16 October 2020

Organization for Children without Parental Care – OFAP in cooperation with the Coalition of NGOs for Child Protection in Kosovo – KOMF and the Association of Centers for Social Work of Kosovo, have held a two-day thematic workshop on the Draft Law on Social and Family Services.

This thematic workshop brought together the Centers for Social Work from the municipalities of Kosovo, in order to address the main issues related to the profiling and structure of the Centers for Social Work, the profiling of social workers/social service officials.

The main recommendations from the Association of Centers for Social Work were:

• The profiling and structure of the Centers for Social Work should be unique and regulated by statute and internal regulations. CSWs must be legal entities with a clear statute and bank accounts;
• Clarify the status of social service officers (classify civil servants and professional staff);
• Social services officer as a term to be removed from the law (civil servants do not provide direct social services but a group of professionals);
• Establish a special unit for psychosocial counseling within the Center for Social Work;
• The number of employees in the Center for Social Work should be set with a standard based on the number of inhabitants;
• Set the risk for service providers;
• Clarify the mandate of the Guardianship Authority (Guardianship Authority is a function within the Center and is a combination of social and legal work);
• Provide an Administrative Instruction for the Guardianship Authority.

This activity was organized in frame of the project “Strengthening Social Services for Children and Vulnerable Families”, funded by the Swiss Embassy in Kosovo and implemented by the Coalition of NGOs for Child Protection KOMF, as well as the project “Joint Action for Decentralization ”, funded by the European Union, managed by the EU Office in Kosovo and implemented by the Coalition of NGOs for Child Protection in Kosovo – KOMF in partnership with the Organization for Children without Parental Care – OFAP, SOS Children’s Villages Kosovo and KMOP.