Fairy or Monster - An attempt to Evaluate the Romanian Child Protection Response to Violence Against Children

This research intends to contribute to the evaluation of the Romanian Child Protection System after 25 Years of development within a democratic society under the flags of Children’s Rights. The presentation will proceed in... [ view full abstract ]

This research intends to contribute to the evaluation of the Romanian Child Protection System after 25 Years of development within a democratic society under the flags of Children’s Rights. The presentation will proceed in four steps: historical development, presentation of the evaluation methodology, discussion of expert data, and conclusions.
In the first part, the presentation will describe the historical phases of its development, and the similarities with other child protection systems. Based on data of expert opinion on the child protection system of all European countries (collected in the Daphne–Pieces project, coordinator European Child Safety Alliance, http://www.childsafetyeurope.org/pieces/project-partners.html) that collected we shall proceed to the evaluation of the responsiveness of the Romanian protection system to issues of violence against children. We shall analyse reports of experts on accessibility of the reporting system, child-friendliness, integration in community, cooperation with family, specialization, evidence base, follow up services. We shall elaborate on the pitfalls related to the level of professionalism, training of the personnel, and the state of chronic under-financing of the system, which puts children at risk while in the system and afterwards, when they left it.
Finally, the presentation identifies discrepancies in the response to violence against children of the Romanian child protection system based on the results of the Case Surveillence Study (developed in the Balkan Epidemiologic Study on Child Abuse and Neglect, http://www.becan.eu) the focus groups performed in the frame of the “Coordinated Response to Child Abuse & Neglect via Minimum Data Set” Daphne project (http://www.can-via-mds.eu/). Although Romania has made progress in developing its integrated child protection system, it has to invest more in developing its capacity to respond to the needs of children victims of violence. It also has to strengthen inter-departmental cooperation, central and local authority cooperation, the training system of professionals, and the conceptual framework of action.