Czech Republic
It was J K Rowling’s concerns regarding the care of children in institutions in the Czech Republic that first inspired her to set up Lumos. And in 2007 she visited the Czech Republic to meet local authorities and NGOs and to find out how Lumos might be able to help. This heralded the beginning of our work with the government of the Czech Republic, as well as with local people and organisations who are committed to ending the institutionalisation of children.
When we started working in the Czech Republic there were about 11,000 children living in institutions of various kinds. Although most of these institutions were considered to be orphanages, many of the children living in them were not orphans at all. Usually, they had been institutionalised because of disability, poverty or family breakdown.
Following our visit in 2007, it became evident that the government was beginning to prioritise the reform of the country’s institutions. The process of deinstitutionalisation, however, is immensely complex and has never been undertaken before in the Czech Republic. All those involved realized that, in order to avoid the mistakes made in other countries when closing institutions, a comprehensive plan was essential.
One of our first major actions therefore was to work closely with the government to develop a policy document to reform children’s institutions. Due to the commitment of officers in the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs and the hard work of our local team, this policy was approved by the government, as the National Action Plan on reforming children’s services. This is a landmark in the process of change in the Czech Republic as it represents a genuine commitment on the part of the government to reform the system and bring an end to institutional care for children.
Lumos has been working closely with Pardubice County, which is one of the first counties to commit itself to a full reform process. As a result, Pardubice has now been named as the official pilot for the National Action Plan. Over the next six months we will be working with the local authorities and NGOs to plan the development of foster care, support services for families and specialist services for children with disabilities, that will mean the community no longer needs large institutions for children. The work in Pardubice will be watched closely by other counties interested in improving their care services for children.
We continue to work closely with both the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs in, for example assisting in raising awareness about the process of deinstitutionalisation, including:
- speaking at a national conference on reform attended by the directors of institutions
- facilitating visits for county councillors and service directors to the UK to see a range of community based services in action
We also provide training and technical assistance at all levels – from the senior officers responsible for planning the reform, to the managers of social services, institution directors and individual staff members in institutions who will be directly affected by the reform. This includes training programmes within the Czech Republic and arranging study visits for child specialists and other professionals in the UK.
Finally we are supporting the government in developing pilot programmes for the deinstitutionalisation of social care homes for children with special needs, as well as for mainstream children’s homes and residential special schools.
For enquiries about our work in Czech Republic, please contact Petra Kačírková, Country Representative, Czech Republic
