Child protection systems across Europe continue to face heavy caseloads. In Czechia, for instance, 85,478 new cases were recorded in 2024, a high figure relative to the population of 2.1 million under the age of 18. As of December 2024, the total number of recorded family cases reached 134,988. These figures highlight not only risks to children, but unmet needs within families that demand stronger, earlier support from services.
Ensuring vulnerable children have access to social services
While the European Child Guarantee (ECG) helps prevent poverty and social exclusion by making sure every child has access to key services, including education, health care, nutrition, and housing, it does not yet explicitly acknowledge that the most vulnerable children and their families often also require access to specialised support from social services.
When families experience challenges such as disability, substance use, and domestic violence, the safeguards put in place by the ECG are, sadly, not enough to keep these children safe. Family counselling can support families in difficult situations in a low-threshold manner, but it is best suited to families who proactively seek help, those with relatively manageable problems, and those with at least some educational background.
For families with multiple complexities, in-home support from mobile social workers would be more effective. However, a 2024 survey by the European Social Network (ESN) found that this is not yet commonplace: almost a quarter (24%) of respondents rated availability as poor or non-existent.
Prioritising multi-agency support for families with complex challenges
Very rarely are the needs of children and their families one-dimensional, and very rarely can a single service address all existing problems. Cross-sector collaboration is therefore paramount. As highlighted by Alfonso Lara Montero, CEO of ESN, at the European consultation meeting on integrated child protection held in Vienna, Austria, on 28-29 January 2026, this interagency work must move beyond goodwill. Rather, it should be accompanied by legal frameworks, clear mandates, comprehensive protocols, joint training, and informal networks that foster communication, mutual trust and understanding, and a culture of shared responsibility.
Organised by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), this event brought together representatives of the European Network of Ombudspersons and child protection experts to discuss challenges in implementing integrated child protection systems and to share promising practices from across Europe.
Implementing uniform training across disciplines to benefit children
Reflecting on which reforms Ombudspersons should prioritise to strengthen cross-border cooperation, Mr. Montero stressed the urgency of addressing uneven training and preparedness across professions. According to ESN’s 2024 findings, for example, only around 30% of professionals working with children, but not specifically in child protection, have strong skills in identifying harm or the risk of harm. Furthermore, just as few have good-to-excellent knowledge and competencies to work effectively with child protection services, including communication skills across disciplines, knowledge of their own and others’ responsibilities, and the ability to plan and manage processes together.
When professionals in education, health care, social care, and law enforcement lack a strong, shared foundation, collaboration remains fragile and depends more on individual commitment than on systemic reliability. Mandatory ongoing training on children’s rights, child protection, and child participation for all those working with children can, over time, shift child protection systems from a reactive and fragmented approach to one grounded in preventive, integrated, and rights-based efforts.
ESN remains committed to ensuring families are equipped to provide safe, nurturing environments for their children. With this in mind, we recently launched a four-year Prevention and Early Intervention Working Group, whose first meeting in April 2026 will focus on how early support for children and their families can reduce the need for intensive care later.
