The Health Care and Youth Inspectorate (IGJ) has put Jeugdbescherming Noord under stricter supervision. For a large part, the institution does not meet agreed requirements, the inspection concludes in a critical report. A “vicious circle” of shortcomings means that children in the provinces of Groningen and Drenthe do not receive the right help at the moment.
The investigation was conducted in March by the IGJ and the Justice and Security Inspectorate (JENV Inspectorate). The entire Supervisory Board of Youth Protection Noord and Veilig Thuis Groningen has resigned in response to the report.
The youth protection is struggling with a shortage of employees and with a lot of turnover and absenteeism. Of ten of the twelve parents with a youth protection measure, the inspections hear that cooperation with the youth care worker is difficult.
Vicious circle
According to parents there is little contact, parents must always take the initiative themselves and parents do not feel heard and seen. In addition, young people do not have a permanent supervisor and that makes contact difficult.
Waiting lists are running out due to staff shortages. Within five days of registration, the youth protection must have a first conversation with a young person and his family. That standard is not achieved for two in five clients. There must be a plan of action within six weeks, but in 70 percent of the cases it will not work according to the report.
“Parents want to be helped immediately by youth care workers, but youth care workers cannot meet that expectation. This evokes emotions with the parents and leads to complaints,” the report said.
Problems System
The Inspectorate says that you want to follow ‘intensive’ ‘intensive’ in the coming seven months. At the same time, according to the Inspectorate, not all problems on youth protection itself are due, since underlying causes are partly the result of the problems in the youth protection system. “Youth care workers often spend a lot of time looking for appropriate help and consultations with municipalities about this,” said the report.
The entire Supervisory Board of Youth Protection Noord and Veilig Thuis Groningen has resigned in response to the report. “With the entire resignation, the Supervisory Board takes responsibility from its role for what has gone wrong in recent years,” the organization said in a declaration. The former council says it wants to free the way for ‘new impetus’.