2015-04-02
National Audit Office: helping children with behavioural problems should be more efficient
The number of children with behavioural problems in Lithuania is increasing. These are children who do not attend school, whose behaviour endangers or harms themselves or other children. In order to help them overcome faulty behaviour, a system of minimum care measures designed to educate and provide social assistance to such children is applied. For example, a child may be required to visit a specialist, follow a particular curriculum, participate in prevention, social skills training or other behaviour correction programmes. The National Audit Office assessed the implementation of the minimum child care, i.e. the efficiency of providing help to children.
“The efficiency of the implementation of the minimum child care determines whether the behaviour of children with behavioural problems will be improved and whether values and social skills acceptable in the society will be developed helping children to become responsible citizens,” said Auditor General Giedrė Švedienė. “Unfortunately, although this measure is applied to an increasing number of children, such help is not sufficient and thus more and more children are later directed to socialisation centres.”
One of the key pillars ensuring successful application of the minimum child care measure is selection of the measures and their implementers based on the individual needs of the child. According to the auditors, this is exactly what is lacking. The minimum care measures may be granted only if the school attended by the child has already exhausted all measures of educational assistance. However, interviews with 58 out of 60 municipalities revealed that in 94 per cent of the cases when schools had applied for child assistance measures, the school itself was appointed the implementer of the measures, although it needed assistance of other institutions or professionals.
The auditors found that urban and rural children have equal access only to the services of social pedagogues (child counsellors). However, support of other professionals is less available for children living in rural areas. Another problem – uneven distribution of institutions providing services of education, educational assistance and social services, which are less accessible for socially excluded children and children living in remote areas. The auditors noted that there is a lack of programmes that are specifically designed for children with behavioural problems, or such services have to be paid and municipalities usually do not cover the costs of participation in the programmes.
Children’s behavioural problems are often related to their environment, so it is important to provide comprehensive assistance to the child and their family. Some municipalities offer psychological counselling to parents who have children with behavioural disorders, or invite them to relevant seminars. However, parents are not obliged to attend. Consequently, these measures may not reach families having problems, and work only with the child may have short-term results. Courses to improve communication with children are mandatory only for the parents of children who have committed administrative violations. Such compulsory courses would be appropriate for many parents of children subject to the minimum care.
In addition, the auditors pointed out a lack of assessment of measures applied to correct the child’s behaviour, because municipalities do not always require reports on the success of the measure from its implementer. Absence of such information makes it difficult to assess the effectiveness of the selected measure and to envisage further work with the child.
It is particularly important to ensure that both implementers of the minimum child care, children and their families understand that these measures are helping the child for their own good and thus participate in relevant activities in good faith and not regard them as punishment or forced upbringing.
The National Audit Office made recommendations to the Ministry of Education and Science and the Ministry of Social Security and Labour how to improve the current minimum child care system in order to ensure efficient and effective help to the child.