Neglected Youth Offices: Federal and State Governments Allegedly Abdicate Child Protection Responsibilities
In the ongoing trial at Reutlingen District Court, two employees of the local Youth Welfare Office face accusations of failing to recognize the neglect of a sibling pair in a timely manner, raising questions about child protection measures in Germany.
Professor Jan Kepert, an expert in child and youth welfare law, explains the responsibilities of the Youth Welfare Office. "The office is primarily a social service authority that supports parents," he says. However, when a threat to a child's well-being exists, the office can involve the family court.
A threat to a child's well-being is defined as a high probability of significant physical, mental, or emotional harm to the child that is imminent. The legal relationship changes to intervention law when such a threat is established.
The threshold for significant indications of a threat to a child's well-being was introduced in 2005, but the legislator has been silent since then. Kepert urges the federal legislator to urgently define significant indications for endangering a child's welfare.
Key structural changes needed to improve child protection in Germany focus on strengthening legal frameworks, improving coordination among stakeholders, ensuring social security access, and integrating children's rights more effectively into welfare services.
Enhanced integration of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child into Germany's child and youth welfare legal frameworks is a central reform goal. This ensures the well-being of all children, including those with disabilities or disadvantaged backgrounds.
Improved coordination and cooperation among federal, state, and local governments, along with civil society organizations and experts, are also crucial. The current complexity in applications for child-related benefits, such as supplemental child allowance, contributes to significant non-take-up and undermines child protection efforts. Proposals for a universal child basic income aiming to reduce these barriers have stalled and need revisiting.
Strengthening child-centric social infrastructure and equal opportunity access, with special focus on disadvantaged groups, is emphasized to prevent neglect and abuse cases. Addressing socio-economic factors, such as precarious employment and low wages affecting families (especially women), is necessary as these contribute indirectly to child vulnerability and accumulation of risk factors.
Kepert stresses the importance of a child-centered protective environment. "In every child protection team, a lawyer, a psychologist, and a social pedagogue should work together on an equal footing," he says. He also highlights the need to strengthen the free carriers who provide services for children, as there are far too few places and performance offers for children, both stationary and mobile.
In the Reutlingen case, the public prosecutor accuses the two women of violating their duty of care. Kepert expresses his respect for the colleagues who work in this field, acknowledging it as a very difficult and tense field of activity. "In theory, one can also be held criminally liable for inaction, for not doing anything," he says.
Kepert also emphasizes the importance of social secrecy, stating that the Youth Welfare Office cannot simply collect data behind the family's back, for example, at a kindergarten. Parents have the opportunity to defend themselves against interventions by the Youth Welfare Office and hinder their work.
Youth Welfare Offices have lists of characteristics, but these are always examples, and the specialist in the Youth Welfare Office has to make prognosis decisions based on an incomplete life situation. In every case, endangerments to a child's welfare are always to be examined individually. We discuss this professionally under the terms "index child" and "contact child."
As the trial concludes next week, the focus remains on creating a robust, child-centered protective environment nationwide through systemic reforms. These reforms aim to prevent tragedies like the one in Reutlingen by ensuring the legal inclusion of children's rights, coordinated multi-level governance, simplified social security access, and socio-economic support.
- In light of the Reutlingen case, it's crucial to strengthen the ability of Youth Welfare Offices to recognize signs of neglect, as their role expands beyond social support when a child's health-and-wellness is at risk.
- To optimize child protection measures in Germany, it's important to integrate the science of child and youth welfare into policies and practices, ensuring a holistic approach to the well-being of all children.
