Which good practices in the field of out-of-home care have proven successful from the point of view of those affected? Which quality standards can we derive from this and how can we implement them? These are the questions Quality4Children, a project of SOS Children's Villages, IFCO (International Foster Care Organisation) und FICE (Féderation Internationale des Communautés Educatives) focuses on.
32 European countries participate in the project. Particularly affected children and youths as well as their biological families and care persons were asked, thus playing a substantial role in the development of the quality standards. From the very beginning youths have been involved in the project: They presented their views, were represented in the Quality4Children steering group and are also included in the implementation phase of the Quality4Children standards.
18 standards, which have been divided into the three chapters "Decision-making and admission process", "Care-taking process" and "Leaving-care process" are now available. Each standard section deals with responsibilities, guidelines and risk factors as well as with its relationship to the UN convention on the rights of the child. In addition to that those people are quoted who shared their Good Practice stories. As a next step, the standards are to be put into practice and evaluated on an ongoing basis.
On 13 June 2007, SOS-Kinderdorf International in cooperation with IFCO and FICE presented their Quality4Children standards for out-of-home child and youth care in Europe. The presentation took place at the European Parliament upon invitation of Ms Lissy Gröner, member of the European Parliament, and with the support of European Commissioner Ms Benita Ferrero-Waldner. Here too the youths played an important role: They presented the Quality4Children standards and reported on their experiences.
Apart from the three organizations which will use the Q4C standards in their own work, in some European countries there are concrete declarations of intent to put the Q4C standards into practice. For instance, the youth welfare authorities of Switzerland, the Netherlands and Malta are planning to use the Q4C standards as a frame of action for ensuring and improving the quality of childcare.
For more information see:
www.quality4children.info quality4children@sos-kd.org