Dutch Ombudsman for Children Marc Dullaert New Dutch Youth Care System October 22-24, 2014 ENOC Conference, Edinburgh 1

New Dutch Youth Care System starting Decentralisation of youth care services Involving the performance of youth care (voluntary and mandatory), specialised treatment and psychiatric care for youth, youth probation, foster care and youth health care. ‘more efficient, coherent and cost-effective youth care’? 2

Challenges for the Netherlands Decentralisation Transformation Serious budget cuts on several levels 3 Decentralization starts

Current situation 75% of youthcare institutions lack contract with municipality 50% of institutions worry about financial discontinuity 25% of the municipalities need immediate extra support regarding this operation 4

Denmark lessons learned Specialised forms of youth care may disappear Families move to other municipalities that offer better care Transformation first needs investing Monitoring the system and indication of success factors important 5

Preconditions in decentralization process 1. Minimum guarantees of availability and access to quality of youth care 2. Safety net for youth care institutions 3. Monitoring on outcome instead of output; realising effect on families instead of figures 6