"All institutions are de facto abusive, we don't need to focus on the abuse practiced by the staff," said Assistant Ombudsman for Children's Rights, Theoni Koufonikolakou, speaking at a workshop on foster care.
At the same time, according to data presented at the same workshop, parents' interest in fostering is much lower than in adoption.
Commenting on the current situation, Ms Koufonikolakou said that "the absence of a reference person for the child in institutions, that is, the look of the sole caregiver, is abusive, it is neglectful to such an extent that it undermines the full development of the child who will be placed there."
Also, in institutions, she continued, very often children have no care for their educational integration, for mental health issues and for their socialization, they have no strengthening of the relationship with their biological family or with their social environment.
Referring to the gaps in the child protection system, the Assistant Ombudsman observed that social service professionals in Local Authorities are not sufficient to meet the needs of children, while there are particularly heterogeneous practices in services in the absence of protocols for support, intervention, investigation, both in terms of family support and supervision of foster care and institutions. Institutional interventions are also characterised by fragmentation and lack of sustainability.
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"Fostering and adoption rates are falling"
According to data from the fostering and adoption information system, presented by researcher Theodora Moro, there has been a noticeable slowdown in the rate of foster care and adoptions
in recent times.
Specifically, in the period from 4 October 2021 to 3 October 2022, the number of completed foster placements was 98 and adoptions 158.
In the period from 7 July 2020 to 3 October 2021, completed foster placements were 419 and adoptions 386.
They prefer adoption, don't want fostering
Moreover, parents' interest in fostering is much lower than in adoption. In the period 7/7/2020-3/10/2022, there were 45 approved parents for foster care and 624 minors for foster care; on the other hand, there were 1,580 parents for adoption while there were only 114 minors for adoption.
It should be noted that there are no separate figures for the fostering of unaccompanied migrant and refugee children, but the vast majority of unaccompanied children are excluded from fostering because they are over 12 years old.
As Andreas Demou, a partner of the Special Secretariat for the Protection of Unaccompanied Minors of the Ministry of Immigration and Asylum, said, only six or seven foster homes are in the process of being implemented.
Unaccompanied children and children with disabilities in "unclaimed"
He described fostering as of utmost importance for unaccompanied children as well, despite the fact that most of them have been in Greece for a short time and are waiting to be reunited with family members in other countries.
Andreas Kaskaniotis, social worker of the Social Welfare Centre of the Region of Attica, described the need to foster children with disabilities as important, as well as the adequate staffing of their support services.
The online discussion on the institution of foster care was organized by the KMOP - Centre for Social Action and Innovation, on the occasion of the International Children's Rights Day.
The event was organized in the framework of the European initiative "FAB! Family-type care for migrant and refugee children", which aims to strengthen and expand alternative family care through foster care for unaccompanied children in five European countries on the frontline of reception: Greece, Italy, Spain, Malta and Cyprus.
Source: APE-MPA
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