This research is based on a stock-taking of the current situation. It is based on a comprehensive literature review and a genuine primary research with service users as well as policy makers, service providers, children and families. The exercise aims to develop recommendations for the further development of the Bulgarian Child Protection System in its different components that provide child protection services, both in prevention and intervention.
Three themes are consistently pursued throughout the report, namely violence against children, children deprived of parental care and justice for children. The report is complemented by three case studies which take a specific angle into a specific issue of the Bulgarian child protection practice.
Based on real cases, they discuss:
(1) residential care and foster parenting
(2) prevention of family-child separation
(3) justice for children.
The case studies are an integral part of the research process as well as self-standing pieces of analysis which illustrate and scrutinize a specific child’s pathway through the services of the Bulgarian CPS. The main report is structured in four main sections, namely 1) legislation and policy, 2) organization and structure, 3) practices and guidelines, and 4) the social work-force, and two crosscutting issues, namely data and finance.
View the report and annexes here.
This report is also available in Bulgarian.
