A Czech Story about the Social and Legal Protection of Children

In the Czech Republic, aid to and protection of children in various life situations have a longstanding tradition. In identifying children who are growing up in situations of risk, as well as providing them with full support and assistance in gaining their rights, all who work them professionally in some aspects of their lives are obliged to participate. Along with social workers, these are mostly paediatricians and other doctor specialists, midwives, pre-school teachers, teachers, pedagogues, psychologists... When applying work, social workers need to possess many layers of knowledge and skills on the one hand, and practice thoughtful ethical behaviour on the other hand. The text brings information about the system in the Czech Republic and the view of the social workers themselves helping children.

Government for Work and Social Things cooperate with the important institutions on the international level, it monitors the children's rights and monitors the following of the international agreements. The Government for Work and Social Things does research on the whole country level. Based on the research it analyses the collected data and prepares new national strategies for children's protection. Also, they publish methodical material for other office working on protecting the children's rights and needs" (The Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs CZ, online, 2020-08-29).
Another department working on the children's social-legal protection is the Government for Education of the Czech Republic, which controls institutions such as intuitional care houses, institutional care houses with school, diagnostic or behavioural institutions. The form of help is mainly in the legislative way and methodical support including the institutional care. Plus, the Government for Education is participating in the transformation of the institutional care system for jeopardized children. The Government for Education presented in 2016 that the number of children in institutional care is falling, whereas the number of children with behavioural problems in behavioural and diagnostic institutions is growing. More than 8% of children are placed in the institutions due to problems with biological family or in the family is a threat or their mental or physical health. Most children placed on institutional care are between 15-18 years old, which is not convenient for their upbringing and future life. Thus, the OSPOD decision is done when the harm is huge and the pathological changes and the possibility of fixing those changes is lower (Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports CZ, online, 2020-08-29).
The Government for Health of the Czech Republic is helping with educating the health workers.
Mainly, they are focused on practical doctors (such as GPs) because these doctors are more often in relation to the victims of home abuse. Another group who is working with victims are primary health workers and workers at the traumatology departments who can be the first health workers who recognize the trauma which a child could experience. The special attention is given to the harassment and jeopardizing of children.
The Government for Justice of the Czech Republic target to the legislative adjustment, which should affect the agenda of process prescriptions, legal adjustments, social-legal children, and young people protection.
The Government for Interior Things is focusing on the illegal harassment done with children. Plus, they offer the prevention´s program about children criminality.
There are more other institutions working in this field. However, they are non-state and free of charge.
Those organizations work on voluntarily base when the volunteer comes to family and tries to help.
Mainly, they point the families to the state organizations and monitors them.

The Social Worker in OSPOD
The main aim of OSPOD is to offer help to disadvantaged or children is an urgent need or help children in a risk situation. Dunovsky (1995) categorises the family to three categories: problematic, dysfunction www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/wjssr World Journal of Social Science Research Vol. 7, No. 4, 2020 78 Published by SCHOLINK INC. and non-function. To each of these families, the social workers tend to use a different approach (motivation, advice, monitoring, reprehension or execution of a child), but always the needs and interests of a child should be at the first place. Most often reasons, why the family starts to cooperate with OSPOD, is fall one of those aspects and a child can be treated in its upbringing such as monitoring of a child, creation of a safe environment for upbringing, ensuring sufficient food for health grow, clothes and hygiene, care of physical and social health, care of the development of a child and its education. Families which have lower material safety can be seen as risk families and can be motored by the OSPOD even though they have good emotional and health environment (Ševčíková, 2006).
The OSPOD is throughout the social workers the executor of many activities. According to Matoušek (2016), it is submitted the suggestion to the justice organs to deprive, stop or restrict the parents´ responsibilities; presents the suggestion to execution, renewal or prescript the institutional care; submit the suggestion for early proceeding in case that the child has been without a caregiver or there is a possibility that the current caregiver is not able to give to the child enough care. Another function is to be the contemporary caregiver; procced the adoption; offer the counselling to future caregivers or adopting parents; monitor the process of protective care, and be part of the trial with young people and cooperate with the prisons. Based on the list of duties of OSPOD is obvious that the social workers cooperate with many institutions such as trials, schools, hospitals, and intuitional care institutions.
As mentioned before the key worker at OSPOD is a social worker who has the professional competencies which are stated in law No. 359/1999 Coll., about social-legal protection of children.
The main duties of a social worker are: -To ensure the prevention actions-monitor the negative influences on children and find out its origin.
-To offer the counselling-help parent while figuring out the behavioural problems, to offer the counselling while upbringing and educating and even with the care for children with a handicap, organize the lectures and courses focused on the figuring the educational, social and other problems coherent with care for a child, to allow suitable people to adopt a child and offer to counsel to those people. The worker must be able to help the family to get to normal after executing a child and ensure the possibility for the comeback of the executed child.
-To make actions for the protection of children-submit the suggestion to trial, it does the unnecessary action for child best interests and needs.
-While committing a child to care of other people than parents-the workers decides if the child will be committed to other people, whether the child is in institutional care the workers decided who will have the child in care. Also, the worker collects the agreements from parents if they decided to give a child to the adoption of the institutional care. Plus, it keeps all the documentation to each directed case. -To practise the institutional and protective care-The worker works against repetitive behavioural problems and mainly against illegal activities, alerts he district office for the needs to help children, mainly those who left the institutional care with receiving any possible help which they can receive, the worker cooperate with worker offices, offer to the children the programs which they can help to successful replace in the society.
-The offer of social-legal protection with foreign families-to help parents to receive the funds for giving the care, to help children to get them back to the Czech Republic.
-In case of social-legal protection in specific cases-to do announcements about the existence of a child in risk or harmful environment. The workers are supposed to do necessary actions to protect health growth and development of a child.
-The research practical show According to the aims of this paper the authors would like to represent a practical show of social workers at the OSPOD

The Character of the Respondent
The worker is a married woman 38 years old. She reached a bachelor's degree in social work. The respondent works in the office of the City part of Prague for 12 years. Before this job, she worked for 4 years as a referent of social funds at the Office for work for the Czech Republic also in Prague in the same part of Prague as now. She changed her job because she has finished her studies and she is interested in this problematic. Her whole career she works at the city part as a social worker at the department of social-legal protection of children.
During the interview whole, the ethical considerations were followed. The fact of anonymity and the right environment was chosen based on the sensitivity of the topic. The respondent has agreed on the use of dictaphone which allowed the researcher to focus on the topic and support the atmosphere, the whole interview took 150 minutes.
The research adds that the respondent looks very good, she is very professional orientated, and she does not have symptoms of tiredness or dislike of the job. Thus, these findings are very relevant.
The text below is with the answers with the respondent.
The T = researcher and the R = respondent. T: Most frequent method of care is the exclusive care of one parent when the second parent has clarified alimony (if it is needed than the exact time for meeting the child). Another option is an alternative way or collective care of a child. Those two alternatives should come from the agreement of both parents (but it is not a condition), for the child they should keep one educational institution, one doctor and the distance between parents´ place of living should not be too big. Collective care comes in the mind when parents agree that they will not have separate living. They are staying living together e.g. in one house thus, they can take care together.

R: "For request of a client the social worker is available to help with submission of the written request to the district trial. The request hands the client independently. While the trial is going on, each child is assigned a social worker so there cannot be the collision of interest. Thus, the social worker is assigned by the OSPOD. The social worker is assigned to every trial so even the first trials about setting up the rules for the meeting have the social worker there."
T: The process of divorce can take time, which is very intensive mainly in the emotional area for both parents. Whether the parents do not agree about the upbringing the divorce process can be long-term.
When the request is submitted the social worker is asked to do an investigation in the family and in the environment where the child is brought up. The social worker is focused on the practical and suitable part of the place of living; on the possibility of the hygiene, suitability for a living; if the child has own bed and place to play or study. During the investigation the social worker interviews both parents separately, during the interview the social and family aspects are found out: -Mainly who has secured the care for the child or children, including the preparation for school and cooperation with school -Who secured the household work such as ironing, shopping, cleaning etc. -Whether the chid prefers any environment (with mother, with father or alternative).

R: "After the investigation, the social worker hands the written rationale. In the written rationale the social worker offers the ideal solution which is based on the investigation. The social worker is also in the trial where they ensure the children's best interests."
R: "…in the Czech Republic is used the Cochem's praxis…" T: The Cochem's praxis is model of interdisciplinary cooperation of professions involved in the parents' conflict, which origins in 90th years 20th century in Germany and slowly is getting its space in the Czech Republic as well. Cochem's praxis is based on assumption that children of divorcing parents do not want to lose either one of parents. However, mainly during divorce, there are not at the first place the right of children but right for children. R: "Another usual activity for a social worker is the monitoring of the families, which have assigned the monitoring program over their hat. That means some problems have already been in the family." T: The main duty of OSPOD is to build for a child the ideal conditions for quality development, hence the child should not be taken from family or that the comeback to the family could be possible for the child. T: OSPOD is in the trial process assigned to be the conflict worker-like a barrier between parents.
Whether the child is placed in the institutional care the social worker visits the child every 6 months and

Result
The above text presented the work of the staff of the social and legal protection body for children in the Czech Republic and focused on one of the main problems. The thematic area also becomes the worker himself, not only in terms of education, but also in terms of social interaction. An environment that is groundbreaking for a child's development, and depends not only on the teacher, students, but also on society as such, what position it occupies. Child clients of social and legal protection have a much higher rate of psychosocial problems, but they also come from a high-risk environment. Risk and protective effects include genetic factors; physical trauma; forgiveness psychosocial experiences; experience "in care" and experience after leaving care.
When applying work, social workers need to possess many layers of knowledge and skills on the one hand, and practice thoughtful ethical behaviour on the other hand. They need to be prepared for controlling the processes, recognising the problems, using the applicable tools and techniques, managing confl icts, evaluating the result, and fi nally giving feedback.
The OSPOD work is very diverse and interesting it is not a stereotype work, each case is different and requires a specific approach. However, it is a hard job the social worker does not have a vacancy even for a year and it is challenging for the emotional side. The personality of s social worker is crucial, and it is www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/wjssr important to have good formal side and the emotional side in balance. Socio-legal protection of children as a part of the system of care for children at risk has been undergoing the above described transformation, which is not a one-off event but a long-term process for over 10 years. At the moment, in the Czech Republic we can rest upon the present situation, and be prepared for the legislative and system changes due in the next few years.