Although goals of child protection policy are defined by law and the institutional implementation system is in place, the practical protection of the child is not sufficiently effective. Effective child protection is adversely affected by the so-called social (fear of children being subjected to violence) and institutional risk (high workload, excessive bureaucracy, etc.) that arise in the practical process of child protection. The purpose of this article is to investigate the experiences of the children's rights protection specialists (CRPS) during the process of the social risk management, and to characterise the context of  social, political and mass media pressure on the CRPS, its impacts and solutions in the daily work of CRPS in Lithuania. Article is based on analysis data of 10 semi-structured qualitative interviews with children's rights protection specialist conducted in 2018 March-April. It has been established that controversial policy goals are being addressed in the field of child protection, which oblige CRPS to preserve a child's family and, at the same time, protect the child from domestic violence. In everyday practice, matching these goals poses many challenges. CRPS experiences a negative attitude from the public, mistrust of their work, the issue of their decisions, accusations and pressures through mass media and politicians who influence on a constant workload and stress. CRPS is confronted with extremely difficult situations in its work only rely on informal support from colleagues and individual strategies for coping with stress. Structured CRPS support tools are not implemented. As a result particularly in the context of public cases specialists remain single, accused and without support. Such work environment encourages employees to burn out, emotional overload, insensitivity, and other factors that reduce work efficiency. It is recommended to implement structural stress-strain strategies that would enable all kinds of support to specialists, help them more objectively look at situations and share decision-making responsibilities. It is very important to form socially responsible journalists, since the publication of negative and inaccurate news only undermines confidence of VTAS, undermines their professionalism, complicates the day-to-day work of child protection.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ppaa.17.3.21954

No abstract

This article focuses on institutional risk factors that relate to the ability of child rights professionals to protect maltreated children. The aim of the article is to reveal the structural threats existing in the system of protection of the child’s rights, which create preconditions for the disclosure of institutional risks. Semi-structured qualitative interview method used. Ten interviews with children's rights protection specialists (CRPS) conducted during March-April 2018. According to the content analysis method, it has been established that the family assistance model for child protection is declarative in nature, due to the lack of services that meet the needs of children and families, and poor accessibility and quality, especially in rural areas, and social work orientation into control. The findings highlighted gaps in inter-agency cooperation in the protection of the child, the low level of involvement of health care, in particular – the treatment of paediatric and addictive diseases. In view of the internal field of the childʼs rights services, it has been highlighted that institutional problems are significantly contributing to the institutional risk: CRPS experienced inadequate methodological assistance and training which not corresponding to the problems encountering in everyday practice, lack of human resources, large workloads, low wages, lack of working methods, lack of stress management. In the context of the ongoing reform of the protection of the rights of the child, it is recommended to eliminate institutional risks, to strengthen services for children and families, and to improve inter-agency cooperation in the protection of the child.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ppaa.17.3.21953

2022 m. spalio 14 d. Vilniaus universitete vyko II kasmetinė nacionalinė socialinės politikos konferencija „Gyvenimo kelias ir jo krizės: kaip (ar) veikia Lietuvos socialinė politika?“Universiteto g. 3, Vilniushttps://youtu.be/oBGfbjJijPY