Legislation
Law No 272/2004 on the protection and promotion of the rights of the child, republished.
Preventing separation of the child from his/her family is achieved by:
- Identification of children and families in a situation of difficulty (abandonment, domestic violence, at-risk situation, neglect, exploitation, abuse, truancy/ dropout, deviant behaviour, etc.);
- Advising and informing families with dependent children about their rights and obligations, the rights of the child and the social services and benefits available locally;
- Assessment of situations requiring the provision of services and/or benefits (model view Risk identification sheet);
- Monitoring children according to the objectives of the service plan (model view Service plan and Monitoring sheet).
Child monitoring is the observation and detailed assessment of the case, involves a thorough, multidimensional investigation of the family and social environment in which the child lives, aims to collect relevant information from all areas of assessment concerned (medical, social, psychological, etc..) through face-to-face interviews with the persons involved, by observing behaviors, by consulting the documents and documents presented or by other specific modalities (visits, social inquiries, telephone calls).
At the end of the monitoring period, the implementation of the child and family service plan and the delivery of the planned services is assessed in order to determine the progress of the child and family situation and to adapt/adjust the specific intervention for each individual case.