Vladimir Penin acknowledged the explanatory work on child safety measures in this area as extremely insufficient

This assessment was made by the Deputy Chairman of the Regional Executive Committee at a joint meeting of the Regional Coordination Council on Decree No. 18 and the Commission for Juvenile Affairs of the Regional Executive Committee, based on the grim statistics of the current year. In 6 months, 12 children died in the region. We cannot turn a blind eye to the tragedy that occurred on the last weekend of June in the Verkhnedvinsk district: a six-month-old child from a dysfunctional family burned to death along with three adults during a house fire. In the Bilevo microdistrict of Vitebsk, a girl left unattended fell from a balcony window.

– Parents need to be told about such specific cases and how adult negligence sometimes leads to a tragic outcome, – emphasized Vladimir Petrovich. – There are still two months of summer ahead, a time for holidays and vacations. Therefore, along with awareness-raising work, it is necessary to approach the organization of recreation and useful employment for children with special responsibility.

  The Deputy Head of the region also gave a critical assessment of officials and responsible services in their work with families where children are in a socially dangerous situation. Last year, 700 minors were removed from families in the region and placed in orphanages. This figure is sometimes not reduced due to the executive discipline of responsible persons, the unwillingness to delve deeply into family problems and take the necessary measures within the legal framework.

In particular, the joint meeting reviewed the work on the implementation of Decree No. 18 in Novopolotsk and Sennensky district. The monitoring of the activities of responsible state bodies, entrusted to the regional executive committees by government order, revealed a number of problems that hinder the proper protection of children's interests and rights.

According to Tamara Olekhnovich, Deputy Chairperson of the Commission for Juvenile Affairs of the Regional Executive Committee, Novopolotsk has all the necessary conditions to properly carry out this work, but the attitude of the executors themselves sometimes leaves much to be desired. At the same time, throughout the entire period of the decree, the city has noted a high percentage of funds reimbursement by obligated persons for their children's state maintenance; this figure reached 75% in less than six months.

In turn, Sennenshchina, on the contrary, is characterized by one of the lowest rates of funds reimbursement to the state by negligent parents: as of June 1, this figure was 57%. In this regard, the district has been tasked with re-employing obligated persons, organizing make-up work for absences, and searching for additional work opportunities, which may ultimately affect the reimbursement percentage.

However, the most unforgivable mistake in child protection activities, which the meeting members emphasized, is formalism, as it sometimes jeopardizes children's lives. For instance, in one of the Novopolotsk schools, the delay in assigning the status of socially dangerous situation (SDS) almost led to a tragedy. The educational institution, possessing facts about the girl's vagrancy, her delinquent behavior, and the mother's complete evasion of parental duties (the schoolgirl was under the care of her grandmother), did not pay due attention to the family. As a result, the failure to take timely measures led to the teenager's suicide attempt.

At the same time, in some families under supervision, it is not always possible to sustain the positive results achieved through joint efforts for a long time. Unjustified cessation of work with dysfunctional parents leads to repeated recognition of children as being in SDS. For example, in the Senno district, such a situation recurred within a year for 15 minors.

In some cases, there is a lack of interaction between the relevant services. Although, overall, the regulation on interdepartmental interaction for identifying family distress in the region yields positive results. As reported by Tamara Olekhnovich, over 5 months, more than 2,000 signals of distress were received from various services. Approximately 30-40% of the information received concerned families where children were already in a socially dangerous situation.

– However, this also provides an impetus for us to analyze the family situation again, adjust actions, and possibly extend the period of children's stay in a socially dangerous situation or consider the need to recognize minors as requiring state protection, – believes Tamara Vitalievna.

Natalia Ryzhkova, "Vitebskie vesti". Photos from open sources.