The closed youth care – where young people with a freedom-restricting measure are located – is going to be overhauled. Large-scale facilities are being converted to small-scale locations. In addition, the aim is to place as few young people as possible in such a closed institution; According to the government, the number should ideally reach zero by 2030.
State Secretary Maarten van Ooijen (Public Health) has developed a plan for this, he reports. He wants to work with experts by experience, professionals, municipalities, care administrators and education. As far as he is concerned, in the short term, a ‘no, unless’ principle will be used for placements. This means that no restriction of freedom is imposed unless it is necessary and proportionate and there is no less severe alternative. The idea is that placements in closed youth institutions will decrease further every year.
“These drastic reforms are necessary to provide the best, loving and humane care for young people. There is also a dilemma. In some cases, freedom-restricting measures are necessary. Examples are serious aggressive behavior or runaway behavior in the case of loverboy problems,” said the State Secretary.
Settings too repressive and unsafe
According to Van Ooijen, many young people experience the large institutions as too repressive and unsafe, while they are placed there precisely because of often complex problems to receive protection and safety. The fact that these youth care institutions are often located in rural areas does not help either. ‘This contributes to the fact that the living climate in these institutions does not provide a sufficient feeling of home’, the minister writes in a letter to the House of Representatives. They would like to get rid of the closed youth care system as it is now.
Van Ooijen also finds it objectionable that there is often no alternative to help in a closed setting for young people who need protection. He strives for a shelter in an environment that is ‘as home as possible’, such as a foster family or a family home. If that fails, placement in a small location comes into play. As of January 1, 2025, all closed youth care institutions must work on a small scale.
To work out
Margot Ende – van den Broek, general manager at Het Vergeten Kind thinks it is ‘very good’ that there is finally a plan. ,,There are very good principles, which we have been advocating for years,” she says. “The only question now is: how are we going to organize this in concrete terms? How will the plan be further developed? There are a number of gaps in that.” Ende – van den Broek mentions, among other things, that in addition to closed youth care, open institutions must also be overhauled (‘so that many young people do not have to go to closed youth care at all’), treat and live must be separated from each other and a different form of financing is needed.
Nevertheless, the foundation is happy with the intentions of State Secretary Maarten van Ooijen. “There is finally a plan, which means that there is recognition that the situation as it is now is really not possible. It is a step in the right direction, now we need to ensure that the plan is properly tightened up.”
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