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Chaos in the Foster Care System
Baby of 8 months eats seafood and meatballs and drinks beer
In Bacău district, food maintenance payments for 600 foster children were never received by foster carers. A handicapped child, not yet four years old, placed with a family in Giurgiu district, was found by Social Inspectors lying in his own urine, on a bed covered with filthy sheets while his foster mother was out of the house. The little one had been left in the care of her husband, who was sick with Parkinson's disease.
In another shocking case, this time in Buzău district, a professional foster mother was claiming reimbursements, each month, for some six kilograms of boned chicken breast, smoked pork and other delicacies, while the child in her care was found to be malnourished. In Bistriţa, a girl of 18 was sleeping in the same room with a boy, and the foster mother's husband, although the family had a four-roomed apartment. Meanwhile, in Bucharest, sector 1, a child of two years and four months was left at home in the care of the foster mother's own under-age child. In sector 5 of the capital, an infant of 8 months was apparently bought seafood cocktail, salami, beer and mici (meatballs) which his foster mother reclaimed as part of the infant's food allowance.
These are just some of the examples reflecting the chaos in the foster care system that were presented yesterday at a press conference. Between 10th-19th September, Social Inspectors undertook the huge task of checking over 2000 foster parents across the country, and the cases of the children in their care, representing 10% of the total number of young people currently in placements. Serious irregularities were found in the organization and functioning of the General Directorate of Social Welfare and Child Services (DGASPC), which oversees the foster care system.
The official standards stipulate that each social worker should monitor the progress of 25 children in foster care, twice a month. The reality is very different. In sector 5 of the capital there is just one social worker and 118 children in foster care, while in Năsăud, Bistriţa district, only two people are employed to monitor 250 children.
The report prepared by the Social Inspectors details significant deficiences at the organizational level. Thus, foster care services run the risk of remaining without licenses because they do not meet the standards required.
Many times, social worker jobs are filled by engineers, lawyers or economists who do not have the right training for social work. Recruitment and monitoring of foster carers is carried out with little concern for the law. A certain level of education is required of foster carers, yet social services have approved applications from those who did not graduate high school or who have not obtained psychological approval. In 60-70% of cases, psychiatric evaluations do not appear in the files of foster carers, and if they do, they they are as likely to be approved by a dermatologist or a gynaecologist, as a psychiatrist. At present, the Inspection report recommends that 200 professional foster carers should have their certification withdrawn, i.e. 10% of all the cases inspected.
The Head of Social Inspection, Maria Muga, stated yesterday in the press conference that the worst aspects of the situation are linked to the failure to respect the basic rights of children in state care - rights which should be protected by law. Thus, in Bacău, the allocated food allowance payments for 600 children in foster care were never received by the foster parents. In the county of Vaslui, no food payments were allocated in the month of March this year. Nationally, 5% of food payments have not been made. Inspectors were shocked to hear the explanation of one of the directors at the DGASP: "We didn't give them the food money because it was summer and they could get more vegetables and tomatoes from their gardens."
Most of the children in state care do not own any toys (92.5%) or cultural and sporting equipment (97.5%). They have not had their transport costs reimbursed (92.5%) or received school supplies (77.5%) or toiletry and hygiene supplies (65%).
In these circumstances, the inspector general believes that, in addition to reviewing the legislation, and accreditation of social workers, it is also necessary for the state funding of the foster care system to be handled by the National Agency for Social Benefits (ANPS) in future.
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