The coalition had agreed to allocate 511 million euros less for youth care from 2025. Municipalities, which are responsible for youth care, resisted and no longer wanted to talk to the government about reforms in youth care.
The cabinet is sticking to that amount, but has decided “that realizing the additional savings of 511 million euros is a central government responsibility.” An own contribution is one idea, another option is to ‘standardize’ the treatment duration, says Van Ooijen.
Van Ooijen also wants to see which treatments work and which do not. “At the moment there is too little insight into what works in youth care and that is why it is not possible to control this. The knowledge that does exist is underused.” Treatments that don’t work “we exclude, and treatments of which we don’t yet know the effectiveness are being further investigated.”
borders
Limits are set on the appeal that children and their parents can make to youth care paid by the government. “Troubles in parenting and growing up are part of normal life,” writes Van Ooijen. These should initially be resolved at home or at school. These limits are laid down in the Youth Act.
Perverse financial incentives are removed from the system. The government will do this by tackling excessive profits and reducing the number of youth care providers. Providers that provide simple youth care “make substantial profits” while care providers of complex or specialist care make a loss, the state secretary writes.
The aim of the reform is to ensure that youth care remains available and becomes available more quickly for vulnerable young people with complex problems, says Van Ooijen. This includes children with an eating disorder, chronic condition or a youth protection measure. They are now often on a waiting list for months.
This highly specialized youth care must be purchased nationally.
In 1997, one in 27 children received professional youth care. In 2015, the year that municipalities became responsible for this, one in ten. In 2021, one in seven young people called on youth care.