Ombudsman supports better supervision for foster parents
05.02.2018
The Commissioner for Children’s Rights in the Moscow oblast believes that conscientious foster parents will not oppose more frequent contact with the state system. RIA Novosti cites the Commissioner for Children’s Rights in the Moscow oblast, Ksenia Mishonovaya, as saying that it is essential to introduce a compulsory psychiatric evaluation of foster parent candidates and to allow unscheduled inspections of families by the guardianship service.
Earlier, the guardians of a three-year-old child were arrested in the Moscow oblast, suspected of attempted murder. After this, the Russian Investigative Committee announced the need to reform the mechanisms of transferring children to foster families.
“(We) should be sure that (the child) is safe. It is not only important for us, under what circumstances the children are living in, but also what kind of relationship they have with their foster parents. Conscientious guardians, I think, would not express opposition to more frequent contact with the state, as it is, for instance, in England, where such families have a supervisor who is both a friend and advisor”, the news agency quotes Mishanova.
According to statistics, recently citizens have been contacting the Children’s Ombudsman more often. The Commissioner for Children’s Rights received 7274 inquiries regarding child protection and legal issues in 2017. The number of inquiries was up by 46.4% in comparison with the previous year.
