OA20832. Challenges and dilemmas for child protection in Greece

Abstract Problem In Greece, insofar an autonomous welfare sector as a separate branch of public administration (such as existing in most European countries) has not been established yet. Instead, there are under-resourced, fragmented and under-developed social services in 7 different networks of services under the auspices of different Ministries and authorities, working with different methods of work, having incommensurable mandates and competencies while all of them are subordinate to other sectors’ key priorities. Moreover, in Greece there is a lack of tradition of interdisciplinary, intersectoral work making it really hard for services and professionals even within the same sector to respond in a coordinated manner to address main threats for child safety. Description As a result, response of the totality of involved services (operating within justice, law enforcement, welfare, health and educational sectors) often is fragmented, uncoordinated leading quite often in shortcomings and poor outcomes. Additionally, in virtue of such shortcomings, response to protect children is different in different cases, depending on random factors and circumstances, challenging thus, the equality in realization of the rights of the child in the totality of the country’s territory. Results For tackling this, ICH within the framework of the pilot phase of EC-UNICEF’s “Child Guarantee” program had drafted a study on mapping different services involved in child protection as well as generated a road map towards unifying currently fragmented resources and harmonizing their operational responses to child victimization cases. Such effort will necessarily involve gradual unification of social services under one singular, rigorous and robust welfare sector. Such a process will necessarily require a considerable increase in budgetary support (although current fragmentation entails inefficiency in usage of available resources) and can be unfolded within an effective period of 4–5 years. Lessons Substantially improving performance of child protection response in Greece will entail not just additional resources: one can easily provide more resources, which if continue to be distributed in the current modality will make minimal difference in the outcome for end-beneficieries. However, evidence-based social policy design is not the end, it is rather the end of the beginning: enacting in practice would require political will, strategy and tactics but also building societal leverage in favor of positive social change.