9 children, taking account
of the demographic tendencies, the reduction is about 27 %.
State Agency for Child
Protection
HOW DID WE ACHIEVE THAT
TOOLS AND APPROACHES
• Adoption of plan for reducing the number of children, placed
in specialised institutions 2003 - 2005;
•2004 – Conducting an assessment of the specialised
institutions;
• Development and adoption of Mechanism for closure,
reforming and restructuring of the specialised institutions for
children;
• Establishment of methods for drafting of institutional
projects;
• Training on the methods of the regional teams in all regions;
Plan for reducing the number of
children, placed in specialised
institutions 2003 - 2005.
Major objectives
• To decentralise the institutions and to increase the
quality of the child care in them;
•To develop local network of community based services.
Plan for reducing the number of
children, placed in specialised
institutions 2003 - 2005
General goals and tasks
• Development of alternative forms of care and social Community based
services;
• Narrowing of the entrance to institutions;
•Increasing the quality of the institutional care;
•Regulation of the exit of institutions and reducing the number of children who
pass from one institution to another;
•Restructuring of the specialised institutions and allocation of part of their
resources to alternative services provision in the community for the children
and their families.
•The Plan contains also a line of urgent measures related to development of
the child protection departments’ capacity, which should perform activities
directly connected to reducing the number of children in institutions as:
prevention of abandonment and reintegration of children in their biologic
families, provision of foster care services, etc.
Assessment of the specialised
institutions 2004
• Objective: Assessment of the technical-material and human resource of the
institutions and quality of the child care they provide;
• Tools: “Assessment card for the specialised institutions for children”, prepared
by SACP experts and approved by the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education
and Science and Social Assistance Agency;
• Additional methods for collection of information used by the commissions
were reviews of the papers kept in the institutions, interviews of the directors
and members the staff, talks with the children, as well as complete monitoring
and inspection of the technical material equipment.
• The assessment was conducted by interinstitutional commissions chaired by
experts from SACP and representatives of the Regional Social Assistance
Directorate, Social Assistance Directorate, Regional Inspectorate on
Education, Regional Healthcare Centres and municipal administrations;
Assessment of the specialised
institutions 2004
• Reports were prepared for the status of each of the assessed institutions
in which the institution location, access to social and health services,
technical material equipment, quality of the child care, number,
qualification of the staff as well as the opinion of the staff regarding
institution reformation were given in details;
• Conclusions and recommendations were drawn regarding care quality
improvement and possibilities for reforming and restructuring;
Summary reports for the status of the three types of institutions were
prepared;
The reports were presented to the attention of the President of the
Republic of Bulgaria, Minister of Health and Minister of Education and
Science, as well as to the Minister of Labour and Social Policy;
Important part of the assessment were the conclusions about the quality of
the care, problems in them, and concrete recommendations on the
improvement of the quality of the child care.
Development of Mechanism for
closure, reforming and restructuring
Basic steps:
• Assessment of the institutions for children by interinstitutional
commissions;
• The interinstitutional commissions at sub national level apply the criteria
for closure, reforming and restructuring of the specialised institutions for
children for every institution on territory of the region;
• The commission should make a proposal for closure of the institutions
which were assessed with less than the minimum admissible number of
points;
• A development plan should be prepared together with the staff of the
institutions assessed with number of points exceeding the minimum
admissible number of points;
ASSESSMENT OF THE INSTITUTIONS BY
APPLIYNG THE MECHANISM FOR
CLOSURE, REFORMING AND
RESTRUCTURING
Apart from the qualitative dimension, the assessment had
also quantitative dimension through developed and put into
practise points system. The first criteria direction institutions location and access to them – might be
assessed with maximum of 30 points; the second dimension
– technical and material equipment might be assessed with
maximum of 25 points and the third dimension - quality of
the child care might be assessed with maximum 45 points.
The criteria were initially approbated and it was approved
that the minimum admissible number of points for the
institutions was 40. Institutions assessed with less than 40
points total should be proposed for closure.
CRITERIA FOR CLOSURE,
REFORMING AND RESTRUCTURING
Institutions location and access to them
•
Number of population – maximum 5 points.
•
Infrastructure – maximum 10 points.
•
Transport and communications – maximum 15 points.
Technical material equipment
•
Enough number and room of the premises – maximum 8 points.
•
Condition of the building – maximum 12 points.
•
Quality of the equipment/furniture – maximum 5 points.
Quality of the child care
•
Health care – maximum 9 points.
•
Response to education and training needs – maximum 9 points.
•
Individual child care – maximum 9 points.
•
Opportunities for social integration and adaptation of the children –
maximum 9 points.
•
Activities to rebuild and keep in touch with the parents – maximum 9
REFORMING
Reforming should be understand as improving the
quality of the institutional care and opening of the
institution for provision of alternative social child
care services.
REFORMING
Criteria, which institutions must meet:

Necessity of the services provided (institutional care and alternative
services);

Access to the location site and availability of appropriate transport and
communications;

Well developed health and education services in the region and
municipality;

Enough specialists for work with children available;
 Tendency to reducing the number of the children in the institution;

Good interaction between CPD and the institution; concept for future
development of the institution, included in the municipal strategy;

Technical-material equipment to allow development of social services;

Positive attitude and readiness for reforms of the staff in compliance
with the modern standards.
RESTRUCTURING
Restructuring should be understand as
allocation of the available resource to provision
of alternative community based social child
care services.
RESTRUCTURING
Criteria:
 Access to the location site and availability of appropriate
transport and communications;
 Necessity of the alternative services provided and
willingness of the society to develop such services;
 Availability of specific human resources (social workers,
speech therapists, psychologists), as well as qualified
specialists;
 Permanent tendency to reducing the number of children,
placed in the institution and opportunity for reintegration
and placing the children with foster families;
 Technical-material equipment to allow development of
alternative services.
CLOSURE
Closure should be understand as final termination
of the activities of the concerned institution.
CLOSURE
Criteria:
 Remoteness and isolation of the location site,
lack of communications and infrastructure;
 Lack of enough health and education services;
 Lack of qualified staff in the institution, location
site and the region;
 Poor technical-material equipment;
 Unsatisfactory level of the care quality.
CLOSURE




Closure Plan, containing clear terms should be
elaborated for institutions which should be
closed;
The objectives, measures and activities are in
two basic directions: regarding the children and
regarding the staff;
CPD produces proper assessment and
elaborates action plan for each child;
The institution shall be closed when appropriate
alternative for every child is found;
RESULTS FROM THE ASSESSMENT
OF THE INSTITUTIONS BY APPLIYNG
OF THE CRITERIA
September – October 2006
144 institutions for children assessed;
 6 institutions proposed for closure - 5
ICDPC and 1 IMRCYP;
118 institutions proposed for reforming
- 65 ICDPC; 22 IMRCYP; 31 IMSCC;
20 institutions proposed for
restructuring - 16 ICDPC; 3 IMRCYP; 1
IMSCC.

REGIONAL TRAININGS “MONITORING OF THE
RIGHTS OF THE CHILD”
drafting of institutional projects for
development of the institutions for children in
the whole country
April - May 2007
How was the process structured and implemented?
Results, conclusions, proposals.
Preparatory stage and creation of
supportive environment for process
implementation
Drafting of Instructions for closure, reforming and
restructuring of the specialised institutions for children.
 Drafting of joint project of SACP, SAA and UNICEF on the
deinstutionalisation.
 Training of experts from SACP and outdoor experts on
application of the methods for drafting of institutional
projects.
 Regional trainings. Organisation of the process and
gathering of regional team to RDSA to prepare and manage
institutional projects.
 Consultation, provision of expert support and assistance.

Major objectives
To describe the logic of the process of drafting
institutional projects, to outline the project framework
and mechanisms for monitoring and evaluation.

To achieve common understanding on concepts such
as “reforming”, “restructuring” and “closure”.

To assess the needs of the community to develop
various services for children and families.

To identify the major interested parties and partners in
the process.

Results from the trainings
Distribution of the representatives from institutions and
organizations, involved in the training
18,7%
26,3%
12,3%
7,2%
3,9%
DSA / CPD
Child Homes
31,6%
RCH
RDSP
NGO
Municipalities
Results from the trainings
Practical results
Framework models were elaborated and basic stages of the
institutional projects for different types of institutions were marked.
 Framework model was elaborated and basic arrangements and
activities of the closure plan were marked.
 Motivated regional teams were formed to prepare and manage the
projects.
 Local teams were structured on the territory of 86 municipalities.
 Analysis models for children at risk and their needs were
elaborated in the municipalities.
 Schedule plan model for the work of the regional and local teams
were drafted.
 Future activities were defined.

Results from the trainings
Effectiveness of the trainings
 Harmonisation of the information and
understanding regarding the national priorities
and strategic goals of the work with children at
risk.
 Accelerating the process of reforming and
restructuring of the institutions.
 Updating municipal policies for provision of
services to children and families in the
community on the basis of assessment of the
local services and children at risk on the
territory of the municipality.
 Enriching and development of the capacity of
the participants in the child protection system.
Results from the trainings
Effectiveness of the trainings
 Achieving clarity on many issues related to
projects organisation and differentiating the role
of various authorities, as a precondition for
good planning and implementation of the
projects.
 Improved interinstitutional cooperation on
regional level through extended exchange of
information between experts from different
institutions working in the field of child care.
 Reducing the stress and the strain of the
people working with children at risk.
EFFECTIVENESS OF THE CHILD
PROTECTION SYSTEM
For 2006 the CPD social workers have
worked over 3 792 cases of prevention
of placement in institution. 2 042 from
the cases were successfully completed.
 The social workers have worked over 3
149 cases of reintegration. 1 509
children were successfully reintegrated
in their biologic families and 634
children – were adopted.

EFFECTIVENESS OF THE
CHILD PROTECTION SYSTEM
For 2006 the number of children placed with
families of their relatives or friends is 1 955 or
with 200 more in comparison to the previous
year.

Total number of children placed with families
of their relatives or friends in Bulgaria is 5 536
until 31/12/2006.

Day centres to institutions



There are day centres for children with
disabilities to 18 IMSCC.
Of total number of 28 IMRCYP in the
country, day centres were opened to 4 of
them. Their capacity is 80 places.
Since 1/1/2007 IMRCYP “Viara, Nadezhda
i Lyubov" in Pazardzhik was restructured
in day centre for children with disabilities.
Week and day care – services,
provided in institutions



Up to 31/12/2006 in IMSCC there were 30
children directed to week care and 267 children
directed to day care;
Up to 31/12/2006 in ICDPC there were 296
children directed to week care and 112 children
directed to day care;
Up to 31/12/2006 in institutions for children with
disabilities there were 30 children directed to
week care and 42 children directed to day care;