and demand additional expert discussion, either psychosocial, psychotherapeutic or psychiatric assistance, frequently with the application of medication therapy. The institutions stressed this issue several years ago, but they became particularly vocal in 2016. We have been dealing for several years in Slovenia with issues of insufficient or completely absent paedopsychiatric assistance for vulnerable children and adolescents and problems with their placement in (in)appropriate institutions. Usually the majority of these children and adolescents come to the institutions without correct diagnoses. The institutions claim that certain adolescents completely reject the institution, programme of work, services, implementation of expert activities and everything that the institutions try to do and for what they are trained. They determined that there is no suitable group for such children, to which they could be directed or suitable programmes and institutions. These children are literally thrown into the same institution regardless of the type and cause of their problems or individual treatment needs. The institutions receive children exhibiting extremely aggressive behaviour and set patterns of manipulatively resolving personal problems and functioning in the social environment, and severe paedo-psychiatric problems that call for individual treatment in a peaceful environment and without additional triggering impulses, including drug and alcohol users and regular cigarette smokers, who smoke with the consent of, or even support of, their parents, who permit such behaviour and even bring them cigarettes to the institution without permission. It was revealed in practice that paedopsychiatric services in Slovenia decline the treatment of children and adolescents with severe mental health problems and related aggressive and hetero-aggressive behaviour, which is why the only solution in this field is urgent hospitalisation in closed intensive wards in psychiatric hospitals together with adult patients, resulting in severe violations of children’s and adolescents’ rights. The Ombudsman has pointed out for several years that the treatment of children and adolescents with mental health and related hetero-aggressive behavioural problems is not merely a pedagogical problem. Too often these children and adolescents are not admitted or are excluded from institutions or schools, or are admitted to secure wards of psychiatric institutions together with adult patients. Institutions visited Maribor Youth Home (MD Maribor) Maribor Youth Home has five residential groups in four locations and one youth apartment. Residential groups are intended for children and adolescents between the ages of 8 and 18 or more if they are unable to live with their parents in primary families for various reasons, and if they have emotional and behavioural problems. Male and female adolescents above the age of 18 live in the youth apartment who are unable to return to their primary family after they finish their stay in the residential group, thus enabling adolescents a good transition from the group to real life. We visited residential groups 1 and 4. There were 9 adolescents in residential group 1, i.e. 6 boys and 3 girls; there were 7 adolescents in residential group 4, i.e. 3 boys and 4 girls. Jarše Youth Home (MD Jarše) MD Jarše is a public institution implementing the activity for adolescents of both genders between the ages of 12 and 18. The mission of MD Jarše is to provide conditions for successful education and healthy personal development, while providing adolescents and families with all the necessary assistance in accordance with modern interdisciplinary findings on the human personality and their rights and freedoms. The following public programmes are being implemented in MD Jarše: primary school educational programme (with adjusted implementation and additional expert assistance), educational programmes within residential groups and an educational programme of a production school. On the day of the visit, there were 61 adolescents in the home (the total capacity is 76 adolescents). Fran Milčinski Smlednik Educational Institution (VIZ Smlednik) VIZ Smlednik implements educational activity for primary school adolescents with emotional and behavioural disorders. The institution can accommodate up to 40 adolescents. At the time of the NPM’s visit, there were 23 adolescents in the institution, i.e. 10 girls and 22 boys. The youngest was 11 years old, the oldest was 15. Educational work is implemented in four educational groups with a maximum of 10 adolescents per group. The first educational group is for girls, while the other three groups are for boys. There were five primary school programme grades (6th, 7th, 8th and 9th grades) in the 2015/2016 school year. Classes take place in the morning. The Ježek residential group is a remote unit of VIZ Smlednik, which is located in Gunclje pri Ljubljani. The residential house, which can accommodate up to 8 adolescents, is intended for male and female adolescents between the ages of 14 and 21, who continue their education in vocational or secondary schools. Six boys were living in the house at the time of our visit. IMPLEMENTATION OF THE DUTIES AND POWERS OF THE NPM IN 2016 NATIONAL PREVENTIVE MECHANISM UNDER THE OPTIONAL PROTOCOL TO THE UN CONVENTION AGAINST TORTURE AND OTHER CRUEL, INHUMAN OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT 93