Hungary Reviewing the Regional Strategy

Project : Regional Office 17 Aug 2011 | children in street situation protection systems

August 10, 2011, Balatonföldvár, Hungary: Benefiting from the relative quiet of the Summer, the staff of the Regional Office – together with the recently hired Regional Protection Advisor, Neil Whettam – took some time to review the regional strategy for the office; see what were the achievements so far and what needs to be worked on still. The arrival of Neil also means that the work on harmonizing our approaches on child protection systems can start, and in fact Neil has „hit the ground running”, already having visited three out of the four delegations and is in the process of developing workplans for each.

Neil Whettam joined the Regional Office on July 1st, having worked in different positions in Scotland’s child protection, as well as with NGOs and International Organisations around the World – including Kosovo. He has both hands-on social work experience as well as solid training skills. His main task is to help Delegations consult national governments on their child protection systems, but also to help with the most difficult individual cases of children. He has already a tight schedule of work, planning to spend two weeks with each Delegation, assessing needs and identifying intervention points.

In terms of regional advocacy, the office has already reached important achievements both at regional and transnational levels: it has – together with partners – coordinated observations of children in street situation both in Kosovo and in Greece and has developed specific advocacy on them, one example being a hearing organized within the European Parliament in Brussels this Spring.

The office is also working on future projects which will further contribute to the advocacy goals of the office of ensuring better and enhanced protection of children on the move.

Regarding child protection systems agreement was reached that the main issues to promote in the region will be the multi-disciplinary case discussion groups („task forces”), the child protection units – or designated social workers for children’s issues and the Community Counselling Groups. Based on the work of Neil and the Delegations, minimum standards for child protection will also be promoted.

The pleasant environment and the sun provided the perfect conditions for fruitful and constructive discussions, which provide direction to the office for its future work for 2011 and 2012. [JA]