Symposium: Toward a Society in which Children Can Grow Up in Families Building on the Experience of Promoting Family Protective Care in Central and Eastern Europe http://www.nippon-foundation.or.jp/en/news/articles/2015/7.html Japan has announced a prefectural-level plan that seeks to raise the percentage of children requiring protective care who are raised in families to 30% by 2030. At this symposium, Georgette Mulheir, who as chief executive of the London-based, international NGO Lumos, has been named one of the world’s 30 most influential social workers, will discuss her experiences promoting family protective care in Central and Eastern European countries including Moldavia, the Czech Republic, and Bulgaria.

1. Cohesion
Policy
Andor Urmos
European Commission
Directorate General for Regional and Urban Policy
Competence Center for Inclusive Growth

2. 2
EU Cohesion Policy 2014-2020: 1/3 of the EU budget

3. Cohesion
Policy
Cohesion Policy 2014-2022
(eligibility simulation)
3 categories
of regions
Regional GDP figures: 2006-07-08
GNI figures: 2007-08-09
© EuroGeographics Association for the administrative boundaries
< 75% of EU averageGDP/capita*
*index EU27=100
75-90% > 90%
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Canarias
Guyane
Réunion
Guadeloupe/
Martinique
Madeira
Açores
Malta
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Less developed regions
Transition regions
More developed regions
€ 351,8 billion for 7
years:

4. 4
Budget allocations per Member State
(2014-2020)
Total EU allocations of cohesion policy 2014-2020* (billion €, current prices)
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
AT BE BG CY CZ DE DK EE EL ES FI FR HR HU IE IT LT LU LV MT NL PL PT RO SE SI SK UK
* breakdown by category of allocations subject to transfers between categories at the request of the Member States

5. Cohesion
Policy
Why engage in shift to community-
based services (DI)?
• Prevalence of institutional care in Europe
• Political commitment at the European and international level
• Social inclusion objectives of Europe 2020 Strategy –
reducing poverty, extending employment, promoting
active inclusion, providing decent housing and
overcoming discrimination
• Human rights violations in institutional care
• Damaging effects of institutionalisation on children and adults
(especially at age 0 – 3)
• Better use of resources

6. Cohesion
Policy
Evidence-based approach to DI
• The majority of children, once they reach adulthood, are
transferred to institutions for adults
• The most common reason for leaving institutional care is
death
• Severely reduced life chances for adults who spent their
childhood in institutions: 20% with criminal record, 14% in
prostitution, 10% committed suicide (Russia)
• Young women raised in institutions 10 times more likely to
be trafficked (Moldova)

7. Cohesion
Policy
Holistic approach to DI
• Development of high-quality, individualised services in
the community, including those aimed at preventing
institutionalisation and the transfer of resources from
institutions to the new services
• Planned closure of long-stay residential institutions,
including a moratorium on the building of new institutions
• Making mainstream services accessible and available to
individuals with a variety of support needs

8. Cohesion
Policy
European Semester
 Annual Growth Survey 2014
 "broad access to affordable and high-quality services"; "more personalised
services"
 Country Specific Recommendations 2013
 RO: "Speed up the transition from institutional to alternative care for children
deprived of parental care."
 BG: "Improve the accessibility and effectiveness of social transfers and services,
in particular for children and older people." (reference to DI in the Staff Working
Document)
 Challenge: comparable and regular data collection, no surveys
carried out in institutions;

9. Cohesion
Policy
Social Investment Package - Reframing our
approach to social policy
• Policy package adopted in 2013:
• guides EU countries in using their social budgets more efficiently and
effectively to ensure adequate and sustainable social protection;
• seeks to strengthen people’s current and future capacities, and
improve their opportunities to participate in society and the labour
market;
• focuses on integrated packages of benefits and services that help
people throughout their lives and achieve lasting positive social
outcomes;
• stresses prevention rather than cure, by reducing the need for
benefits;
• calls for investing in children and young people to increase their
opportunities in life

10. Cohesion
Policy
Recommendation on "Investing in Children"
• Enhance family support and the quality of alternative care settings
Strengthen child protection and social services in the field of prevention; help families
develop parenting skills in a non-stigmatising way, whilst ensuring that children removed
from parental care grow up in an environment that meets their needs:
• Ensure that poverty is never the only justification for removing a child from parental
care; aim at enabling children to remain in or return to the care of their parents by, for
example, tackling the family’s material deprivation;
• Ensure adequate gate-keeping to prevent children being placed in institutions and
provide for regular reviews in the event of such placements;
• Stop the expansion of institutional care settings for children without parental care;
promote quality, community-based care and foster care within family settings instead,
where children’s voice is given due consideration;
• Ensure that children without parental care have access to quality services (both
mainstream and specific services) related to their health, education, employment, social
assistance, security and housing situation, including during their transition to adulthood;
• Provide appropriate support to children left behind when one or both parents migrate
to another country to work, as well as to their replacement carers.
Investing in children: breaking the cycle of disadvantage (2013/112/EU)

11. Cohesion
Policy
Programming period 2007-2013
ERDF investments
•Social infrastructures: education-, health-, childcare-,
housing infrastructure (17,9 billion EUR)
•E-inclusion (infrastructures & e-services, including e-health)
(5,3 billion EUR)
Challenges
• Sustainability of investments
• Non-reformed health systems
• Alignment with the most important trends and needs
• Demographic change
• Territorial inequalities
•Shift to the community-based care

12. Cohesion
Policy
European Structural and Investment
Funds 2014-2020
Some Key Features
• Contributing to Europe 2020 strategy and objectives
for smart sustainable an inclusive growth
• Concentration
• Integrated approach
• Ex-ante conditionality for effectiveness
• Result orientation
• Alignment with Country Specific recommendations

13. Cohesion
Policy
The European Structural and
Investment Funds cycle and DI
Programming - involves negotiations between the European
Commission and the Member States’ national and regional
authorities on the planning documents for a period of seven
years
Implementation - consists of the allocation and spending of
the funds, normally through the selection and execution of
projects
Monitoring and evaluation - run in parallel with the first
two stages, with the aim to ensure their quality, effectiveness
and consistency

14. Cohesion
Policy
Position papers 2012
Reinforcing the shift to community based care
•Health infrastructure
• PL, RO, BG, PT, HU, EE, LV, AT, SI, LI
• Reform is a condition for further financing (BG, SK)
•Childcare infrastructure
• BG, RO, CZ, SK, GR, IT, AT
Position paper - Romania
"Support the transition from institutional to community-based care
services for children, people with disabilities and mental health
problems and the elderly, including targeted infrastructure
investment."

15. Cohesion
Policy
European Social Fund (ESF) and shift
to community-based services
European Social Fund (ESF) support:
• Development of services, including early intervention,
family support, foster care, personal assistance,
rehabilitation, community-based residential support,
independent living schemes and supported employment
• Management of the change process
• Development of a qualified workforce, including
retraining institutional care staff

16. Cohesion
Policy
European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)
and shift to community-based services
European Regional Development Fund support:
•Social, health, education and housing infrastructure
• Small group homes
• Assisted housing
• Accessibility measures (access to high-quality services in
the community)
Targeted investments in existing large residential institutions can
be justified only as transitional measures within the context of a
strategy oin shiuft to community-based services

17. Cohesion
Policy
Programming tools
• Problem analysis
• Identification and addressing needs of target groups at highest risk of
discrimination or social exclusion (including persons with disabilities)
-> Identification of the underlying causes of institutionalisation such as poverty, lack
of services in the community, etc.
• Expected results
• Development of community-based alternatives to institutional care as a result
expected for the objective “promoting social inclusion and combating poverty”
• Horizontal principles
• CPR, Art. 7 - The Member States and the Commission shall take appropriate steps
to prevent any discrimination based on sex, racial or ethnic origin, religion or
belief, disability….
• CPR, Art. 96 - ….specific actions to promote equal opportunities and prevent
discrimination based on sex, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability….
• CPR, Art. 96 - ….requirements to ensure accessibility for persons with disabilities;
• CPR, 5.4. – accessibility (horisontal, and direct investments)

18. Cohesion
Policy
Relevant ex-ante conditionalities
General ex-ante conditionality
•Anti-discrimination
Administrative capacity for the implementation and application of
EU antidiscrimination law and policy in the field of ESI Funds
•Disability
Administrative capacity for the implementation and application of
the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
(UNCRPD) in the field of ESI Funds
Thematic conditionality for Social inclusion, combating poverty
and discrimination
•National strategic policy framework for poverty reduction
… depending on the identified needs, includes measures for the
shift from institutional to community based care.

19. Cohesion
Policy
Partnership
• European level
• Cooperation with the European umbrella organisations
• European Expert Group on Deinstitutionalisation (EEG)
• Guideline and Toolkit (ESI Funds)
• Structural dialogue (Eurochild, European Network for
Independent Living, etc.)
• National level
• Across the planning and implementation of the
programmes
• Code of Conduct on Partnership

20. Cohesion
Policy
Support for the European Expert Group
• 2009: ad hoc group established: across-interest groups
• Report outlining basic principles for transition from
institutional to community based-care
• 2014: support for "Joint Action" – funding the activities of
the Expert Group
• Training seminars in the Member States
• Data collection and analysis

21. Cohesion
Policy
2014-2020 programs
Ongoing discussions on the priorities (some programs are to be
adopted by the edn of December 2014)
Some identified challenges:
• Not sufficient data on institutionalisation of children, disabled
persons, elderly, etc.
• Needs assessment of disabled persons
• Focus on the size of the institution
• Conditions for independent living
• Link to labour market integration

22. Cohesion
Policy
Thank you for your attention!