1. Observatoire National de l’Enfance en Danger France setting up a new process for collecting data in children in care system : a challenge at local and national level Maud GORZA, Tania LEJBOWICZ 3 rd Conference of the International Society for Child Indicators University of York 26 – 29 July 2011

2. ONED ISCI 20112 I / Introduction to the French child protection system II / Lack of data III / Creation of an individual, anonymous and longitudinal observation system IV / Setting-up of the observation system

3. ONED ISCI 20113 I / INTRODUCTION TO THE FRENCH CHILD PROTECTION SYSTEM (Act of March 5, 2007)

4. ONED ISCI 20114 Disclosure of concern County council PUBLIC PROSECUTORJUDGE FOR CHILDREN Decision of the county council Decision of the Prosecutor Decision of the Judge Administrative protection No action taken Legal protection Assessment Children Health public services (under 6) Child welfare services SchoolChildcare Physicians/ Hospitals FamilyPoliceEnvironment Social services Preventive measure (close monitoring) Home child assistance Placement agreement With family agreement Prosecution Child assistance Placement order Information Foster home family Residential care

5. ONED ISCI 20115 II / LACK OF DATA

6. ONED ISCI 20116 II.1 / The lack of data in children protection in France Impossibility to assess child protection efficiency : a lack pointed out since 1995 ● Due to the diversity of general councils organization ● Few researchers working on the topic, producing more qualitative than quantitative researches ● Social workers are not trained to use indicators in their work.

7. ONED ISCI 20117 II.2 / Children protection in France : What we know (more or less) ● ODAS-2006 : 98,000 children reported as being in danger ● DRESS-2007 : 266,950 children < 18 y.o. in the care system (18,7‰ of children population < 18 y.o.) and 20,995 young adults (18 to 21 y.o.) in the care system (8,3‰ of young adults population)

8. ONED ISCI 20118 II.3 / Children protection in France : What we need ● More information in order to increase our knowledge about children in care, local practices... ● To assess child protection at national and local level and efficiency of national and local public policies ● Trustable data - and not aggregated data - collected by general councils

9. ONED ISCI 20119 III / CREATION OF AN INDIVIDUAL ANONYMOUS AND LONGITUDINAL OBSERVATION SYSTEM

10. ONED ISCI 201110 III.1 / A new process for collecting data in children in care system Decree of law published March, 1, 2011. An individual, anonymous and longitudinal observation system.

11. ONED ISCI 201111 III.2 / Observed population Minors concerned, between 1 st january and 31 december of N year, by: ● A decision of child protection measure (administrative protection or child assistant) after assesment of a disclosure of concern ● A direct judicial description to the public prosecutor ● A direct referral of the judge for children

12. ONED ISCI 201112 III.3 / Data characteristics ● Individual : one line = one event concerning a child ● Anonymous : anonymous ID based on stable informations + SHA 1 algorithm ● Longitudinal : children trajectories ● Centralized : in each local authority

13. ONED ISCI 201113 III.4 / Variables According to the information already collected by local authorities, or at least the information which could be collected using local software According to international recommendations (ISPCAN/ World Health Organization)

14. ONED ISCI 201114 III.4 / Variables Characteristics on (50) : ➔ children ➔ caregivers ➔ households Assessment of the situation (40): ➔ Source of reporting ➔ Type of danger and maltreatment ➔ Alleged perpetrators ➔ Family issues related to the child abuse Taken actions / measures (30)

15. ONED ISCI 201115 IV / SETTING-UP OF THE OBSERVATION SYSTEM

16. ONED ISCI 201116 To centralize information in each coutry council To adjust some current variables Need to modify computers systems in general councils Need to train professionnals to collect data IV.1 / Difficulties

17. ONED ISCI 201117 ● History of the decree ● Difficult because imposed by law ● ONED has established ➔ a steering committee ➔ a technical committee ➔ a working group on indicators IV.2 / Implementation

18. ONED ISCI 201118 IV.3 / Conclusion : Which indicators on children in Child protection can be calculated with this system? – Indicators on the population in child protection system: – How many children ? Children and families characteristics ? – Indicators on the assessment and measures: – Which danger/maltreatment/family issues ? Which measures ? – Indicators on the children trajectories

19. ONED ISCI 201119 http://oned.gouv.fr/