Complexes for social services for children and families
National Social Rehabilitation Centre
Bulgaria

The Problem

National Social Rehabilitation Centre (NSRC) is a non-governmental, non-profit organization for social help and social services. It is the biggest organization and one of the first organizations in Bulgaria, whose activity is directed to improvement of life of people in disadvantage situation and to their social integration.
In 2005 NSRC started to manage Complexes for Social Services for Children and Families (CSSCFS) in three municipalities in Republic of Bulgaria – Sofia, Varna and Burgas.
The overall objective of the CSSCFs is to improve child welfare and protect children’s rights in Bulgaria through promoting community-based child welfare approaches such as deinstitutionalisation, abandonment prevention and street children services as cost-effective alternatives to institutionalized child care. Through the established Complexes, NSRC aims to promote human capital development amongst disadvantaged children, and to facilitate meeting some of the human rights elements of EU accession and the fulfillment of its commitment to the UN CRC.

Solution and Key Benefits

 What is the initiative about? (the solution)
The idea of the Complexes for Social Services for Children and Families supports the Bulgarian Government in reforming the child protection system by developing services at the municipal level. With the launching of the system of the Complexes for social services for families and children a unique model for provision of comprehensive social services for these vulnerable categories of people was created. This model is notable with the fact that it unites the efforts of the main actors in the process of child protection at local level i.e. the local authority (the municipal administration), the state Child protection department and the service provider in the name of National Social Rehabilitation Centre. It gathers also the efforts of the other actors in the field on the basis of the established partner’s relations. Due to that fact, the beneficiaries of the services provided in the CSSCFs could receive timely, qualified, easy accessible and free of charge services that are oriented to his/her/it individual needs and all that in one and the same place.
As a whole, as result of the establishment of the CSSCFs in the municipalities of Burgas, Varna and Sofia city were created conditions for introduction of embracive model of social service delivery for families and children at risk with accessible and high quality services, which are free of charge and are provided according to the principle of “one stop shop”. The presence of that kind of social services delivery model is a guarantee for the increase of the child welfare.

Actors and Stakeholders

 Who proposed the solution, who implemented it and who were the stakeholders?
The ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in 1991 by Bulgaria started the process of reforming child welfare and protection systems. On 31 May 2000, the National Assembly of Republic of Bulgaria adopted the Child Protection Act, entailing the following: 1) the State Agency for Child Protection (SACP) was established in January 2001 as the authority coordinating child care and welfare policies, setting and monitoring the implementation of the standards for social services for children; 2) the Child Protection Departments (CPDs) were started within the structure of the Directorates for Social Assistance (DSAs) as the main units in the child welfare/protection system on the municipal level.
Next to these processes The Ministry of Labour and Social Policy in Bulgaria (MLSP) has been implementing the Child Welfare Reform Project (CWRP) to address the needs of children at risk and improve child welfare in the country. The Project was launched in May 2001.
A key element of the CWRP is the development of Complexes for Social Services for Children and Families, comprising Community Support Centres (CSC), Mother and Baby Units (MBUs) and Street Children Centers, to provide community-based services targeted at the prevention of abandonment and institutionalisation of children.
In the frames of that project The National Social Rehabilitation Centre was nominated to launch and to manage Complexes for Social Services for Children and Families (CSSCF) in three of the biggest municipalities in Bulgaria, one of which includes the capital city, namely Varna, Burgas and Sofia city. The duration of the assignment for the management of the three Complexes was in the period 15.07.2005 – 30.09.2006. In that period were insured all necessary conditions for the opening of these structures and for the effective start of their work. The official opening of each of these Complexes was as follows: Complex for Social Services for Children and Families in Varna municipality at 24.11.2005, Complex for Social Services for Children and Families in Sofia city municipality at 21.01.2006 and Complex for Social Services for Children and Families in Burgas municipality at 12.04.2006.
At the end of the project each of the complexes went under the authority of the respective local municipality. After going through a special tender procedure, National Social Rehabilitation Centre was rewarded to manage the Complexes for social services in Varna and Burgas municipalities for a period of three years.

(a) Strategies

 Describe how and when the initiative was implemented by answering these questions
 a.      What were the strategies used to implement the initiative? In no more than 500 words, provide a summary of the main objectives and strategies of the initiative, how they were established and by whom.
Recently the main form of social services for children and families offered in Bulgaria has been accommodation in specialized residential care institutions for children, which are the responsibility of different authorities (Ministry of Education and Science, Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, Ministry of Health, the municipalities).
Conditions in different institutions vary a great deal, the system is costly and the professional structure and skills of the staff working in these institutions do not correspond to the specific needs of the children in them. Children brought up in institutions often live in an environment and conditions that do not allow the protection of the rights guaranteed by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Children brought up in residential care institutions also develop a dependency syndrome and find it difficult to integrate successfully in society after they leave these institutions. The life in these institutions isolates children from the community and does not encourage them to become independent individuals. Institutionalized care does not provide an environment for solving children’s problems.

(b) Implementation

 b.      What were the key development and implementation steps and the chronology? No more than 500 words
The CSSCFs offer services which to support and assist the families in the care for their children, to increase the capacity of the family, to develop parental skills and thus to prevent children abandonment and their placement in specialized institutions. The services offered in the CSSCFs have also as objective to support the social integration and adaptation of street children, as well as institutionalized ones. The provided services insure of the children at risk the chance to grow up in a family environment or in an environment close to the family one. Main priority in the provision of the services is to be easy accessible and to be offered in the most effective and efficient way to the beneficiaries.
The overall objective of the CSSCFs is to improve child welfare and protect children’s rights in Bulgaria through promoting community-based child welfare approaches such as deinstitutionalisation, abandonment prevention and street children services as cost-effective alternatives to institutionalized child care. Thereby, NSRC aims to promote human capital development amongst disadvantaged children, and to facilitate meeting some of the human rights elements of EU accession and the fulfillment of its commitment to the UN CRC.
The idea of the Complexes for Social Services for Children and Families supports the Bulgarian Government in reforming the child protection system, through developing services at the municipal level, reducing the flow of children into institutions, improving the quality of care for institutionalized children, developing alternative care systems and assisting older institutionalized children in adapting to community as productive citizens.
The main priority areas in which are oriented the efforts of the staff of the Complexes are:
(1) Prevention of violence;
(2) De-institutionalization and re-integration;
(3) Abandonment prevention and protection of children’s rights;
(4) Street children services and dropping-out of school prevention
(5) Children with special needs.

(c) Overcoming Obstacles

 c.      What were the main obstacles encountered? How were they overcome? No more than 500 words
In the process of planning and provision of the services that are offered in the Complexes the following guiding principles are observed:
• Respect and recognition of the person of the child;
• Insurance of the highest interest of the child;
• Individual approach;
• Respect of the cultural, religious and other diversities of the client;
• Partnership relations;
• Confidentiality.
With the launching of the system of the Complexes for social services for families and children a unique model for provision of comprehensive social services for these vulnerable categories of people was created. This model is notable with the fact that it unites the efforts of the main actors in the process of child protection at local level i.e. the local authority (the municipal administration), the state Child protection department and the service provider in the name of National Social Rehabilitation Centre.
The services that are provided to the clients according to the action plan are organized in the following way:
• Initial assessment of the needs which permit individualization of the concrete services;
• Provision of the services;
• Evaluation of the impact from the provided service and
• Follow up.
The services offered from the staff of the CSSCFs are provided through different ways and approaches of work. The most important among them are:
• Counseling and advising on concrete issues;
• Individual and group social work;
• Social work on the field;
• Home visits and possibility for provision of support and counselling in the homes of the clients;
• Training in specific skills (parental skills, skills for problem solutions, skills for job seeking and presentation skills);
• Education programmes oriented for acquisition of knowledge and development of skills related with specific problems;
• Organizing groups for support and self assistance where the clients could share their experience for problem overcoming and to provide mutual support;
• Organizing meetings with different specialists that could facilitate the solution of the problems of the child and his family;
• Information campaigns: brochures, leaflets, publications in the local media, holding of public meetings;
Guiding principle in the planning and provision of the services is the high interest of the child and its upbringing in a family environment. In the work with the clients of the CSSCFs the principles of the individual approach, consideration of the personal believes and preferences, voluntary participation, partnership and confidentiality are respected. Each client in the beginning of a case study receives information about the offered services and the way of proceeding for the solution of its/his/her problem.
In order to insure more effective and qualified service delivery, the staff of the CSSCFs establishes working relations not only with the CPDs, but also with different schools, medical establishments, NGOs, other institutions, organizations and specialists, offering services for families and children. Thus, the scope of the existing ways of assistance of the clients of the CSSCFs is enlarged and maximum satisfaction of the specific individual needs is achieved.
For maximum effective social integration of the children at risk the participation of the local community, as well as the cooperation on behalf of volunteers are sought in all kind of social services offered in the CSSCFs.

(d) Use of Resources

 d.      What resources were used for the initiative and what were its key benefits? In no more than 500 words, specify what were the financial, technical and human resources’ costs associated with this initiative. Describe how resources were mobilized
With the start of the activity of the CSSCFs the child protection system on the territory of their scope of work considerably increased its capacity in direction of provision of community based social services, which are real alternative to the institutionalized care.
The impact of these services led to:
- Reduction of the percentage of babies abandoned at or shortly after birth out of the total number of births;
- Reduction of the percentage of children entering residential care institutions out of the total number of cases referred for protection;
- Decrease of the institutionalization rate (number of children living in residential care institutions reported to the total child population);
- Decrease of the school drop out rate;
- Increased possibilities of children to be placed in family-based alternatives.
- Successful social reintegration of children and teenagers leaving residential care.
As a whole, as result of the establishment of the CSSCFs in the municipalities of Burgas, Varna and Sofia city were created conditions for introduction of embracive model of social service delivery for families and children at risk. This model is characterized by accessibility and high quality of the services, which are free of charge and are provided according to the principle of “one stop shop”. The presence of that kind of social services delivery model is a guarantee for the increase of the child welfare.

Sustainability and Transferability

  Is the initiative sustainable and transferable?
National Social Rehabilitation Centre (NSRC) is a non-governmental organization with many years experience in the provision of social services for different social disadvantage groups. All the activities of NSRC are planned, structured and implemented with aim to achieve sustainability.
The sustainability of the social services provided in the Complexes for social services for children and families will be achieved on the basis of the experience gathered in the process of work so far.
One of the main criteria for sustainability of the social services is the level of satisfaction of the clients and presence of correspondence between the provided services and their real needs. Therefore the opinion of the client regarding the quality of the provided services is sought constantly through inquiry cards, implemented follow up of each case and others. The so received feed back facilitates the further development and improvement of the service delivery and their quality.
In the process of establishment of the CSSCFs NSRC has organized a procedure for selection of experts and has formed a multidisciplinary team of experts with professional experience in the field of social work, psychology, child care, education and health care. All the team has passed initial and on-going trainings on different topics, related with the social work and the provision of services for children at risk, family consulting, social work with victims of violence, field work and many others. The knowledge and the gained experience of the staff of the CSSCFs is precondition for the quality of the provided services and the sustainability of the achieved results.
The CSSCFs were established as pilot structures in several municipalities in Bulgaria. The work of these Complexes and the achieved results demonstrate the need and the public benefit from the existence of such structures. The replication of the achieved results through transferring the model of the CSSCFs in other municipalities in Bulgaria will lead to the improvement of the system of the child care in Bulgaria and to better and more efficient service delivery in the field.

Lessons Learned

 What are the impact of your initiative and the lessons learned?
Most of the children that are the main beneficiaries of the provided in the CSSCFs services have different behaviour problems that are results from existing problems within the family, lack of control and support on behalf of the parents (or guardians) or lack of any interest. The efficiency of the social work could be seen in cases where there is a presence of collaboration on behalf of the family. Gaining the collaboration on behalf of the family and the provision of support for solution of their social problems contributes considerably for building motivation in direction of pro-social behaviour and willingness for social integration in the children. The constant and systematic work with the children and their families, as well as the inclusion of the children in various education and extracurricular activities contributes for the development of motivation in the children to visit the CSSCF on regular basis, desire for communication with their coevals and acceptation of the social norms.
The unification of the efforts of the different stakeholders acting in the field of social work with children is also a crucial element for the achievement of sustainable results. Common trust, ability for cooperation, positive attitude and belief in the common goal are important factors for the establishment of durable and effective partnership.
In conclusion, it could be said that the faced problems and the overcome constraints are the things that made from NSRC what is it at present – organization received recognition for its activity on behalf of our clients and of the society, as well as of different institutions and structures, local and international ones.
The main lessons that the organization learned in the course of its development and always tries to consider in its work are: to put the interest of its clients in the centre of its activity and to be sensible and to know to hear their needs, requirements and recommendations; to apply an individual approach in each case and not to use “ready formula” to resolve it; to establish and to maintain good partnership relations and intensive dialogue with other stakeholders and similar organizations at local, regional and national level and abroad; to learn from the experience of the others and to try to use it and to apply it where appropriate; to keep always to develop and to try to deliver more and various type of services oriented to the people in need; to strive for sustainability in all its actions.
The respect of all these lessons helped NSRC a lot for being pioneer and innovator in lots of area in the social field in Bulgaria.

Contact Information

Institution Name:   National Social Rehabilitation Centre
Institution Type:   Non-Governmental Organization  
Contact Person:   Radosveta Abadjieva
Title:   Executive director  
Telephone/ Fax:   +35929803215
Institution's / Project's Website:   +35929803492
E-mail:   r.abadjieva@nsrc-bg.org  
Address:   8, Christo Belchev Str.
Postal Code:   1000
City:   Sofia
State/Province:   Sofia
Country:   Bulgaria

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