Supporting local authorities of Moldova to provide alternative family based care to children without parental care

The project purpose

The right of vulnerable children to be protected and cared for in their own family or in a family type environment which secure the right to education, health care and minimum standard of living is ensured in 100% of the regions of the Republic of Moldova by March 2014.iety.

1. By March 2014 local authorities throughout Moldova improve the capacities to develop and provide high quality foster care services to children without parental care.
2. By March 2014 local and national authorities, civil society organizations have capitalized on the experience in developing foster care services, have adjusted the national policy accordingly and have established a sustainable professional foster care body.

Project description:

In April 2009, Partnerships for Every Child (P4EC), supported by EveryChild UK started the process of capacity building of the Social Assistance and Family Protection Departments (SAFPD) in the country, to develop a Foster Care (FC) service. The first 12 raions to participate in the process were Causeni, Nisporeni, Telenesti, Falesti, Edinet, Briceni, Donduseni, Criuleni, Leova, Cantemir, Stefan-Voda, and Calarasi.

Since April 2010, supported by the World Childhood Foundation, Partnerships for Every Child built the capacities of local public authorities across the country, in the development of the FC service. The raions that have been provided technical assistance in the creation of FC include: Causeni, Nisporeni, Telenesti, Falesti, Edinet, Briceni, Donduseni, Criuleni, Leova, Cantemir, Stefan-Voda, Calarasi, Ocnita, Riscani, Glodeni, Floresti, Singerei, Soldanesti, Anenii Noi, Balti municipality, Drochia, Glodeni, Rezina, Taraclia, Gagauzia, Dubasari, Basarabeasca, and Cimislia. The activities of P4EC during 2010 – 2012 were focused on the following directions:

• Training of decision-makers and members of Raion Commission for the Protection of the Child in Difficulty (Gate-Keeping commission), in the development of FC service and of systems preventing child’s separation from family;
• Training of specialists in-charge with FC service delivery;
• Technical assistance of decision-makers and specialists in the production and promotion of the local legal frameworks, retargeting of financial resources to social assistance, and development of the SAFPD budget;
• Technical assistance in the creation and implementation at local level, of a FC service monitoring and evaluation system that will provide data and information on the effectiveness of its impact on the children’s welfare;
• Training/methodology support in formal training, study visits to other raions that are more experienced in the service delivery, consultancy visits to the service sites.

Since April 2012, the capacity-building program extended to community social assistants who play an important role in the FC placements monitoring and children’s reintegration.

Thus, by April 2013, community social assistants in 10 raions received 3-days training in FC and application of the system preventing the child’s separation from family. In the last year of implementation the capacity building of Local Public Authorities (LPA) included into the project in the previous years continued. The program focused on the application of an efficient service monitoring and evaluation system. The process of creation of a National Association of Foster Care is nearing its end. A qualitative research of the progress in the development of children placed into FC across the country was performed. The research covered Chisinau Municipality and raions of Ungheni, Orhei, Cahul, Soroca, Falesti, and Calarasi, where 41 children were interviewed. 23 of those children are currently placed into FC, and 18 have already exited the service.

Results:

Following the project intervention, we can conclude that the Foster Care Service has maximum coverage in the country. 26 raions, 2 municipalities – Balti and Tiraspol, Gagauzia Autonomy received training and technical assistance in the FC service provision and Gate-Keeping Commission development. The project contributed to the creation of a functional FC service within LPAs, through capacity building of the SAFPD and Gate-Keeping Commissions members. The creation of the FC service in LPAs also contributed to a more sustainable implementation of the child care system reform, giving possibility to a number of children separated from families to receive family-type care instead of residential care. As a result of the project intervention, 15 new raions incorporated FC services into their local child protection systems, about 107 children are currently receiving family care in 83 foster care families.

All-in-all, the World Childhood Foundation helped to train 51 decision makers and SAFPD specialists, 64 Gate-Keeping Commission members, and 250 community social assistants in the development of Foster Care Service and systems to prevent child’s separation from family. Besides, all raions were supported to retarget resources to other sectors, such as social assistance, in order to develop alternative family-type child-care systems.

Plans for 2013 – 2014:

• Continue to provide training/methodological support to the Foster Care teams of 5 LPAs-project beneficiaries in previous years, in qualitative implementation of family-type alternative care;
• Train community social assistants in the following 10 raions, in the implementation of the FC service and the system preventing child separation from family;
• Build capacities of 5 LPAs in the development of respite foster care for children with disabilities;
• Build capacities of 5 LPAs in the development of emergency foster care placement for children without parental care;
• Build capacities of the members of the National Foster Care Association in the promotion of the FC service.

Totally 26 regions have been targeted in the provision of foster care and gatekeeping system till present. The capacities of members of the foster care implementation teams (the heads of the Social Assistance and Family Protection Department, specialists and social workers) were built in the development and delivery of foster care; the capacities of the members of the Gate-keeping Commissions were built in the area of prevention of child separation and the role of gate-keeping commissions in foster care service implementation (foster carers approval, re-approval, child placement approval, etc.). As a result 11 raions are already developing foster care service, other 4 have developed serious management and costing plans to start foster care development in 2012.