in-cyprus 22 January 2022 - by Michalis Hadjivasilis
It radically changes the way in which children who are under the care of the state are fostered. Institutionalized procedures are now introduced, registers are kept and monitored by a Commission. With the new arrangements, the phenomena where children were sexually abused by the foster parents will also end, without the Services knowing about the toxic environment in the family. This huge gap that existed in the legislation for children who are under the legal responsibility of the Director of Social Welfare Services and for the provision of care to them through the foster care process, comes to cover the new bill drafted by the Commissioner for Legislation, following a decision of the Council of Ministers, following a relevant proposal by the Deputy Minister of Social Welfare, Anastasia Anthousi.
The Commissioner for Legislation, Louisa Christodoulidou Zannetou, informed us that the procedure that was taking place so far was not governed by legislation and this was the reason why she had made a relevant recommendation to the Deputy Minister. As she has told us, such procedures relating to the care and liability of children cannot be left to internal procedures. All the more so when there have been cases in the past with children in foster care who have been victims of violence by their fosters. "Our concern and concern is the proper institutionalized care of children with mechanisms that are properly respected by their rights", stressed Mrs. Zannetou.
The purpose of the bill is to regulate the care and protection of the child, the parental responsibility or custody of which is exercised by the Director of the YKE, by virtue of a law or a court decision, or the care of a child with the consent of the parents or holders of parental responsibility, the procedure for the approval of the suitability of the foster parents and their obligations, the keeping of Registers, providing care for children and supervising foster care. Now, according to the bill, a person or persons who wish to become foster parents will submit a written application and a detailed evaluation will be made on the basis of the criteria and conditions, with the aim of safeguarding the interests of the foster children. According to the Commissioner for Legislation, there is an explicit provision in the bill to safeguard all the rights of children provided for in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, with the main aim of ensuring the child's development to the best of its abilities and ensuring its best interests.
These children, the Director of the Social Welfare Services, will be able to place them in foster parents who are approved following the procedure provided for, or in semi-independent living with services to assist the transition to independent living in adulthood or in a child protection and care unit. Sponsors or bodies will be provided with aids to meet the needs of the children. The care provided when they were a child will be able to continue to be provided after they reach adulthood and until the age of 21. Records will be kept by the School Head for children and for approved foster parents in accordance with the principles of collection and processing of personal data. For each child, the Director will prepare an individual care, protection and rehabilitation plan, with the contribution of an interprofessional team and will be ensured by each participating state agency that the plan will be followed. A permanent representative of each service or body shall also be appointed, as far as possible, for representation in the interprofessional group. The children will be beneficiaries of the GHS without of course, where necessary, providing another special treatment.
Foster care may be temporarily lifted or terminated by the Director at the request of the foster parents, when they are unable to meet the needs of the child, when it is established that foster care no longer serves the best interests of the child, when the terms of the contract are not met, when the conditions of suitability of the foster entities are terminated or are no longer met.
With the bill, contractors will be provided with protection in accordance with the Maternity Protection Law, the Parental Leave and Leave for Reasons of Force Majeure Law and the Paternity Protection Law.
In the case of a semi-independent child's subsistence, the Director of the Ministry of Health shall ensure that a suitable place of residence is found, appoint an adult person to take care of the child's daily practical support, provide him/her with the necessary means of subsistence and ensure that he/she has access to services and programmes that promote development to the best of his/her abilities. The director provides support through the Scheme for the financial support of former children under parental responsibility or custody, or their care and after they reach adulthood, for the purpose of their rehabilitation. There are offences and penalties in cases where the terms of the agreement are violated.
The bill, after being discussed extensively with the Deputy Minister and the Director of the YKE and officials of the services involved, was handed over to the Deputy Minister of Social Welfare, who put it in public consultation.
Convicted persons will be excluded
The bill establishes a Committee for the Evaluation of Applications for Foster Care, counselling to the director, which will examine whether the criteria of the applicants are met.
In addition to the applicants, some of the criteria must also be met by people living with the applicants, in order to ensure the safe environment that the child will stay in. For example, there is a list of offences for which someone should not have been convicted, and also not be a fugitive or indicted in connection with them. Also, there should be the certificate for non-conviction for a sexual offence against a child.
Furthermore, there should be no mental, and/or physical problem that may affect their duties as foster parents. Moreover, persons should never have been found unsuitable for parental responsibility and should not have been deprived of their parental responsibility by law. A necessary criterion will be to participate, or to accept to participate in a training program set by the Director.
At the same time, there will be age limits with the exception of relatives. The research that will be done will be extensive and there will be the possibility of referring the applicants or cohabitants for psychiatric evaluation, where necessary.
A prerequisite for someone to be placed on the contractors' register, he/she must also complete the training programme. The application may also be rejected and there will be the possibility of a hierarchical appeal. It is very important that a decision will be taken to match a contractor with a contractor and a relevant contract will be signed with the terms of the underwriting and the obligations, the faithful implementation of which will be monitored by the Director. The latter will have obligations towards the sponsors as well as themselves towards the child and the Headmaster for the monitoring that will take place. If the contractors' conditions are no longer met, the foster care will be terminated.
