— Strengthen child protection and social services in the field of prevention; help families develop parenting skills in a non-stigmatising way, whilst ensuring that children removed from parental care grow up in an environment that meets their needs:
— Ensure that poverty is never the only justification for removing a child from parental care; aim at enabling children to remain in or return to the care of their parents by, for example, tackling the family’s material deprivation;
— Ensure adequate gate-keeping to prevent children being placed in institutions and provide for regular reviews in the event of such placements;
— Stop the expansion of institutional care settings for children without parental care; promote quality, community-based care and foster care within family settings instead, where children’s voice is given due consideration;
— Ensure that children without parental care have access to quality services (both mainstream and specific services) related to their health, education, employment, social assistance, security and housing situation, including during their transition to adulthood;
— Provide appropriate support to children left behind when one or both parents migrate to another country to work, as well as to their replacement carers.
2.3.
Children’s right to participate
Support the participation of all children in play, recreation, sport and cultural activities
— Acknowledge the influence children have over their own well-being and their resilience in overcoming adverse situations, in particular by providing opportunities to participate in informal learning activities that take place outside the home and after regular school hours:
— Address barriers such as cost, access and cultural differences to ensure that all children can participate in play, recreation, sport and cultural activities outside school;
— Provide safe spaces in children’s environment and support disadvantaged communities by means of specific incentives;
— Encourage schools, community actors and local authorities to create better after-school activities and facilities for all children, regardless of their parents’ work situation and background;
— Enable all families to participate in social activities that boost their parental skills and foster positive family communication;
— Promote approaches to participation that build on the potential for community volunteering and foster solidarity between generations.
Put in place mechanisms that promote children’s participation in decision-making that affects their lives
— Enable and encourage children to express informed views, ensuring that those views are given due weight and are reflected in the main decisions affecting them:
— Use and further develop existing tools to involve children in the running of services such as care, healthcare and education, as well as to consult them on relevant policy planning through mechanisms adapted to their age;
— Support the involvement of all children in existing participation structures; reach out to and support the participation of children from disadvantaged backgrounds;
— Encourage professionals working with and for children to actively involve them, raising awareness of related rights and obligations;
— Implement the child’s right to be heard in all justice-related decisions and promote child-friendly justice, in particular by giving children effective access to court and judicial proceedings.
3.
FURTHER DEVELOP NECESSARY GOVERNANCE, IMPLEMENTATION AND MONITORING ARRANGEMENTS
Strengthen synergies across sectors and improve governance arrangements
— Ensure that policies effectively address child poverty and social exclusion through comprehensive design and enhance coordination between key actors:
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