Child and youth welfare facilities In 2013, the NPM resolved, after consultation with the Human Rights Advisory Council, the topic of “Measures to prevent violence” as a monitoring priority for visits to facilities for children and adolescents in out-of-home care. The evaluation of the interviews held by the commissions with minors and staff indicate that in the year under review violence in a wide range of forms poses a problem in almost every facility. The staff complain about an increase in the propensity of minors to use violence. In 2017, there were also observations that minors in socio-pedagogical shared accommodations or homes were victims of violence or abuse by other minors. Propensity to use violence is on the rise The commissions still observe that pedagogic staff do not take part in regular training on the topic of violence prevention, meaning that neither a conscious handling of violent incidents takes place nor measures for de-escalating conflicts are taken. Experience of the NPM verifies, however, that caregivers who have been trained in dealing with de-escalation can handle the situation more competently. The objective of these training programmes is to learn how to counter aggressive or violent behaviour and how to act appropriately in such a situation. Violence protection concepts are an important tool in violence prevention. However, they are still not the standard in every child and youth welfare facility. Besides, the commissions also experienced that there are specific guidelines in many facilities but that the staff are not familiar with them. Violence protection concepts do not exist or are unknown Time and again children and adolescents are victims of sexual violence in out-of-home care. This also happens frequently between children. Often those boys and girls who have experienced abuse in their own families are particularly vulnerable, as they were unable to develop a reliable sense of proximity, distance and boundaries. Sexual assault occurs when sexual acts are forced. In such cases, a power imbalance or mutual trust is often exploited and the victim threatened or subjected to physical violence. It is the responsibility of the qualified staff to protect minors from sexual assault. If once this protection was not possible, such incidents must be worked through in as far as possible, as the way in which the victims, the minor perpetrators and other residents are dealt with is very important. The following examples demonstrate that failure to take effective measures after initial evidence of boundary violations comes to light can have far-reaching consequences. Sexual assault of children in out-of-home care During a holiday programme with children from different shared accommodations in Burgenland, an 11-year-old was suspected of having participated in sexual assault. He stated that he had also been subjected to sexual assault by an older resident in a shared accommodation. The boys were interviewed in the child protection centre. However, as their statements differed, it was not possible to clarify what had actuallyhappened. The suspected boy remained in the shared accommodation and nothing was undertaken to Particularly serious negligence 65