By ignoring the legally prescribed ratio of teachers and children, other fundamental rights of
children might also not be fully ensured, such as the right to security and all-round development.
Examples of cases where teachers have been unable to prevent violence between children,
cope with children with behavioural problems or teach sufficient skills for independent life (e.g.
cooking, independent management of various matters) or where children lack the motivation
to study or engage in hobbies, can mostly be found in those substitute homes where teachers
work in shifts and the number of children per teacher is higher than the prescribed maximum.
PART II
PART III
The inspection visits revealed that there is still significant room for improvement in making
the substitute home service an essentially family-like form of care. Only in few substitute
homes children grow with a family elder who permanently lives with them. In most substitute
homes at least four teachers working in shifts take care of the children of one family. Moreover,
two thirds of such substitute homes have tried to stretch the statutory ratio of teachers and
children in one or another way, whether by placing more than the prescribed maximum eight
children in one family or by putting one teacher in charge of more than one family. The largest
number of children in one family was 17 instead of the legally prescribed maximum of eight.
In one substitute home three teachers were in charge of a total of 57 children. With the aim
of optimising the working time of teachers, children are also transferred from one family to
another for some periods (e.g. vacation period, or time when some children are in long summer
camps or on school holidays). In such conditions it is difficult for children to establish lasting
relationships based on trust with people who take care of them every day. The higher the
number of children per one adult, the less time teachers have for children, the more superficial
the relationships and the less similar such a form of care is to a family model.
PART I
CANCELLOR OF JUSTICE AS OMBUDSMAN FOR CHILDREN
In addition to lack of emotional human intimacy and trust-based relationships, other obstacles
in ensuring a stable growing environment for children exist. Although transfer of children during
their time in a substitute home should be avoided, both inside a substitute home as well as
between different substitute homes, children are still being moved from one family or house
to another and also from one substitute home to another. Last year 15% of all the children
admitted to substitute homes had previously already lived in another substitute home. With
each such transfer a child has to get used to new teachers, children and other persons around
them, which does not contribute to making the service resemble to real families or the creation
of a permanent social network around the child.
2.
Minimum standards for the substitute home service
The legislation establishes rather detailed requirements for the substitute home service as
regards the number of children per family, the number and qualifications of the staff, as well
as food, rooms and equipment. It also describes which activities make up the substance of the
service. All this requires a certain sum of money which the state pays for the provision of the
service to each child. In addition, according to the law the substitute home service should meet
the basic needs of the child. At the same time, financing of the service is currently not costbased and there is no clear idea how much a service complying with all the requirements and
meeting all the basic needs of the child would realistically cost.
The inspection visits show that the current funding per child from the state budget is not
sufficient to comply with all the statutory requirements and meet all the other basic needs of
the child, as the actual costs of the substitute homes are higher. The establishments complying
with the minimum staff requirements are unable to ensure full coverage of all the other needs
of the children (e.g. hobby activities). On the other hand, the establishments focusing more
on providing various opportunities for the development of children, such as hobby activities,
camps, school trips, do not have sufficient number of teachers to ensure individual attention to
children and their supervision.
21
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