Specific legal provisions requiring the establishment of complaint mechanisms within alternative care institutions

In addition to informing children about their rights, including their right to issue complaints against alternative care personnel, all services and institutions or facilities responsible for the care and protection of children should establish complaint mechanisms. Alternative care providers should therefore develop accessible, confidential and child-friendly reporting procedures.

Specific legal provisions requiring the establishment of complaint mechanisms within alternative care

Note:
No information available for Slovenia.

Source: FRA, 2014

Key findings

  • In most EU Member States, there are no specific provisions requiring the establishment of individual complaint mechanisms within alternative care institutions. Such provisions only exist in nine Member States – Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, Romania, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
  • Even when such provisions are in place, the procedures are mostly not child-friendly and fail to ensure confidentiality for the child.
  • The most common reporting mechanism addressing children are national hotlines. Not all, however, address or are specifically developed for them.
  • Another reporting mechanism targeting children are websites. In many Member States, ombudspersons for children or national child protection authorities with monitoring duties have developed dedicated websites for children.