Inspection of the foster care system in our country: When there is no one, anyone can

The insufficient number of people who apply for foster care is one of the reasons that this right is also recognized for those who do not have valid documentation. This, among other things, was told to "Vijesta" by the inspection of children and social protection of the Directorate for Inspection Affairs (UIP), in the answers regarding supervision in relation to the provision of family accommodation-fostering services.

Inspectors have carried out three such inspections since the beginning of the year.

"Centers for social work issue licenses to foster parents with inadequate documentation, that is, they do not act in accordance with the Rulebook (on closer conditions for the provision and use of family accommodation-foster care and family accommodation) because the lack of persons with whom to place children for foster care leads to the recognition rights with incomplete or inadequate documentation, and often a superficial assessment of the persons themselves. Since the beginning of 2023, the Department for Inspection of Social and Child Protection has carried out three inspection inspections in relation to the provision of family accommodation-foster care services, one of which was a regular inspection, and two on initiative, one of which was anonymous, they said. News".

The initiative, they explained, demanded that inspection be carried out in specific cases of providers of family accommodation-foster care services.

"Irregularities were identified in the inspection supervision procedure and a deadline was given for their removal, which is still ongoing, so the supervision procedure is still ongoing," said the UIP.

Ten days ago, "Vijesti" published the inspector's findings according to which the Center for Social Work (CSR) in Podgorica issued licenses for that service to two foster carers, about whom the editorial office previously wrote, among other things, due to reports of violence, even though they did not meet the conditions.

One of them at the same time had more than the allowed number of children in the accommodation. Although one child has not been with that foster parent since the beginning of the year, the Center did not issue a decision ending that placement months later.

It follows from the inspector's report that, at the time when the Podgorica police were reported to the police, the foster parents were violent SR i RR, those persons were months before without a license to provide that service.

The inspection then sent a request to the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare, as the founder of the Podgorica Center for Social Work, to initiate the procedure for determining responsibility, and ordered the Podgorica Center to correct the irregularities. The CSW Podgorica said at the time that "they will act in accordance with what is indicated in the finding, within the stipulated period". From the department Admir Adrović then they did not answer the questions.

"The Center for Social Work always acts according to the order of the inspector. The Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare is a secondary authority to the Department for the Inspection of Social and Child Protection, and accordingly the inspector cannot order the removal of irregularities, but only submit certain requests in accordance with his powers, such as e.g. a request to initiate responsibility for the professional work of employees in centers for social work, which was also the case in the current cases of providing family accommodation services - foster care, with service providers V. and R. (names known to the editorial office)", said the UIP.

From practice, they say that when it comes to this problem, the problem in the work of centers for social work is the lack of accommodation capacity for service providers.

"That is, the inadequate number of licensed service providers in relation to the number of users or the number of requests, as well as the inconsistent application of legal and by-laws. In particular, the biggest problem was that centers for social work grant licenses to foster parents with inadequate documentation, that is, they do not act in accordance with the Ordinance, because the lack of persons with whom to place children for foster care leads to the recognition of rights with incomplete or inadequate documentation, and often a superficial assessment of the faces themselves. Centers for social work are obliged to monitor the work of licensed foster carers, i.e. whether the children are in any way endangered with them", said the inspection.

They also claim that there were no problems in the execution of the inspector's orders - "in this case, as well as in other cases of supervision".

However, they also state that there were reviews in the work of the inspection, specifically when the inspectors review the licenses of foster carers:

"In that case, the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare, as well as the Institute for Social and Child Protection during one such inspection, were of the opinion that the Department for Inspection of Social and Child Protection is going beyond its scope of competence if it reviews foster carer's licenses, i.e. the procedure that preceded their issuance" , said the UIP.

The Association "Parents" recently told "Vijesta" that for all the years since foster care has existed, there has been no qualitative analysis that shows the quality of stay in foster families.

"The figures are already showing how many children are placed in them and how many fewer are in institutions," she said at the time Beautiful Žunjić from that organization.

Foster care is a temporary form of protection for children without parental care or children whose development is hindered by family circumstances.

According to the data of the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare, last year, 323 people had a license for family placement-foster care, of which only a fifth were non-relatives. The basic fee for service providers is 350 euros.

For a child in foster care, other rights are realized, among others, child allowance, material security, allowance for a newborn child, when the baby is in foster care, and an allowance for care and assistance, personal disability allowance, for children who exercise these rights."