Sofia, April 20 2016
For a fifth consecutive year the National Network for Children presented its annual report “Report card 2016: What is the average grade of the government for child related policies?”. After presenting it to the institutions on April 15th, at a meeting of the Advisory Board of the State Child Protection Agency (SCPA), on April 20th at the “Peroto” club, the Report card was presented to partners, media and the public. For the first time it was presented simultaneously in 8 regions of Bulgaria. The document aims to review the progress of the implementation of over 20 engagements towards children that the government has undertaken. The Report card evaluates five of them: General principles of the Declaration of the rights of the Child; Family and alternative care; Healthcare; Education and Justice, plus one additional - child and youth participation. The NNC report comes in two versions – popular – for the public, including children, and expert – meant for specialists and institutions.
This year’s progress of the government policies concerning children is slow and the mark is “average “ 3.28. But still it has to be taken under consideration that this is the Report card’s highest average mark until now. In comparison last year the government received 3.20.
The highest mark is for Healthcare – “good” 3.58, and the highest marked subsidiary is "Outpatient and hospital care”- “good” 4.04. A positive change is the implementation of supplementary examinations for newborn babies and children at pre-school age. Family counseling centers on maternal and child health were also created at the regional multi-profile hospitals for ensuring a full set of services for children and pregnant women. As every year, traditionally, for a fifth consecutive time the progress in “Healthcare” was presented by Dr. Radosveta Stamenkova, Executive director of BFPA who, provoked by the absence of a representative of the Ministry of Health at the official presenting of the Report card at the Council of Ministers, put on a carnival hat to express her dissent at such a neglect of the problem. In response to the public presentation the Minister of health sent a representative with a congratulatory address.
Besides criticism towards the responsible institutions, Report card 2016 also provides recommendations for improving the overall situation. It contains 10 possible solutions to 10 unsolved problems. In the popular version of the report are included “Little steps towards the big change: - advice on how each one of us can help improve the well-being of the children in Bulgaria in everyday life.
You can download the online versions of Report card 2016 here: