Public defenders and intensive therapies for families at risk of child custody removal

BarcelonaFamilies for whom the Generalitat opens an investigation for the abandonment of underage children will have free legal assistance from the moment the administrative procedure begins. This is one of the proposals put forward by the Department of Social Rights and Inclusion within the reform of the child protection system announced a year ago in which professionals from different sectors have participated. In fact, a large part of the demands from the legal sector (lawyers and prosecutors) have been incorporated, which at some point also coincided with affected families in criticizing that the withdrawal of custody is a non-transparent process.

The plan consists of ten measures that cover everything from the detection and assessment phase of the risk that the minor suffers within the family to how the return from the reception center to the family unit is planned. In some cases, these are measures that had already been approved but had never been implemented or put into practice, according to Councilor Mònica Martínez Bravo in a parliamentary response to the PP. More than 15 years ago, the figure of the children's and adolescents' ombudsman was created, which has never taken off and is presented as "the voice and interests" of the children.

When the detected risk is serious, the Generalitat relies on a pilot program by Save the Children that consists of offering intensive therapy to families with almost daily home visits for months. The work is done with the parents to reinforce their parental competencies and in parallel with the children, and it aims to be a "last opportunity to rectify" the family situation and avoid the removal of children, according to Martínez Bravo.

Unified criteria

In the first phase, which is the detection of problems in the upbringing of children, the Directorate General for the Prevention and Protection of Children and Adolescents (DGPPIA) commits that all child and adolescent care teams (of municipal competence) in Catalonia will have the same criteria when evaluating the risk of the child, having a unified list of the items to be assessed.  (of municipal competence) in Catalonia will have the same criteria when evaluating risk of the child, having a unified list of the items to be assessed.

In addition, sessions between families and professional teams will be recorded, which will provide "legal certainty" for the processes, and a commission of external experts will analyze possible solutions for the most difficult cases. The department will invest 10 million euros to strengthen the staff of these teams, which today, being saturated, cannot dedicate themselves to the prevention and support of families and practically act when there is already a serious problem.

The DGPPIA has almost 20,000 minors with an open file, of which 8,700 have a protection measure. Of these, 60% reside in centers, and the rest with extended families, such as aunts or grandparents, or foster families. Eleven months ago, the department created a commission of experts to analyze where the system is failing and propose new proposals that would represent a "paradigm shift". This Tuesday, Martínez Bravo indicated that if the new measures are not sufficient and prove ineffective with the improvement objectives, they will implement new ones, always with the aim that the child protection system will be "the jewel in the crown of the welfare state".