Report: Child care services falls short in Dutch cities

Youth care in the Netherlands is seriously inadequate since the municipalities took over responsibility for it on January 1st last year, according to Monitor Transition Youth's annual report for 2015. The report describes the route to youth care as "long, unclear and unpleasant", Dutch newspaper AD reports. The monitor collected a total of 472 complaints and reports from parents, young people and children about youth care last year. More than half of the reports were about a lack of information. Parents are also regularly sent back and forth because it is not clear who is in charge. They do not get a respond to their request for help within the legally stipulated period of eight weeks. And they feel that their requests are not taken seriously. A quarter of the reports regarded the municipality not being careful with the child's privacy. Files are discussed with third parties, without the parents consent. Parents often do not know who has access to private information and have no idea how their children's information is protected. A number of parents reported that their request for help for their child was ignored after they refused access to personal information by third parties. The Monitor Transition Youth will keep an eye on youth care in the country until end of 2016. Based on its findings, the organization advises the Association of Dutch Municipalities, the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sports and the Ministry of Security and Justice on how to improve.