Social services conference in Arad, Romania
Also available in română
For the past five years, the European Social Network (ESN) has been supporting its members in Romania in organising a national conference of social services by bringing a European perspective and international speakers to the debate. This year, the event took place in Arad on 27-29 May, organised by the Directorate for Development and Community Assistance of the Municipality. The event brought together over 130 specialists working in children and youth services across different municipalities and NGOs in Romania, as well as ESN members from Hungary, Scotland and England and representatives from the Secretariat to discuss local practices, common challenges, as well as to look at the broader picture in Europe.
A European perspective
The conference was opened by Arad’s Deputy Mayor, Levente Bognar, and the municipality’s Director of Social Services, Erika Stark, together with Philip Cotterill, representing ESN and the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) in England. The theme of the event, investing in children and young people, was framed in a European context by ESN’s Policy Director, Alfonso Lara Montero. He presented evidence to make the case for early investment in children, including studies which showed that the malleability of a child’s brain is highest during the early years of their life.
Nevertheless, Mr. Lara Montero emphasised that, across Europe, public investment is at its lowest in early years services – with countries like Iceland investing around 1% of their gross domestic product (GDP) in the age group 0-3 and almost 2% in the 3-6 range, while there is hardly any investment in the 0-3 group in the countries of the Baltic States, Slovenia and Romania. In addition, there is low rate of access to early childcare services across Europe. In some countries, less than 5% of children aged 0-3 have access to early childcare facilities as a result of key barriers, including high costs, lack of capacity or distance to services.
”In times of economic constraints, the real questions is how to use the available funds wisely and to ensure that the best evidence supports the policy prescription of investing in the very young. At ESN we have been advocating for a more systematic and evidence-based manner of documenting services and investing in policies that produce better outcomes for children through projects like Investing in Children Services, Improving Outcomes,” Mr. Lara Montero added.
National and local perspectives
The session continued with presentations on children services from ESN members in Romania (Arad Municipality) and Hungary. The presentations highlighted two different approaches to delivering services, but also emphasised the need for inter-agency work and cross-sectoral partnerships, in particular between the social and education sector. More local perspectives from Romanian municipalities were discussed in the afternoon session, paying attention to common challenges, particularly the need for early needs assessment for children to detect special needs.
Marta Korintus from the General Directorate of Social Affairs and Child Protection in Hungary stressed that: “The earlier interventions begin, the better the results will be. Early childhood education and care services can be helpful, as they promote young children’s development by supporting them to learn self-care and to become autonomous, besides providing a healthy environment and developmentally appropriate activities. The role of social services is invaluable both in building inter-agency cooperation and in providing opportunities for children and their parents to socialise with their peers. However, the value and role of local communities in supporting the development of children with care needs is also very important.” This message was clearly illustrated during a special session which brought real life experiences of families with children and young people with disabilities.
Lessons from other countries
The second day of the conference looked at promoting community care and independent living for children and young people. ESN member Ian Milligan from the Centre for Excellence for Looked after Children (CELCIS) in Scotland presented practical considerations for implementing the UN’s ‘Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children’. He pointed to common problems that young people in transition are facing all over Europe, including vulnerability and disadvantage (seen in unemployment, homelessness or anti-social behaviour), but also loneliness and social isolation.
Mr Milligan also shared some of the best principles from the Scottish experience, particularly active advocacy organisations of care leavers, youth participation in the community (e.g. volunteering), the new role of municipalities as ‘corporate parent’. He described the risk of over-professionalisation of child welfare in the UK – with local communities being disempowered in relation to child protection agencies.
Mr Milligan presented two main recommendations for the future development of Romanian children services: “On the one hand it is important to build the capacity of the social service departments (more social workers recruited and skilled-up). On the other hand, I think working in partnership with NGOs is vital – and also promoting the contribution of volunteers. Social services cannot solve all the social problems on their own.” This message was also reinforced by Laura Ghica-Sava from the Terre des Hommes Foundation Romania who shared insights into partnerships between social services, NGOs and communities: “It is indeed challenging to provide services within local communities where there are scarce resources, but here, at the conference, there were some good examples showing that when there is commitment and when people are skilled and supportive, you can achieve significant results.”
Looking ahead
The European Social Network (ESN) encourages the debate and exchange of practices on investing in children services through initiatives such as the Social Services Conference in Romania and the project Investing in Children Services, Improving Outcomes; this three year project continues with an analysis of children services across European countries with the view to present the situation in another two Central and Eastern European countries next year. Find out more about ESN’s work on children and families.