Lawyers demand that juvenile risk cases not be prolonged

BarcelonaFree legal aid from the moment a child neglect case begins and limiting the time families have a risk file open and are monitored by social services. These are two of the proposals made by the Catalan Bar Council to improve and modernize the child protection system, which it considers obsolete and ill-adapted to current social needs.

At a conference on the problems of the DGAIA organized by the Barcelona Bar Association, Silvia Giménez-Salinas, dean emeritus and co-author of the report, called for more guarantees for families whose guardianship of their children is removed, especially to safeguard their interests. One of the proposals is that when the administration opens a child neglect case, a public defender be appointed to represent the child throughout the process. Giménez-Salinas also criticized the fact that, too often, the follow-up with families when a dysfunction is detected is excessively long, and this causes distrust and fear of the system. "It can't be that the file remains open for 10 years, because families get tired," she indicated.

At a time when the child protection system is under scrutiny and the Department of Social Rights has presented a reform of the DGAIA (General Directorate of Social Protection)—which will be renamed DGPPIA, adding "prevention to protection"—–Catalan lawyers believe that this opportunity should be taken to make legislative changes to increase safeguards throughout the process.

Among these changes, they advocate for the intervention of a judge in all proceedings and, as occurs in criminal proceedings, for a trial in which "the opinion of the experts can be contradicted by other experts" before issuing a ruling of abandonment of the minor, which entails separation from their biological family, as Marta Martínez Gellida, who wrote the Council's report, pointed out.

Currently, the withdrawal of guardianship is a completely administrative act and only goes to court if the parents object. According to data from the General Council of the Judiciary, in Spain only 20% of withdrawals reach the courts, and of these, around 2% end up being overturned. For Giménez-Salinas, the data is not representative because the system itself does not provide it, and families feel vulnerable and unprotected at that time.

"Specialist" magistrates

Judges are welcome to withdraw guardianships, but not at any price, clarified the ombudsman, Esther Giménez-Salinas, who was invited to the event. In her opinion, it is necessary for the judges handling these matters to be "childhood specialists" and capable of speaking with educators and other professionals who care for minors, and willing to listen to the children's feelings.

Another proposal to improve the system is to record the sessions in which families meet with the experts who decide on guardianships, because some parents complain about the treatment they receive. In this regard, Martínez explained the case of some parents who couldn't find their 2- and 5-year-old children with autism when they went to pick them up from school.

In addition, the lawyers also propose that there be a "unitary regulation" for the operation of reception centers for minors, just as prisoners have a single regulation based on the risk classification given to them when they enter prison, so that each center does not apply its own rules.

During the conference, the General Secretary for Children of the Department of Social Rights and Inclusion, Teresa Llorens, defended the "paradigm shift of the DGAIA" and assured that among the strategic objectives are redefining the EAIA (childhood teams of social services) and being able to remove guardianship from minors.