The right to live in a family environment is one of the basic rights of the child. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child guarantees a child temporarily or permanently deprived of his or her family environment the right to special protection and assistance, and states are obliged to ensure alternative care for such a child.
The Republic of Serbia started with the reform of the social protection system and the process of deinstitutionalisation some twenty years ago. The deinstitutionalisation process was aimed at reducing the pressure on residential care institutions, reducing the number of beneficiaries placed in institutions and developing services at the local level. At the same time, the process implies the transformation of residential care institutions and the development of alternative forms of social protection.
Significant measures have been taken so far with the aim of improving the legislative and strategic framework in order to prevent the separation of children from their natural environment or to provide support to children in need of alternative care by placing them as close as possible to their natural environment. However, despite the proactive measures for the deinstitutionalisation of children, there are still a number of challenges in the implementation of the process of deinstitutionalisation.
Although the total number of children in institutions has been significantly reduced, the number of children with developmental and other disabilities has remained practically unchanged and continues to be disconcertingly high. The total number of children in residential care institutions includes 70% of children with developmental and other disabilities, while only 14.3% of these children are in foster care. In addition, there are also children under the age of 3 in residential care, which is contrary to the provisions of the Law on Social Protection. The unfavourable trend of a higher number of children admitted to residential care than children leaving these institutions continues. It is especially worrying that children and young people are most often placed in institutions together with adults. Another problem is that children stay in institutions for a long time, often come of age and even get old in these institutions.
Networks of social protection services at the local level are not sufficiently widespread or available. Support services for independent living of persons with disabilities are extremely underdeveloped. The service of personal assistance was established only in 17 local self-governments for 223 beneficiaries. The service of supported housing for persons with disabilities, which is of decisive importance for the process of deinstitutionalisation and which is even fully financed from the national budget in underdeveloped local self-governments, is available in only six municipalities and towns for 107 beneficiaries. Specialised foster care has not been sufficiently developed, and the occasional progress in its development, achieved through ad hoc programmes and projects, despite good results, has not taken root in practice and become part of a sustainable and permanent system of specialised foster care.
It is crucial to work on the prevention of the separation of children from the family environment and their institutionalisation, and it is necessary to improve the system of support for families from vulnerable groups.
The data clearly indicate that it is necessary to engage all stakeholders in order to take additional measures to urgently reduce the number of children with developmental disabilities in institutions, improve and develop support services in local communities and ensure their equal availability, as well as to improve the programmes for integration of children and young people with developmental disabilities after they leave institutions.
