Evaluation of residential institutions finished

The evaluation process of the 67 residential institutions in Moldova has been completed. The results of the evaluation will be published in the close future. Based on the updated information concerning the number and the status of each child from the institution, the employees’ qualification, quality and costs of care and education services, as well as the real expenses for maintaining the infrastructure of the institution, the Government will work out a framework plan for the reorganisation of residential institutions and will make a decision concerning each institution. The evaluation of residential institution started on January 18, through a disposal signed by the Minister of Education and Youth. The majority of the institutions – 62 – are administered by this ministry. For three months, expert teams including pedagogues, social assistants, doctors, psychologists, economists, visited each boarding school and orphanage and collected the data necessary for the evaluation. They had access to children’s documents and the documents related to the activity of the institutions. Alsospecialists interviewed children from several institutions in order to find out about their relations with parents, educators, mates and children from the community. The employees of the institutions have also been interviewed concerning the quality of the services offered to the children and reforming of the institution. Both questionnaires respected the confidentiality of the interviewed persons. At present, another expert team is working with the collected data and prepares individual reports for each institution. Later, a general report will be worked out, containing a detailed analysis of the actual residential system, as well as recommendations for its efficient reformation. The evaluation is part of the Moldova’s residential child care system reform. National authorities are supported by the EU and UNICEF in this reform, within the project “Development of Integrated Social Care Services for Vulnerable Families and Children at Risk in Moldova”, launched in January 2006 and implemented with the support of UNICEF and TACIS program. Earlier, deputy minister of Education and Youth, Valentin Crudu, stated that the purpose of the residential system reform is to reduce the number of children who are separated from their families, which doesn’t mean that all the boarding schools will be closed. The reform provides for the creation and the development of new community services for the protection of children and vulnerable families. Also, the family-type social integration services are planned to be developed: guardianship, family type orphanages; community-type professional parental care: day centres, maternal centres etc. Authorities consider that such services will ensure a better housing for children than the boarding schools or orphanages, being also less costly compared to the actual expenses for maintaining the system, which requires MDL 150 mln annually. Over 12 thousand children are under the care of 67 residential institutions in Moldova, 10,000 of them having one or both parents alive.