CZ04: Vulnerable children and families

Codification of legislation supporting families, substitute family care and system of care for vulnerable children

The project aims to support creation of new, unifying legislation in the field of protection of children and families.  The project is based on the assumption of creating  a system that would ensure consistent protection of children´s rights and fulfillment of their needs, a system that supports improvement of the quality of lives of children and families, eliminates discrimination and unequal approach to children and encourages versatile development of children in their natural family environment or  in a foster family environment,  all with children participating in decision-making processes that are of the most immediate concern for them.

The project will take a form of six key activities. Firstly, the cooperation with the project partner – will be established.  Consequently, the current system will be subject to analyses and the preparation of the objectives of the new legislation and the articulated bill to the Act “On the Protection of the Rights of Children, Support Families and Foster care” will commence.  In response to the new bill the amending directives  and implementing regulations will be further processed.  A part of the project is also preparation of the implementation (including a communication strategy and training). In the last phase of the project the new legislation will be pilot tested in practice. Apart from expert involvement of the project partner (round tables, colloquia) the integral part of the project will also be a wide expert discussion throughout all the phases of the preparation of the new legislation.

The project has an impact on the whole Czech Republic.  The project is funded through financial assistance under the EEA funds for the period 2009 - 2014 from the programme CZ04 "Vulnerable Children and Young People" and has been running since January 2014.

Key activities

KA01: Setting mechanism of the mutual partner cooperation

Within the framework of the activity the coordination of the cooperation with the Norwegian partner will be established including expert consultations and translation of relevant materials, consultations of external experts and professional workplaces in the Czech Republic. The cooperation will take form of personal consultations, workshops, colloquia and round tables.

Basic information on the system of the protection and support of children and families in Norway

Measures outside the home

Measures- examples

KA02: Elaboration of the current legislation

The activity will be fulfilled through a set of analyses of the current legislation and practical impact of the system implementation into the practice in the Czech Republic. The analyses will be allocated to external contractors (based on demand) and will include the legislation from the social and legal protection of children, foster care, institutional education etc. Outputs from the analyses will be discussed thoroughly by the expert public, both via individual consultations and an expert colloquium.

Analyses

Expert colloquium (PDF)

KA03: Elaboration of the objective and articulated bill to the Act “On the Protection of the Rights of Children, Support Families and Foster care”

The objective and consequently the articulated bill will be prepared in close cooperation with independent experts and professional workplaces in the Czech Republic.  As a part of its remit, MoLSA will prepare legislative proposal, the project will include opponency and expert consultations, round tables with international participation, study trips and presentations of good practice examples.

Round table

KA04: Elaboration of the amending directives and implementing regulations to the Act “On the Protection of the Rights of Children, Support Families and Foster care”

The amending directives and implementing regulations to the new Act will be processed in close cooperation with the partner organization, independent experts and professional workplaces. Throughout the process these directives and regulations will be subject to continuous opponency and expert discussion in a form of workshops and round tables.

KA05: Development of the implementation scheme

An integral part of the creative process of the objective will also be development of a communication campaign. The campaign will be prepared in cooperation with foreign experts and the communication strategy will be realized on the basis of public procurement.

The activity also includes preparation of training modules that will help to explain new regulations to the general and expert public so that its efficiency is ready in time. In the framework of the training preparation study materials and a team of lecturers will be prepared by an external contractor, the target group of the training will be OSPOD (National Child Protection Authority) employees and other experts. The part of the activity will also be development, print and distribution of support methodical materials facilitating the implementation of the new legislation into practice.

KA06: Pilot testing of the new legislation in practice, the communication campaign

Before the law comes into effect, the new legislation will be verified in practice within this activity. The pilot testing will be accompanied by a comprehensive, outsourced information campaign and a series of intensive training sessions for members of participating professional groups. The knowledge gained by the piloting in selected specialized departments will be reflected in the final version of the legislation.