The Flemish Welfare Minister Caroline Gennez (socialist) says that a new plan to improve youth support programmes in Flanders should help an additional 2,000 young people by the end of the current legislature.
Master plan launched to provided better support to thousands more young people in crisis
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Flemish youth care has been in crisis for a number of years. Waiting lists continue to grow, while beds remain empty. Emergency places in centres where children and young people in crisis situations are not being used for children and investments have yielded few results. The new master plan was approved by the Flemish Government on Friday.
Speaking on Monday Ms Gennez said that “We do not want to leave any child behind or allow them to grow up in distress, because children like this later become easy prey. Help must always be available for young people in a crisis situation; help must always be available”.
Pre-natal monitoring
One of the measures listed in the masterplan is to centralise available care so each party can see in real time how many places are available and where the available places are they are. A centralised waiting list will be set by the government.
An app will be developed to enable fast and efficient matching between foster parents and children that are in need of emergency care.
On top of this, children will be monitored even before birth. This will be done by identifying vulnerable expectant mothers that, for example, have drug or alcohol dependency issues or are prone to mental health problems. They will be offered support. If they turn this down, they could be placed under supervision.
The opposition green party Groen is criticazl of this measure. The party’s co-leader Jeremie Vaneeckhout says that “In problematic situations, this will mainly result in vulnerable women avoiding seeking help for fear that their children will be taken away from them. In practice, it makes no sense as long as there are huge waiting lists. What is the point of forcing women to seek help if that help is simply not available?”
Shared confidentiality
The government will also amend legislation to allow for “shared professional confidentiality”. Ms Gennez told journalists that “Many services have all kinds of information about a child, but that information is not shared, which means people have to tell their story 10 times”.
120 million euro will be invested, 60 million of which in additional extra capacity in residential youth care. 18 million euro of the investment will go to giving every family in Flanders access to a Huis van het Kind support centre if they need it.
Another 15 million will go towards housing and employment support for young adults that leave care when they are 18.