Social Work wih Family in Czech Republic

1. SocialWorkwihFamilyin Czech Republic MONIKA CHRENKOVÁ University of Ostrava, Facuty of Social StudiesDepartment of Social WorkMethods Ostrava, Czech Republic

2. University of Ostrava • The University of Ostrava was founded on 28 September 1991 • Currently has six faculties: Faculty of Social Studies Faculty of Fine Arts Faculty of Arts Faculty of Medicine Pedagogical Faculty Faculty of Science

3. University Library • is situated in the centre of the city → Pyramid Centre - provides support for students with special needs

4. Faculty of Social Studies • Faculty was founded on April 1st in 2008 • First academic year beginning on September 1st in 2008 • New faculty is based on the Department of Social Work, previously part of the Medical-Social Faculty of the University of Ostrava

5. Faculty of Social Studies • Faculty consists of two Departments : → Department of Social Work → Department of Social Work Methods

6. Department of Social Work • Provides : → 5 years Master“s degree programme Social Work for Health Care → doctoral/PhD“s programmes Social Policy and Social Work in Czech and also in English in both studied forms (daily and combined) → newly – Bachelor“s degree programme – Health social care, field of Health-social worker taught in daily form

7. Department of Social Work Methods • ensures : → Bachelor“s degree programme of Social Workin daily and combined form → 2 years Master“s deegre programmes of Management of Social Work Services Organizations (in both forms) and Social Workas daily form

8. The European Research Institute for Social Work (ERIS) • Cooperation based on agreements between six European universities from Finland, France, Germany, G. Britain and Slovakia and others associated members of universities across Europe • The mission of the Institute is : „to carry out high-quality funded research projects involving the Institute’s European partners and to produce European-funded teaching and learning materials for social work and social care programmes“.

9. Socrates Erasmus • Currently Faculty cooperate with 33 foreign universities • in 15 European countries • with focusing on exchange study programmes for students and lecturers within Socrates Erasmus

10. Contacts : • www.osu.cz • fss.osu.cz

11. Social Work wih Family in Czech Republic • Family is definitely the oldest human social institution • Family has a unique and privileged position – it can influence the child’s development in its most sensitive stages in the most natural way, and it can richly satisfy the child’s basic psychic needs • The essence of family upbringing consists in the creation of home. “A good home is one of the conditions of happy childhood, and happy childhood is one of the conditions of good, healthy growth of a human being.” (Matějček, 1992, p. 175)

12. Basic terms • Child • Best interest of the child • Child without family background • Parental responsibility • Social-legal protection of children • Preliminary ruling

13. Child In the legal order of the Czech Republic, the term “child” means a minor of 0 to 18 years of age. A natural person’s capacity to have rights and duties arises with his/her birth.

14. Best interest of the child “The most important issue is considered to assert the best interest of the child and to respect his/her rights and opinions while keeping the duty to ensure the survival, development and protection of the child.”

15. Child without family background “Children without family background cannot grow up in the family environment in the custody of their own parents or their closest relatives for various reasons. • These children are orphaned children (orphaned by their parents’ death) and socially orphaned children. The socially orphaned children have parents but these “cannot, may not or do not want to” take care of them.”

16. Parental responsibility Complex of the parents’ rights and duties in custody of a minor, including care of health, corporal, intellectual, emotional and moral development. Parents are obliged to represent the minor and to administer his/her property.

17. Social-legal protection of children Means mainly the protection of the right of the child to favourable development and proper upbringing, the protection of the legitimate interests of the child, including protection of his/her property, operating leading to restoration of disrupted functions of family. [Act no. 359/1999 Coll.]

18. Social-legal protection of children “The prior standpointofsocial-legalprotectionofchildrenistheinterest and welfareofthechild.” • Focusesnamely on thechildrenwhoseparentshavedied, have not beenfulfillingthedutiesarisingoutofparentalresponsibility, havebeenabusingtherightsarisingoutofparentalresponsibility. • Further on thechildren, whichhavebeenplacedin thecustodyofother natural person thanparents. • Childrenleadingimmorallifeconsisting in neglectingtheircompulsoryschoolattendance, addictivedrugs, orthechildrenagainstwhich a crime has beencommittedendangeringtheirhealthorifthereis a suspicionofcommitting such a crime.

19. Social-legal protection of children Is exercised by the bodies of social-legal protection of children among which the following count: regional authorities, municipalities of extended powers, municipal authorities, the ministry, the Office for International Legal Protection of Children, the commission of social-legal protection of children and other authorized persons.

20. Preliminary ruling “If a child is without any care, or if his/her life or favourable development is seriously endangered or violated, the municipality of extended powers is obliged to file a motion for preliminary ruling to the court, on which the court must decide within 24 hours.”

21. Family life and family support in Czech conditions • Sociodemographic factors : In the 1990“s some significant changes in the sociodemographic processes happened : - decline of birth and fertilityrate +decrease of the intensity of death rate(caused mainly by the decline of death rate in the mid-life and late adulthood age but also by the decrease of infantile death rate) - process of population’s ageing

22. Sociodemographic factors • Family behaviour: • process of marriage rate has changed – entering into the first marriageis postponed for older age and is more frequentlyreplaced by unmarried cohabitation • divorce rate still has an increasing tendency

23. Changes in the internal family relations • change of the relation of man and woman that becomes balanced today → same education, women are greatly independent of men, in the economical as well as parental role

24. Changes in the internal family relations • important change is the one of the parent – child relation → development of the individual abilities → aim of education and upbringing is not only an adapted individual but a successful one

25. Summary of demographic processes *decline of birth rate and fertility *decline of marriage rate *decrease of death rate *increasing divorce rate *ageing of the population

26. Contemporary Czech family Its internal structure is changing: • the roles of mother and father are defined anew • the family planning is governed by establishing a professional grounding and parents’ material background • the outer conditions also produce strong destabilizing • pressures on family (a pressure to be a flexible labour to a new behaviour of an individual’s autonomy)

27. Development of family life • can be explained on the basis of these facts: • a bigger offer of possibilities for individuals to fulfil themselves • an uneasy state of the real estate market (Možný, 2002, p. 92).

28. Summary of changes: • Economical situation *the market environment raises the demands of work perfomance and work time,often to the detriment of the time meant for family and children’s upbringing in family *the unsatisfactory housing situation complicates the formation of families and marriages,young people consider a flat to be one of the fundamentalconditions of forming family

29. Summary of changes: • Social conditions *in the less paternalistic environment, the feeling of one’s own responsibility as well as the dissatisfaction with the conditions of family life are growing *in family fathers’ greater participation in care and upbringing of children has been gradually enforced *proportion of the influence of family (the nuclear and extended ones, kin), neighbours’ networks and the peer groups has been changing

30. Summary of changes: • Cultural influence *individualism weakens the family relations *the consumption orientation weakens the importance of the family values *the changed social status of woman shifted towards the real equality

31. Definition of family • According to Matoušek = group of people related to one another by bonds of  blood relations or legal ties (marriage, adoption)

32. Functional family • A functional family is understood as a system where: • roles are clearly defined • communication is clear • interactions while solving conflicts are effective • situation solving is creative and flexible • family structure is adaptable • functional family provides a feeling of belonging andmutuality but at the same time it respects the autonomy of each individual

33. Family functions • economical function • function of socialization • function of reproduction • emotional function

34. Economicalfunction - nowadays the economical functionis beingexpelled out of the family space by othersocial institutions’ performance of a greatpart of this function(social welfare benefits)

35. Function of socialization • during the period of totality in the Czech Republicthe family’s function of socialization was suppressed and replaced with the state system of organized education and upbringing • now education and upbringing fall into the scope ofconcurrence of family and the state

36. Function of reproduction • the family’s function of reproduction is influenced by the development of demographic processes - especially birth rate

37. Emotional function • today the emotional function is influenced by the increasingindividualism characteristic for the contemporary society

38. Scheme of sectors and institutions in the system of family care : Ministry of Health ∙ Institutional care ↓ Nursery homes +Children‘s homes for children under 3 years + Children“s centers Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs ∙ Social policy ∙ Social services ∙ Bodies of social legal protection ∙ Substitute family care ∙ Institutional care ↓ Homes for people with special needs

39. Ministry ofEducation, Youth and Sports  ↓ ∙ Institutional care  +Diagnosticinstitutions (+ Centresofeducational care) +Children’s homes +Children’s homes with school + Correctiveinstitution +Institutionof instant assistanceforchildren

40. Substitute care Schemeofthesystemof substitute care in theCRSubstitute familycare * adoption * foster care * guardianship Institutional care * nurseryhomes * children’s homesforchildrenunder 3y. *= childrencenters * diagnosticinstititions + centresofeducationalcare * children‘shomes * children‘shomeswithschool * correctiveinstitutions * homesforpeoplewithspecialneeds+ Institutionof instant assistanceforchildren

41. Legislative basis of family life and the family policy The fundamental document regulating family law is : • Family Act no. 94/1963, approved in 1963and effective since 1964 • Family Act regulates marriage, the relations between parents and children, divorces, …

42. Basic documents regulating the positionof child in the society • DeclarationoftheRightsoftheChild • Conventionon theRightsoftheChild • WorldDeclarationoftheSurvival, Protectionand DevelopmentofChildren = reflected by Act no. 359/1999 Coll. onsocial-legalprotectionofchildren ▪ Charter offundamentalRights and basic Freedomsof Czech Republic

43. Legislative : FamilyAct no. 94/1963 Coll. Act no.359/1999 Coll. on social-legalprotectionofchildren Actno.108/206 Coll. on SocialServices Actno. 20/1966 Coll. on public health care Actno. 109/2002 Coll. on executionofinstitutionalupbringingorprotective care in educationalfacilities and on preventiveeducationalcare in educationalfacilities + otherRegulations

44. Family Policy ►Finacialsupport offamily 2 mainsections : • tax benefits (indirect support- relief) • socialsecuritysystem → socialinsurance(health and pension insurance) → statesocialbenefits(childalowences, parentalbenefits, childbirthbenefits, foster care benefits) → materialneedbenefits (emergencybenefits, housingbenefits)

45. Family Policy ► Services support ▪ Social services – support of each family member or family as a unit ▪ Functioned family services – preventive and supportive character ▪ Activities of Social legal protection of children

46. Socialservices = tendencyto enable people in a disadvantageous social situation to continue to be equivalent members of the society and to live independently, in contact with other people and in the natural social family environment • task : prevention of social marginalization • requirementsof the quality of social services are ensured by the social services quality standards

47. Socialservices • Socialcounselling(partnershipand familycounselling) • Socialcare services(homecare services) • Socialpreventiveservices(early interventionservices, shelterhousingformotherswithchildren, half-wayhouses, low-thresholdservicesforchildren and minors/youth, interventioncenters, social-activisationservicesforfamilieswithchildren, fieldprogrammes)

48. Functionedfamilyservices 1. Commercial services • Baby sitting • Household support • Leisure-time and addicational activities for children 2. Ucommercional services - Maternity centers • Family centers, public nursery

49. Functionedfamilyservices • Care servicesforchildrenupon 3 years: ∙ Healthfacilities - nursery ∙ Privatefacilities ∙ Baby-sittingservices • Care servicesforchildrenover 3 years: ∙ Kindergarten/nurseryschools – state ∙ Privatefacilities ∙ Baby-sittingservices

50. Social legal protection of children • Preventiveand counsellingactivities • Fieldwork - Substitutivefamily care • Solvingof social situations of many families with underage children • Childrenand youthatrisk - Facilitiesofsociallegalprotectionofchildren (Institutionof instant assistanceforchildren)