Published on June 8, 2016
Ombudsman reveals mistakes in children's protection
The Czech Ombudsman's Office has looked into 142 complaints against the bodies for social and legal protection of children (OSPOD) in the past two years and has found mistakes in 77 cases (54 percent).
(with CTK) However, Petra Suplerova, head of the family and healthcare section, pointed out at the press conference, that the figures cannot be generalised. She explained that the Ombudsman's Office does not monitor the work of the OSPOD in the whole Czech Republic, but it only deals with complaints against OSPOD‘s work filed by parents or other possible persons.
According to the Ombudsman, the overall cooperation with the OSPOD can be assessed positively. After being warned of the mistakes, the bodies had admitted them and redressed the situation if it were possible.
Most cases (22 percent) concerned the passivity of the OSPOD which means, that its workers do not do what they are obliged to under law and do not intervene in favour of the child.
In 21 percent of the cases, the OSPOD neglected its work with the family, which means it did not try to make the parents solve mutual conflicts and did not order them to use professional care.
In 11 percent of cases, the OSPOD did not use all social work tools before taking a child from the biological family. Other mistakes were exceeding powers, for instance, by restricting contacts with parents without a court decision in this respekt.
In 6 percent of cases, the Ombudsman's Office found out that a child was in institutional care unnecessarily long or siblings were separated there without a reason.