Implementation of the Duties and Powers of the National Preventive Mechanism in 2012 Visits to institutions for the care and education of children and adolescents with emotional and behavioural disorders General In Slovenia, there are ten institutions for the care and education of children and adolescents with emotional and behavioural disorders (the “Institutions”) falling under the responsibility of the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports. There is one institution under the responsibility of the Ministry of Labour, Family and Social Affairs which has been established to provide training for children and young people with mental disorders who have been committed to a training institution for educational care by means of an educational measure. Adolescent persons are taken into such institutions on the basis of decisions issued by Centres for Social Work (for example, due to insecurity or risk within the family), court orders (in the form an educational measure) or decisions on placement in an educational programme. Number of visits and locations Four institutions were visited in 2012: • Smlednik Residential Education Centre Fran Milčinski, • Jarše Juvenile Home, • Črna na Koroškem Training, Work and Care Centre, • Veržej Primary School, Veržej Therapeutic Boarding School. Organization of institutions and recommendations by the NPM One institution, Jarše Juvenile Home, is organised in the form of residential communities located in private houses or independent apartments in various locations in Ljubljana. According to the norm, there are 8 young persons included in a group. Generally, each residential community is professionally led by four educators. A housekeeper is additionally employed in residential communities, which, in addition to secondary school students, also include primary school children. The institute carries out its own internal primary school programme from the sixth to the ninth grades. Some adolescents living in residential communities also visit external primary schools, whilst all secondary school students attend regular secondary schools. A special feature of this institution is a production school attended by secondary school students who have dropped out of the regular secondary school education programme for various reasons. The production school provides short and intensive occupational and therapeutic treatments which are oriented towards the development of special personality characteristics and the acquisition of functional and social skills and knowledge. Young persons may attend the programme for not more than one school year and they then return to their previous secondary school. The second institution, Smlednik Residential Education Centre Fran Milčinski, is a combined institution in terms of its organisation. Its core activity is carried out in boarding facilities with a traditional educational model – in formative groups. It also has one residential community located at another location. There may be no more than 12 adolescents included in these formative groups, in accordance with the norms. There is an internal primary school organised within the institution. Secondary school students from the residential community attend regular secondary schools in Ljubljana. National Preventive Mechanism in the Republic of Slovenia under the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment 117