90 | Annual Report 2019 Monitoring activities – children Theme for 2019 Younger children placed in social care The target group for monitoring visits in 2019 was children between 6 and 12 years who were placed outside their home in an accommodation facility or a residential institution. The institutions visited by the Ombudsman’s monitoring teams as part of the theme typically also held children and young people placed in care who were outside the target group in terms of age. The year’s monitoring visits encompassed – regardless of the target group – all children and young people at the accommodation facilities and residential institutions visited. As part of the theme, the Ombudsman’s monitoring teams visited three municipal residential institutions and five private accommodation facilities and focused particularly on • use of physical force • education • contact with relatives Examples of important conclusions • Several institutions and facilities lack adequate knowledge of legislation on the use of force. • Several in-house schools experience challenges with regard to observing the rules on exemption from school subjects. • Generally, the institutions are good at supporting the children and young people’s contact with their relatives. The Ombudsman generally recommends • that accommodation facilities and residential institutions ensure - that staff are familiar with the legislation on the use of force - that the deadlines for recording and reporting use of force are observed - that children, young people and parents are informed on arrival of their rights in relation to, among other things, the use of force • that accommodation facilities and residential institutions with in-house schools ensure that the rules on exemption from lessons in school subjects are observed • that accommodation facilities and residential institutions ensure that their medicines instructions observe applicable rules and that the medicines in the facilities and institutions are handled correctly. See the Ombudsman’s specific recommendations (extracts) in the tables on pages 92-95. Cases concluded in 2019 in relation to monitoring activities 12 cases opened on the Ombudsman’s own initiative were concluded in 2019. Eight of these cases were opened in direct continuation of monitoring visits. Three of the cases resulted in criticism or informal recommendations. Reports on the themes for our monitoring visits can be found at www.ombudsmanden.dk by clicking next to the small globe icon at the top of the site, selecting ‘English’ and clicking ‘Read more’ under the heading ‘About the Ombudsman and complaints’ and then ‘Publications’.