Last week, I attended the conference Deinstitutionalisation of Childcare: Investing in Change, in Sofia, Bulgaria. It was a very interesting exchange about how the deinstitutionalisation process in Bulgaria is going and what should be done differently, within a wider international context of deinstitutionalisation approaches.
The three-day conference was organised by the Bulgarian Ministry of Labour and Social Policy and the New Bulgarian University, together with a number of international NGOs that also work in Bulgaria. It attracked a big range of important national and international ‘players’ in the field, which made for every interesting presentiations, discussions and exchanges of experiences and research results.
There were presentations of results from research projects, showing the harmful effects of institutionalisation, comparison between institutionalisation and foster care, and more generally the effect of abuse and neglect on the neurological, mental health, psychological and social development of children. Including a presentation on the Bucharest Early Intervention Projects, by three of the researchers who set it up.
There were presentations on the deinstitutionalisation process itself, in Bulgaria, Ireland and Lithuania. Presentations on the financial and investment aspect of deinstitutionalisation and the dangers and pitfalls involved in that. A representative of the EU joined us to illustrate her perspective on this. And there were several presentations that made the case for helping children who have left institutional care by making use of and strengthening the existing relationships in their lives.
The days were concluded with interesting reflective sessions, where groups of people came together to discuss particular issues, or to find ways to put what had been brought up in the conference to concrete use. And I was one of the people presenting a poster, in my case about the report Alternative Care for Children Around the Globe (you can download the report free HERE).
While the conference was very interesting, I do not think their stated expected outcome was reached. This projected outcome, as stated on the conference website, is: ‘The participants will agree on a set of conclusions and guidelines for investment in childcare reforms and increasing the capacity for evidence-based DI policy development and implementation.’ The conference probably gave the people involved in developing policy around the Bulgarian deinstitutionalisation process a lot of material to help them start the discussion that may lead to guidelines and conclusions, but these certainly were not reached during the conference.
I felt that it was one of the downsides that the panel discussions on the second day ended up essentially being presentations of the achievements of certain organisations, rather than an opportunity used to actually encourage and fuel the kind of discussions that could have led to (a basis for) guidelines or policy. Instead, for people who have really taken in all (or most) that was said, the conference gave a good overview of landmines and pitfalls to avoid and some points of useful approaches of promising practice. These things are very valuable as a starting point for determining where we should go and what we should do along the way, but they are not a road map.
Still, I am very glad that I attended. It has certainly given me food for thought. Obviously, this is a very general overview of what the conference was about, mostly because there was too much going on to put in one blog. So, I will be writing a series of blogs over the coming weeks, dealing with different aspects of what was presented and discussed last week. Sharing with you some of the ideas and research from the people present, together with my views on them.
One of the things I enjoyed most of all, was spending three days with about 150 people who all agreed that deinstitutionalisation is necessary. In so much of my work and interactions, I spend much of my time making the argument for deinstitutionalisation, and very little time getting beyond that. Here that part was a given, and we could dive straight into the discussion of how to go about doing it properly. That was a real gift.
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