This is apparent from a letter that Minister Weerwind for Legal Protection and State Secretary Van Ooijen of Public Health sent to the House of Representatives on Wednesday. A day earlier, the inspectorates published their emergency call. On Thursday, the House of Representatives will debate youth protection.
The inspectorates have so often exposed abuses and put institutions under supervision that they feel they have no option but to stop taking enforcement action if an institution fails due to problems beyond its control. The government must act immediately with a crisis approach, now that it fails to protect vulnerable children.
No new approach, but extra money
Weerwind and Van Ooijen will not come up with a new approach, but will mainly rely on ongoing projects and better agreements with the institutions and municipalities. There is also extra money. For example, 20 million euros will be made available in the Justice budget for ‘caseload reduction and lateral entry regulation’. This should lead to ‘reducing the workload at the certified institutions, in order to guarantee the continuity and quality of youth protection, so that children and parents receive the help and support they need’, write the ministers.
For example, workers of so-called certified institutions, GIs, should be given more time per youth protection measure. This should benefit the ‘continuity and quality of youth protection’. Due to the lower workload, fewer youth protectors will eventually leave the sector and absenteeism can also decrease, the ministers hope.
In addition, they want to ‘further develop testing grounds’. Experiments are being conducted in these living labs with linking information, so that youth care workers and other social workers do not work at odds with each other, can bundle information and act together. Think of debt counseling or addiction care. ‘For that purpose’, write Weerwind and Van Ooijen, ‘the local teams are being strengthened, so that children, families with children and households without children receive better and more targeted help and support. An important role in this is the development and set-up of the regional security teams.’
Waiting lists are inevitable
Weerwind and Van Ooijen are also concerned about an approach to waiting lists for acute care. ‘We obviously find working with a waiting list an undesirable situation. Children whose development has been ruled by the judge must be helped immediately.’
It may nevertheless be ‘inevitable’ that waiting lists are ‘established’, they warn. ‘For example, in a situation where the staff shortage increases to such an extent that the workload for their employees becomes unacceptably high and the quality of care for all children and parents becomes insufficient.’
Before a waiting list is set up, the institution must consult with the municipality. ‘As a client, municipalities have the responsibility to ensure an adequate and high-quality range of youth protection services.’ Municipalities and the institution must then make agreements about how the children will receive help as soon as possible. ‘The starting point is to work with waiting lists as little and as short as possible’, the ministers promise.