Provisions requiring multidisciplinary assessment of child protection cases (this map should be read together with the map on provisions introducing age requirements on the right of the child to be heard)
Source: FRA, 2014
In six EU Member States (Finland, Greece, Latvia, the Netherlands, Slovakia and the United Kingdom), no provisions were identified on the multidisciplinary assessment of child protection cases. All other Member States do have specific provisions, but only in seven of them (Austria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Hungary, Lithuania and Romania) do these provisions have statutory value.
In some Member States, however, as for example in the Netherlands, although there is no mandatory provision, a multidisciplinary team of professionals de facto carries out the assessment. Both the Advice and Report Centres for Child Abuse (Advies- en Meldpunten Kindermishandeling) and the Child Care and Protection Board (Raad voor Kinderbescherming), which are responsible for assessing cases of potential abuse and deciding on child protection measures, have multidisciplinary teams.
Other Member States have developed multidisciplinary teams in the form of panels or other advisory bodies within the system and assigned assessment responsibilities, with cooperation protocols subsequently put in place. In Belgium for example, a protocol of cooperation has been signed between the Youth Care Services and the Birth and Childhood Office (Office de la Naissance et de l’enfance (ONE)), to facilitate cooperation between youth care workers and ONE social-medical workers or doctors.