5. Social services facilities »»»»»»» 5. Social services facilities 14 visits a retirement home 13 homes for people with disabilities Visits to homes for people with disabilities We have been focusing on homes for people with disabilities. We visited 9 such facilities over the past 2 years (of which 6 were visited in 2018). Our visits focused on safety provisions and compliance with the principle of a minimum restriction; the principle of “normality” and autonomy of clients; availability of healthcare; working with problematic behaviour and sexuality; protection from unauthorised detention in a facility. After our series of visits was completed, we organised a round table with the representatives of the visited facilities and experts and we are currently evaluating the findings. A summary report will be released in 2019. In 2018, we tested visits in co-operation with our colleagues in the Office of the Public Defender of Rights who are responsible for monitoring of the rights of people with disabilities. Seven visits were conducted in relation to the municipal elections, focusing on the exercise of the right to vote on the part of people with disabilities, especially those with restricted legal capacity. The aim was to verify whether clients in the facilities received sufficient assistance to exercise their right to vote and determine the obstacles to voting faced by people with disabilities. The findings will be presented in a separate summary report. Report on monitoring of the exercise of the right to vote We have repeatedly pointed out that... ―― there is no independent complaints mechanism in social services; ―― the inspection authorities supervising over the provision of social services lack the authorisation to peruse the documentation on care; ―― infringements on the clients’ dignity do not qualify as an infraction. See pages 22 and 23 to find out more about the outstanding systemic issues. 18