WHY GOVERNMENTS MUST PROTECT THE CHILDREN (FAMILY-PROTECTION)

mandatory help in raising your kids

If there are serious problems in your family, you may have to accept mandatory help raising your child. A children's judge can impose a child protection order to this effect.

Measures to protect children
A children's judge can impose the following measures to protect your child:

a supervision order (ondertoezichtstelling, or OTS), under which you will be given mandatory help and support in parenting;
an order taking parental responsibility for your child away from you (gezagsbeëindigende maatregel).
Request for a child protection measure
If there are concerns in your family that your child is not growing up in a safe environment, we will first try to find a solution to the problem, working with you and, if possible, your social network. If this voluntary approach is unsuccessful, or you or your child do not accept the help that the youth care agency believes is required, the government will take the following steps.

The Child Protection Board (the board) can get various agencies involved, including the municipality, a youth care provider, a certified agency or Veilig Thuis, the advisory and reporting centre for domestic violence and child abuse. The board will assess whether your child's development is at serious risk. If this is the case, the board can ask a children's judge to impose a child protection order. The judge will decide whether an order is necessary.

Implementing child protection measures
Until 2014, children were under the supervision of the Child Protection Board. On 1 January 2015, responsibility for child protection was transferred to municipalities. They make agreements to this end with certified agencies responsible for child protection measures in their region. Many child protection boards have been renamed as of 1 January 2015 and now have the status of certified agencies.

If the children's judge has ruled that your child should be placed under supervision, a certified agency will implement the court order and appoint a family supervisor.

Restricting access to children following partner homicide
The government plans to make new rules authorising children's judges to decide about parental access in cases in which one parent has killed the other. The child must be protected if there are differences of opinion, for example between family members and the accused or convicted parent. The State Secretary for Security and Justice has submitted a bill to this effect to various bodies for their advice.

Government must help the children

Today the children’s commissioner for England has given her view on the impact the government’s austerity programme has had on children's rights, and it makes for worrying reading.

The report (read our chief executive's response), by independent experts, shows that changes to welfare and other public spending mean there will be 600,000 more children living in poverty in 2015 than there were in 2010.

It also reveals that the most vulnerable children lose out the most from these changes.

How much families lose out
The poorest 10% of families with children are losing an average of £40 per week, which is more than a tenth of their weekly income.

Families with children are also being disproportionately hit by changes to public spending on services. They make up 32% of working-age families, but shoulder 63% of cuts to public spending, including money spent on early years, education and health.

The burden falls more heavily on families with disabled children and lone-parent families. Children living with disabled adults are also affected disproportionately, which will mean fewer resources available for young people who have to provide care at home. Our recent report Hidden from View shows that families with a young carer are already £5000 poorer on average than other families.

Are children's legal rights being met?
The report raises the question of whether the government will meet its legal obligations to protect children’s rights, enshrined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Not only does it call into question whether the government will meet its obligation to ensure children have an adequate standard of living, it also leaves the government open to claims that it is not making decisions in the best interests of children and protecting the most vulnerable, thereby risking claims of discrimination against particularly vulnerable groups of children.

Today’s report shows the government missed key opportunities in last year’s autumn statement and this year’s budget to change course and prevent this shocking rise in child poverty. Rather than improving the situation for vulnerable children and families, their decisions have made matters worse.

The government should recognise that hundreds of thousands more children will be forced into poverty as a result of their austerity measures. It must also review the impact of its welfare reforms and public spending decisions on children, and fulfil its legal obligations to them, under international law.