News item | 03-02-2023 | 5:00 PM
With the implementation plan for the conversion and phasing out of closed youth care, State Secretary Van Ooijen (VWS) is focusing on national direction for vulnerable young people who need protection and safety. In 2025, closed youth care must work completely on a small scale and make the move to zero closed placements in 2030. This movement has already started strongly, thanks to the efforts of enthusiastic professionals. Since 2017, the number of closed placements has almost halved on an annual basis. The number of places in closed institutions has also fallen sharply in recent years and new small-scale places have been created.
Clear roadmap
State Secretary Van Ooijen: “The central government, municipalities, providers and young people themselves all agree that we need to move towards youth care that is small-scale, as open as possible and organized as much as possible at home. With the aim of humane and loving care for vulnerable young people. I’m glad to see that movement is firmly underway. This is mainly due to the enormous efforts of youth care professionals. My compliments! Together we are now taking the next step to further this movement in practice. I have often said that care for the most vulnerable children should be arranged best and therefore should be organized more centrally. That is why we are taking the lead at a national level.”
Perspective young people a full place
There is broad agreement on the conversion and phasing out of closed youth care. This implementation plan is the result of that agreement between the government, the VNG, youth care providers and young people themselves. The perspective of young people is expressly involved in the development of the plan. Young people are given a full place in the implementation itself, for example in the form of youth panels. For the participation of young people, there is cooperation with, among others, the Youth Welfare Council and ExpEx. This concerns both young people who are currently staying in closed youth care and experiential experts.
National direction
The plan contains clear agreements with municipalities and providers about what is required for a proper reduction and conversion of closed youth care, how responsibilities are divided and what the planning is. For example, it has been agreed that the phasing out of closed youth care and the development of alternatives will take place at the level of the youth regions. Municipalities and providers work together with professionals and young people on a suitable care offer. Nationally, the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport and the Association of Netherlands Municipalities (VNG) are in charge of progress and cohesion between the regions. National efforts are also being made to improve the quality of care, the availability of education for these children and dealing with freedom-restricting measures.
Places and placements of closed youth care are decreasing
The number of children in closed youth care has continued to decrease in recent years. Since 2017, the annual number of closed placements has almost halved. The number of places in closed institutions has therefore decreased considerably, from 994 places in 2020 to 696 in 2022. At the same time, 50 new places have been created in a small-scale setting. The care provision and its organization must fit in well with this movement: continuity of care for vulnerable children is, after all, essential. The decrease in the number of closed placements and the number of places also has major financial consequences for healthcare providers. This calls for a controlled reduction in order to prevent young people from falling between two stools.