On July 18, 2016, the Public Defender of Georgia held a presentation of special reports on monitoring of foster care and reintegration services within the framework of the project supported by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) - "Strengthening the Public Defender's Centre for Child's Rights".

The reports reflect results of the monitoring carried out by the Centre for Child's Rights from 1 June 2015 to 31 May 2016 and the Public Defender's recommendations.

Within the monitoring, rights situation of 380 beneficiaries of foster care subprogram and 110 beneficiaries of reintegration service, as well as sessions of the Guardianship-Care Regional Councils, were examined.

A number of important steps have been taken within the framework of state care deinstitutionalization reform since 2005. The Public Defender’s monitoring showed that it is necessary to essentially strengthen state policy and internal mechanisms in order to effectively protect the rights of foster care and reintegrated children.

The Public Defender considers it essential to raise the social function of reintegrated families, strengthen the reintegrated children living in relatively and extremely poor households and to develop/implement a coordinated national policy between the state and local governments for this purpose. The monitoring of reintegrated beneficiaries revealed that increased attention should be paid to protection of the safety of children and prevention/elimination of violence and any type of ill-treatment.

When assessing the effectiveness of foster care program, it should be noted that despite the requirements of international standards, no coordinated state policy has been yet developed between the central and local governments in the field of foster care at the normative level. Absence of system of training and retraining of foster caregivers at the national level and low qualifications of social workers are also problematic. Identification and rehabilitation of child victims of violence, low awareness of their parents of prevention and management of challenging behavior, elimination of corporal punishment and psychological violence are also important. Challenges were revealed in terms of children's education, health care and their reintegration with biological environment.

By the Public Defender’s recommendation, the Government and responsible agencies should prepare special sub-programs in order to improve efficiency of foster care and reintegration processes; systemic and regular retraining of foster families should be carried out; attention should be given to strengthening of families and children involved in kinship foster care sub-program; awareness of reintegrated families should be raised for the purpose of prevention of violence, exploitation and other forms of ill-treatment; social condition of subprogram families living in relative poverty, especially in mountainous regions and remote villages, should be improved.

The Public Defender calls on the state and local government agencies to develop and manage a coordinated policy on foster care and reintegration and to implement the recommendations included in the special reports.

Special Reports on the Monitoring of State Reintegration Service

Special Reports on Monitoring of State Subprogram of Foster Care