site.btaWorking Group Adopts Report on Child Deinstitutionalization

Working Group Adopts Report on Child Deinstitutionalization

Sofia, February 17 (BTA) - An inter-agency working group adopted
the fourth report on the implementation of Bulgaria's action
plan for the deinstitutionalization of children, the State
Agency for Child Protection (SACP) said on February 16.

The report covers the period from July 2013 until June 2014,
which saw the beginning of the most crucial stage of the
deinstitutionalization process: the stage when children are
taken out of conventional residential care institutions and
begin to adapt to new social care services. This is the first
report that is fully aligned with the structure of the action
plan and accounts for the implementation of every goal in the
plan, said SACP Chairwoman Eva Zhecheva, who co-chairs the
working group.

The report reviews the implementation of projects, the changes
made in the legal framework, the raising of necessary funding
and additional resources, and the experience amassed so far.

The problems and challenges identified in the fourth report are
very similar to the ones covered by the previous three reports.
The meeting discussed measures for the implementation of the
national child dinstitutionalization strategy until 2015.

This was the group's first meeting in its new composition. It
was chaired by Deputy Labour and Social Policy Minister Lazar
Lazarov, who is the other co-chair of the group.