ІІІ. PROTECTING CHILDREN IN CONFLICT WITH THE LAW Problems regarding children in conflict with the law placed in correctional boarding schools (CBS) or social and pedagogical boarding schools (SPBS) continued to be in the focus of NPM in 2015. Following inspections conducted in November and December 2015, the NPM published and presented in public a thematic report about the state of play with CBS and SPBS. Some of the traditional conclusions and recommendations remain valid in 2015 such as poor material conditions and undiversified food. Another substantial problem continues to be the neglect of the educational process by teachers and students alike. Teaching is conducted in a formal manner without taking into account the individual needs of children. Activities such as art therapy, labour therapy etc. that need to be incorporated in the overall process of development and work with children remain isolated. The inefficient correctional and pedagogical work due to the lack of highly qualified psychologists is another point of concern. The Ministry of Education and Science (MES) has not endorsed a methodology regulating work with children in those schools, which has led to various practices as regards psychological and pedagogical assessments, individual plans for children and review of the result of the psychological and pedagogical work. Deficiencies such as lack of staff members’ motivation, poor medical care, poor coordination among institutions, pupils’ low health literacy, and lack of a legal regulation for work persist. Children continue to be placed in institutions without any differentiation between the offences they have committed. Thus children who have committed the so-called status ofences (running away from home, roaming, begging etc.) or children survivors of violence are placed in the same institution with juvenile delinquent offenders. Violence, both physical and psychological, remains a serious problem in many of the boarding schools. Punishments that are not regulated in any way continue to be imposed. Rules and standards for equal treatment of children placed in boarding schools are still missing. In relation to these findings, the Ombudsman acting as NPM recommended changes in the legal regulation, closure of these institutions and establishment of adequate correctional and pedagogical services. A member of the NPM took part in the working group set up by the Ministry of Justice for the elaboration of a bill for juvenile justice. The key objective is to protect the interests of minors involved in criminal proceedings and the rights of children witnesses or victims of crime, shifting the focus from penalty and retaliation to more friendly measures. ІV. PROTECTING PERSONS WITH MENTAL DISORDERS In 2015 the NPM conducted six inspections in healthcare establishments for inpatient psychiatric care. The inspections established once again the unsatisfactory condition of the state psychiatric inpatient care and the need to reform the system. One of the findings concerns the poor material conditions in the inspected healthcare etsablishmnets. Treatment is not adequately secured in terms of technical equipment. Other problems concern understaffing, social rehabilitation and psychological care, long stays in hospitals and repeated hospitalization of socially disadvantaged persons. Amendments to the Healthcare Establishments Act made in 2015 have introduced different levels of competence of the Mental Health Centres structural units. The NPM insists that the 9