Child and youth welfare facilities 2.3.10 Expanding the scope of the Nursing and Resitential Homes Residence Act The amendment to the Nursing and Residential Homes Residence Act (Heimaufenthaltsgesetz) enacted on 1 July 2018 created the basis for comprehensive legal protection on the restriction of freedom of all children and adolescents. This legal protection applies regardless of the facility in which children and adolescents live. The legal extension of the scope of said act is attributable amongst others to the fact that the NPM and residents’ representative associations consistently highlighted the deficits in legal protection. The groundwork was put in place by the statement of opinion of the Human Rights Advisory Council of December 2015 published on the AOB website highlighting the necessity of an amendment from the human rights perspective (see NPM Report 2018, p. 67 et seq.). Employees from the residents’ representatives have been present in child and youth welfare facilities, facilities that provide reception conditions for unaccompanied minor refugees under the Basic Provision Agreement but also in special schools, day care centres etc. since the amendment came into effect. In addition to information events, there is an intensive exchange of experience and ideas with those responsible for the facilities. The residents’ representatives monitor compliance with the Nursing and Residential Homes Residence Act very critically and formally request legal examination if required. Representatives of the residents in shared accommodation The Laender have taken a partly critical, partly sceptical stance on the applicability of the Nursing and Residential Homes Residence Act to sociopedagogical facilities. The City of Vienna reported to the NPM that several court cases are pending and the Viennese Department of Child and Youth Welfare sees the need for clarification through decisions by the Supreme Court. The NPM also assumes that the still undefined legal term of “age typicality” will sharpen on the basis of expert opinions in the field of special needs education. There is concern in particular that the Nursing and Residential Homes Residence Act could facilitate the re-introduction of closed child and youth welfare facilities. The Department of Child and Youth Welfare of Tyrol also reported a differentiated view. Jurisdiction required The feedback from the other Laender at the end of 2019 was very positive. After joint information events for residents’ representatives and the technical supervision, there is now a periodic exchange of experience and ideas with all residential groups and the residents’ representatives in Lower Austria and Upper Austria, which is also attended by the technical supervision. In Upper Austria, members of the residents’ representative network and the head of Commission 2 were also invited to the annual meeting of the Association for Social Pedagogy (Verein Sozialpädagogik), of which almost all operators of socio-pedagogical facilities in Upper Austria are members. The NPM reported there about its experience of inappropriate measures that restrict freedom 82