children and for the protection of the public interest. Building of informal contacts
between children and the staff and the children and local communities is a prerequisite
for violence, abuse, exploitation, new antisocial behaviour.
Treatment and protection measures
In 2014 steps were taken to prevent violence between the students themselves
and by the staff to them. Prevention plans and particular actions in an accident or
signal for violence are regulated. According to the inspection team such plans are
only formal. As an example of this can be referred the procedure for responding to
suspected violence and / or child abuse in RBS "Nikola Vaptsarov" – city of Zavet, which
is obviously completely copied (written out) from a similar procedure in the centre for
street children (CSC).
Routine in the boarding institutions are cases of various forms of violence
among the children, as well as thefts between them (e.g. RBS "Nikola Vaptsarov" city of Zavet, and RBS - village of Podem, SEBS - city of Straldzha). During the interviews
the children said that there was force on the part of the staff (single slaps, offensive
words and qualifications). Only in SEBS – village of Varnentsi no such signals were
received. Cases of violence established by the NPM are not recorded into the registers.
Identical is the situation with complaints and signals - boxes set for complaints and
signals are rarely used, and books for complaints were empty.
In imposing certain penalties provided in Art. 60 of the Regulation on the
structure and activities of the correctional (reform) boarding schools and social
educational boarding schools it was established that this is made not in accordance with
the procedure regulated, but by an order of the Director. The NPM found imposition of
penalties not provided in regulations – deprivation of a vacation, cleaning the area of
the school, deprivation of use of the office phone, cleaning bathrooms, maintaining the
yard, cleaning a pit, etc.
There were no rules and standards for equal treatment of children placed
in boarding schools. In some of the places inspected the Ombudsman’s experts found
special treatment to certain students: selection in walks and excursions, better material
conditions, compromises in case of breaches of the internal rules, etc.
In the RBS- village of Zavet, VSRBS - village of Podem, SEBS – village of
Varnentsi, the compulsory reporting of the Educational Council on the results
achieved at the end of the school year is not prepared. Individual work plans are
also generally identical, formal and do not meet the specifics of each case.
The maximum stay in the correctional boarding school and social educational
schools can not be more than three years. In art. 30 of the LAADMJ, however, are
provided also situations in which it is possible the maximum period to be extended at
the request of the student.
The inspections of the NPM team found cases of such extension at the request of
students. Directors and employees of the boarding schools are not interested students to
leave the institution, as it is financed through so called delegated budget and funds are
provided according to the number of the children accommodated.
Experts of the Ombudsman identified cases of extended stay in RBS and SEBS
until receipt of the corresponding level of education in accordance with the legal
procedure for the sole reason that the inmates have nowhere to go. These
arguments put another serious problem that after leaving institutions some of the
children have no family and relatives to support them.
Another major flaw of the system is the lack of periodic follow-up legal review
and provision of legal assistance to inmates in relation to disciplinary measures
imposed on them.
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