Terug naar de kern. Terug naar kinderrechten. | Defence for Children (Back to the core. Back to children's rights. † Defense for

Marieke Simons

Legal Adviser on Children's Rights and Juvenile Law

Lately there has been a lot of talk about out-of-home placements of children. Especially in the wake of the Allowance scandal. The Defense for Children's Children's Rights Helpdesk has seen for some time that – apart from the Allowance scandal – many things are not going well with regard to out-of-home placements. What's going well? What can be done better? And what does the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child say about this?

As a last (rescue) remedy

Every child has the right to grow up with his parents. This right is included in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. An out-of-home placement should therefore be seen as a last resort and must be necessary for the child's unthreatened development. A child may only be removed from home if there is no less invasive remedy. This is so because it makes a huge encroachment on the lives of parents and children. For example, help must first be made available in the home situation that is necessary to allow the child to grow up at home, in their own family. The parents have that right, but more importantly, the child has that right. Because growing up at home is often the best thing for a child.

At Defense for Children we receive many signals that not everything is being done to prevent out-of-home placement. For example, it takes too long before it becomes clear which specialist help is needed, or the right help is not deployed for too long. This worsens the situation, resulting in an out-of-home placement. A long waiting list for specialist youth care, partly due to high staff shortages, is one of the causes. Much to the frustration of the youth protectors, who have to organize youth care and are often tied to their hands.

Temporary measure and working on relocation

An out-of-home placement must be temporary, last as short as possible and be assessed periodically , according to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Relocation of the child should be the goal. Targeted assistance to parents and child to tackle the causes of the out-of-home placement must be deployed. The juvenile court judge will have to assess whether the out-of-home placement is still necessary after the specific assistance has been deployed and whether the child can be placed back in the home.

We have been receiving signals for some time that parents have the feeling that nothing will happen after the out-of-home placement. No assistance, no contact and no plan for relocation. How can parents still work on that transfer, they wonder. Yet they also tell us positive things, such as that juvenile court judges are increasingly extending the out-of-home placement by only three months. In this way they monitor whether work is really being done on relocation. But the long waiting lists and cumbersome application procedures in youth care make it difficult to quickly deploy the necessary help. Youth care workers want this, but simply cannot.

Right of access: regular and direct contact after a custodial placement

Once a child has been removed from their home, the right to regular and direct contact with their parents is another child right under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. In short: there must be contact between parent and child. Especially after a violent event such as an out-of-home placement. Also to prevent that not having contact with the child will lead to alienation from its parents and prevent reinstatement.

In practice we see that the right to contact is often not observed and that there is little or no contact after the custodial placement. From the well-intentioned thought of giving the child peace of mind, because of the long waiting lists for specialist visitation counseling or because of the busyness of the youth protector who is happy that the child has been placed. Yet we also hear that youth protectors will then start guiding the interaction themselves. It is fantastic that they provide the much-needed contact between parent and child.

The opinion of the out-of-home child

The opinion of the child in the event of a custodial placement is often not heard, while they do have that right under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Too often we notice that children are not involved in decisions about care placement or contact, that they do not feel heard and that they do not know their rights. But they do have those rights. In the Netherlands formally from the age of twelve, but also informally when they are younger.

It is good to hear that children are increasingly being invited for a child interview with a juvenile court judge. In this they can indicate what they think of the custodial placement or the contact with the parent. Yet too often we hear that children have not been heard or that a request for a guardian ad litem has been rejected. This should not be allowed in radical matters such as an out-of-home placement and the child must be involved in any appropriate way.

Back to the core

It is good that the discussion about custodial placements, whether or not as a result of the Allowance scandal, is being conducted critically. I hope it makes us all think again. In my opinion, we need to go back to the core, to how we want to deal with vulnerable children in our country. Children that we take away from their parents, for whatever reason. That core touches on children's rights. The pedagogical vision of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child should guide questions such as: Have we really done everything we can to allow the child to grow up at home? And if it is moved out of the house, are we working hard enough to put it back? Do we ensure that the child has contact with its parents and brothers and sisters after the out-of-home placement? And, not to forget, how do we involve the child in all these decisions,

I very much hope that discussions on out-of-home placements and youth care reform in general will take into account the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Focus on children's rights! Go back to that core, back to children's rights, that's a good start.