Insufficiently trained, sometimes outright unsuitable staff, poor adaptation to individual care needs and large differences between different special youth homes. The compulsory care of children and young people lacks point after point, the National Audit Office believes.
– The care and treatment at Si’s youth home is neither good enough nor extensive enough. We see shortcomings both outside the youth homes, in Sis as an authority, and at the national level where the government has the main responsibility, says Maria-Medée Almroth, project manager for the review.
Unclear assignment
A main problem is that the mission from the government is unclear in terms of which young people Sis should receive and what treatment they should receive. It is also noted that there is a lack of treatment for, for example, self-injurious behavior and eating disorders, despite the fact that it often occurs, especially among girls.
The National Audit Office calls, among other things, for a better implementation of the management’s decisions in daily operations, a clearer responsibility for treatment operations within Sis and more competent personnel.
Repeated alarms
This is not the first time Sis has been criticized. In the past, among others, the government’s special investigators, the Inspectorate for Care and Care (Ivo), the Children’s Rights Agency and several media reviews have raised the alarm about abuses, violence and serious violations.
Changes are also underway. Earlier this year, the government announced that the entire authority is to be fundamentally changed.
At the same time, Maria-Medée Almroth emphasizes that the children and young people who stay in the homes today are hardly helped, that the system may look different in several years.
– There are measures that can be taken here and now to improve the situation for the young people who actually live in youth homes today, she says.