Transformation of the system of care for children at risk: the number of children in institutional care has not substantially decreased, foster care is increasing only slowly
PRESS RELEASE ON AUDIT NO 23/11 – 16 December 2024
Even after 16 years and the expenditure of hundreds of millions of Czech crowns, the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (MoLSA), together with the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MoEYS) and the Ministry of Health (MoH) have not completed the transformation of the system of care for children at risk that they began already in 2009. Although the scope of foster care is gradually increasing, the number of children in institutional care has not substantially decreased. The care system has not been unified under one Ministry and all the necessary quality standards for foster family care and institutional care have not been developed. Even the Child Protection Act, which has been planned for many years, has not been adopted. The MoLSA has also failed to provide child welfare workers with the information system required by law, which makes their work more difficult and burdens them with unnecessary paperwork. This was revealed by the audit of the Supreme Audit Office (SAO) which specifically focused on this issue.
Over the past 12 years, a total of CZK 701 million has been provided through EU projects to support the transformation of the system of care for children at risk. Projects of the MoLSA in total amounting to CZK 498.4 million have not achieved a significant improvement in reducing the number of children in institutions or in the support of foster care. And in the projects worth CZK 202.9 million, which were implemented primarily by social service providers, the beneficiaries repeatedly created similar, mutually transferable analyses and methodologies. This was, moreover, during the period when the MoLSA was creating its own, nationally usable materials. This way the effectiveness of the funds was significantly reduced.
In comparison between the years 2015 and 2023, the number of children in institutional care decreased from 8,434 to 7,341, i.e. by 1,093. The number of children in foster care increased by 2,050 from 10,923 to 12,973. The relocation of children at risk from institutional to foster care is progressing slowly. The Ministries spent a total of CZK 86.75 billion from the state budget on foster care, the operation of institutions, and the agenda of social and legal protection of children during the years in question. Total annual expenditure increased by 61% over this period.
The audit showed that there is a lack of unified strategy in the social and legal protection of children. Since 2015, at least 32 strategic and conceptual documents have addressed the issue, but – also according to the MoLSA's evaluation – they have not been coordinated with each other. By the time the SAO audit was completed in August 2024, there was no new legislation (the Child Protection and the Family Support Act), the draft of which the MoLSA was tasked by the Government to prepare by December 2014. Disagreements between the audited Ministries caused the failure to unify services for children at risk under one Ministry.
For the past 12 years, the MoLSA has failed to fulfil its legal obligation to maintain an information system that would provide child welfare workers with the necessary data, e.g. on applicants for adoption or children on the registry. To this date, the MoLSA has not provided the system. At the same time, it has spent CZK 2.1 million on its preparation since 2018. Since 2023, the MoLSA has started to develop another way of record keeping in the form of shared simple MS Excel spreadsheets. The MoLSA plans to spend up to CZK 6.4 million more on this temporary solution, which also does not comply with the law, by the end of 2025.
According to the SAO's findings, the Authorities for Social and Legal Protection of Children address the lack of digitalisation of the agenda by acquiring their own information systems, which they have purchased from commercial suppliers with public funds, which are not subject to the SAO's audit competence.
As a result of the inaction of the MoLSA, child welfare workers are burdened with unnecessary paperwork and lack the necessary information that would facilitate their work and speed up, for example, the placement of children in foster families. This is also confirmed by some of the answers from the survey conducted by the SAO in connection with the audit with a total of 671 respondents, 515 of whom dealt with the placement of children in foster care. For example, the respondents stated: "Because of the time-consuming paperwork, I hardly get to do any counselling or preventive activities... We still keep paper records, which is very burdensome with the number of families in our city... We are still waiting for a unified programme from the MoLSA - an information system, which we are required to use according to the 2013 law, but it is still not available." Among other things, there is a lack of up-to-date and verifiable data on the available capacities in institutions, so social workers search for suitable facilities by phone. "We don't have any collective information on potential available capacity, we just call each of the facilities and check the occupancy," said another respondent.
Detailed statistical data on the institutional and foster care between the years 2015 and 2023 in the regions and the whole Czech Republic, as well as the results of the SAO survey, can be found here: https://www.nku.cz/scripts/detail.php?id=14313 (only czech).
NUMBER OF CHILDREN IN INSTITUTIONAL AND FOSTER CARE AND RELATED EXPENDITURES
Note: The numbers of children are given by the MoLSA and the MoH as of 31 December, by the MoEYS as of 31 October of the given year. The annual expenditure is the sum of expenditure on foster care, on the operation of institutions for the care of children and young people, and on the contribution to the implementation of the agenda of social and legal protection of children.
Communication Department
Supreme Audit Office