Catalonia: ENOC Country Update 2006

Summary: Annual Report of the Deputy Ombudsman for Children of Catalonia (Spain) presented at the annual meeting of ENOC in Athens, 26th to 28th September 2006.

1. General Update and activities

A new Deputy Ombudsman for Children, Xavier Bonal, was appointed by Parliament in June, following the former Deputy’s resignation in May.

The Office deals with complaints submitted by individuals, associations, trade unions, etc, and with ex-officio actions. Some of theses are planned, and others are started as a consequence of the case-work when a collective issue is at the root of the problem.

The individual complaints are mainly related to:

• Education: access, pupils’ rights at school, bullying, school transport, absenteeism, lunch scholarship, the right of an integrated education of children with disabilities, ...
• Family relationship in contentious divorce cases: the child’s visiting right, and proper living arrangements, the right of children to be heard in psychosocial and judicial procedures, 
• Child Protection: action of government in domestic violence against children, the rights of children in residential equipments, lack of enough and proper foster care placements, adequate number of assessment and investigating teams, proper training of professional working with children and teenagers, etc.
• Child Care: lack of mainstream facilities for children of disadvantaged families, the right of parents to received the state support to raise their children, 
• Unaccompanied minors: problems related to deportation procedures, the lack of appointment of an ad hoc administrator, the different protection net of assessing and investigating teams, residential equipments, and education for this increasing group of boys.
• Juvenile Justice residential centres: quality of the educational plan, quality of the premises, overcrowding of the detention centres. 
• Mentally handicapped children: lack of placements in wards and other facilities, respite services, etc. for very severe cases when separation from the family is advised by psychiatrist.

Main issues handled in the office since the last ENOC meeting:

• Presentation in Parliament of the Special Report on Unaccompanied Minors. The aim of this new report was to update the situation of this group of migrants. Due to changes in this group of teenagers’ reality, the demands of the professionals involved, and the lack of a proper answer from the Welfare Department, the Office decided to do a new investigation on this issue, through visits to the resources and facilities for the boys, meeting and workings sessions with agencies and professionals of the front line work, the analysis of new reports from the administration and the results of new researches. Ten recommendations were done to the Welfare Department.
• Presentation of a Special Report on Child Care and Child Protection System reactive to a very severe case of a child physical and psychological abuse. A more in depth report will be issued in a year’s time, after a broad analysis of the state intervention and means on this subject have been done.
• Revision and updating of the Protocol for Child Abuse Cases for all the geographical area of Catalonia. The former one was from 1999 and it was only for the area of Barcelona, while in the three other provinces a similar one had been established. The new one has been signed up by five Regional Departments (Welfare, Education, Justice, Interior and Health), The Chief Prosecutor, The Judges Dean, the Spanish Delegate in Catalonia and the Catalan Ombudsman, under the action of the latter.
• Recommendations on Temporary Foster families following up in those cases of babies proposed for adoption, advocating for the right of children to be placed in a permanent family, especially at an early age.
• A Special Report on Under 3 Education is to be presented in October.
• A Special Report on Bullying at School is to be presented in November.
• A Special Report on Access to Primary School is to be presented at the end of year.
• Ex-officio action on Adoptions in Congo, reactive to seven adoptive families who were kept in Congo for a month due to several disfunctions of the spanish and catalan administration.
• Ex-officio actions about Integrated and Inclusive Schooling of Handicapped Children in several geographical areas in Catalonia.
• Ex-officio actions on the Children’s Care Teams’ task, in order to investigate the adequacy of the system and the means they have to investigate children’s at risk family situation. 
• Ex-officio action on Juvenile Justice Educative Centres, reactive to educators reporting of important problems in these equipments.
• Ex-officio actions on Truancy and Leaving School in two of the most deprived suburbs in the outskirts of Barcelona. On course.
• Ex-officio action on the New Organization of the Child Protection System, reactive to public services officers complaints. On course.

2. Achievements

• A Decreed to develop the Catalan Children’s Act in relation to right to privacy, right to be properly informed, etc.
• A Decreed on Education under 3.

Both of them have been repeatedly demanded for in the Annual reports to Parliament by the Ombudsman over the last years.

A website for children and teenagers to improve access to the Ombudsman Office

3. Challenges

• Investigation on Children’s Poverty in Catalonia.
• Recommendations on the Child Protection System.
• Investigation and recommendations on a Fair School Access.