Social
Child welfare – Study sees danger due to staff shortages
“The fact that children are at risk due to a lack of staff because action cannot be taken in time seems completely incomprehensible to me in a country like Germany,” says the director of SOS Children’s Villages worldwide, Lanna Idriss. Photo
© Karl-Josef Hildenbrand/dpa
Many people find it difficult to report domestic violence or child neglect. Authorities also have great difficulty in processing the reports, as a new study shows.
According to a new survey, when child welfare threats are reported, only a third of German youth welfare offices are able to accept these reports and process them quickly. This is the result of the study “Shedding light on the darkness” published by SOS Children’s Villages worldwide and Transparency International Germany on Monday. According to the authorities surveyed, one reason for this situation is Staff shortage.
“The fact that children are at risk due to a lack of staff because action cannot be taken in time seems completely incomprehensible to me in a country like Germany,” said Lanna Idriss, head of SOS Children’s Villages worldwide. The study also shows that only half of the authorities indicate possible reporting channels and only ten percent of the offices provide information in plain language. This makes access difficult for children or people with language barriers.
Demand for better reporting and communication channels
According to SOS Children’s Villages and Transparency International, it must be possible for potential cases of endangerment and abuse to be reported easily and dealt with anonymously and promptly. To achieve this, they are calling for, among other things, better reporting and communication channels and an increase in resources.
The study “Shedding light on the darkness” is the first Germany-wide study to question what whistleblowing – i.e. pointing out grievances – means for child protection. “While whistleblowing has been studied many times in the business world or in public authorities, it is a major dark field in the area of child protection,” said the study’s director, Sebastian Oelrich.
For the study, those responsible were interviewed and employees were surveyed using questionnaires. In addition, the websites of a representative selection of youth welfare offices, which reportedly represent almost 25 percent of all youth welfare offices, were examined.