1.3 Visits to institutions for the care and education of children and adolescents with emotional and behavioural disorders In all Institutions, regulated norms concerning the number of adolescents in the groups as well as the number, type and level of education of employees are being taken into consideration. Primary school children in residential communities visit external primary schools and secondary school students attend regular secondary schools. As stated above, in three Institutions (Malči Belič YCC, Planina REC and Slivnica REC) activities are carried out in boarding facilities with a traditional educational model - in formative groups. Slivnica REC also has one residential community located at another location. The NPM believes that for young people experiencing emotional and behavioural disorders working in residential communities is more suitable organisational model than the traditional model. However, on the other hand, this type of treatment may be too demanding for those with severe emotional and behavioural difficulties, because living and working in a residential community are less structured and require more independence and responsibility. That is why, in NPM’s opinion, it makes sense to keep the traditional organizational model to a small extent and therefore provide for the placement in formative groups. In NPM’s opinion it would be reasonable to examine the prosperity of the practice of education programme in a smaller group also for adolescents who have been committed to an Institution on the basis of educational measure. But that depends on a professional basis for such education programme and on the country’s financial resources. Staffing and residential conditions and NPM recommendations Taking into account standards and norms specifying conditions of work with young people experiencing emotional and behavioural disorders, the number of professional staff is, in NPM’s opinion, appropriate, and so also was their type and level of education, as determined by the law. They are experts holding a university degree in the fields of social pedagogy, psychology, or social work, and other staff are additionally trained to work with this population. The NPM noticed a problem with suitability of the type of education for working with young people with criminal past. There is a problem, whether it is appropriate to organise formative groups in such manner that groups include adolescents with criminal past and adolescents who are admitted to institutions on the basis of decisions issued by Centres for Social Work due to insecurity or problems in the family, educational and behavioural neglect, poor academic performance and other reasons. Considering this, it is proposed by the NPM that experts and ministries of education, of labour, of justice and of health adopt more appropriate solutions. Last year, in line with the recommendation of the NPM, the Department of Social Pedagogy of the Faculty of Education in Ljubljana organised once again the practice of supplementary qualification in social and pedagogic science which had posed a problem for many years. The amount of space and fittings in all Institutions visited are appropriate. In Institutions that were visited once again, the conditions remained unchanged, however, reduction of financial resources provided by the Ministry of education, Science and Sports for capital costs of the repair and renewal of equipment is perceived. That is why the Ministry of education, Science and Sports has been asked by the NPM to ensure appropriate financial resources, despite country’s financial constraints. Activity performance - observations and recommendations of NPM The Institutions visited have produced publications with essential information on their work. Informational material is also published on a web site of each individual institution. Education is carried out on the basis of existing education programme from ten years ago which needs renewal and modernization. It was recommended by the NPM to add contents to the education programme which would be more appropriate or more reasonable for (re)education of adolescents admitted to the Institution on the basis of educational measure. On the basis of the recommendations by the NPM from its first visits, all three Institutions which were visited once again have modernized and improved their web sites, all of them have published rules of residence and house rules on their web sites. The recommendation of the NPM that the individualized programme is signed by an adolescent, was mostly taken into consideration as well. IMPLEMENTATION OF THE DUTIES AND POWERS OF THE NPM IN 2013 NATIONAL PREVENTIVE MECHANISM UNDER THE OPTIONAL PROTOCOL TO THE UN CONVENTION AGAINST TORTURE AND OTHER CRUEL, INHUMAN OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT 69