Planina residential treatment institution (PRTI) The central building with offices and primary school classrooms We visited PRTI on 16 May 2017. We inspected the facilities and talked to the children and adolescents and the staff. After the visit, we reviewed the documents in the personal files of six adolescents. Based on the information that it obtained during its visit and after reviewing available documents, the NPM believes PRTI is carrying out its activities in accordance with its mission. Of the 11 recommendations which were made during our last visit on 12 May 2015, the institution has implemented four and accepted two of these recommendations. Two out of the five recommendations have been implemented only by the PRTI and not also by the competent ministry29 and the NPM therefore repeated the recommendations during this year's visit. The NPM established that social pedagogy, in cooperation with external expert institutions, has still not prepared expert bases for a more appropriate and unified treatment of adolescents with instructions on appropriate educational action. As explained by the education counsellor, adolescents with exceptionally deviant behaviour are treated in the context of a therapeutic group, whereby a therapeutic measure is chosen which is aimed to strengthen the adolescent’s recognition and understanding of more appropriate types of behaviour, emotions, thinking, and consequently communication. The NPM welcomed the endeavours of the management and expert associates of PRTI to resolve the majority of the disputes in the context of therapeutic groups, and not only by disciplinary measures.30 The NPM fully supports the endeavours of all three ministries (MIZŠ, MDDSZ and MZ) to expand the health services in PRTI and recommends to the competent national authorities and professional bodies to carefully consider the setting up of an additional unit, perhaps in another institution. During our visit, the Director of PRTI explained that, since the last NPM visit, a psychiatrist has been employed in order to be able to provide direct psychiatric care to children and adolescents. She explained that two residential groups have been restructured so that now three educational groups have pedagogical and medical care. For this reason, additional staff have been employed, especially from the field of healthcare. PRTI has also increased its spatial capacity, as they are leasing a house in Vrhnika, a house in Semedela, and a flat in Postojna. The NPM alerted the MIZŠ to the fact that adolescents, who are not yet 18 years old but who have completed secondary education, cannot return home, and can submit their application for accommodation in a residential group only after they have turned 18 years old. In its report on the 2015 visit, the NPM had already asked the MIZŠ to regulate the system so that it enables the submission of such an application by an adolescent before they turn 18 years old31. The NPM again recommended to the MIZŠ to allocate funds not only to current maintenance but also for the replacement of dilapidated furniture which PRTI management has been unable to replace through their own funds or donations32. 29  The competent ministry has not. 30  During the last visit, PRTI explained that rules on mediation have been prepared, which formalise and enable a more unified treatment of adolescents with emotional and behavioural disorders. The PRTI expert team also shaped guidelines for dealing with violent behaviour in PRTI. A publication of the Educational Programme with methods and diagnostics for adolescents with emotional and behavioural disorders is also being prepared. The NPM supports these endeavours and commends PRTI on the preparation of uniform guidelines for the treatment of these adolescents. 31  During the visit, the Director explained that despite recommendations, the MIZŠ has not provided a solution for the further placement of adolescents who have completed their education but who cannot return to their primary environment, and who are not entitled to accommodation in PRTI. According to the Director, PRTI searches for an appropriate accommodation solution for each individual adolescent. In its response report, the MIZŠ did not provide its opinion on any of the NPM’s recommendations. 32  Donations were used to furnish and refurbish the rooms of individual educational and residential groups. In the context of the Giving Back to Society project, 12 adolescents’ rooms were furnished and donations by Vez-je and Microsoft helped 30 rooms receive computers and software. IMPLEMENTATION OF THE DUTIES AND POWERS OF THE NPM IN 2017 NATIONAL PREVENTIVE MECHANISM UNDER THE OPTIONAL PROTOCOL TO THE UN CONVENTION AGAINST TORTURE AND OTHER CRUEL, INHUMAN OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT 83