The members of the temporary working group of the Federation Council, engaged in the preparation of proposals for improving the Family Code of the country, announced the readiness of a package of bills. The senators paid special attention to the problems of protecting the rights of minors, as well as the actions of the guardianship authorities.
The correspondent of "VM" found out what exactly are to be discussed by the officials and why the public is against radical changes.
According to a member of the Federation Council Committee on Social Policy, a member of the temporary working group Elena Popova, "the package of legislative initiatives concerns a large number of norms of rights and protection of minor children in the family."
“We also have proposals on the norms for the removal of children from the family, implying completely new parameters,” said Popova. - Measures of administrative punishment are also provided for employees of the guardianship authorities who immediately resort to such extreme actions as separation of a child from a parent.
However, as Natalya Karpovich, President of the Child Protection Fund, head of the Association of Large Families in Moscow, told VM, the real problems lie at a deeper level, and they cannot be eliminated by law.
“We are convinced from year to year that neither the toughening of punishment, nor any other measures that are regulated only by law, fully resolve the issue of protecting the interests of children,” she said. - Moreover, I do not share the opinion that custody immediately takes away children. Yes, sometimes they are reinsured, but this is only due to a reluctance to let a potentially acute situation take its course. In addition, the guardianship authorities are already overwhelmed with bureaucracy, as well as the obligation to monitor the situation as a whole. And no one canceled the problem of the small number of personnel.
According to Karpovich, now, as soon as a child is born, several ministries and departments are involved in the case at once. Moreover, the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection often works exclusively as an institution that carries out payments and compensations. The Ministry of Health, educational structures, and even the police institute are also making their contribution.
- The problem is that we do not have a centralized system that would accompany children in families from the moment of birth to entering kindergarten, - says the expert. - Is that the foster sister who comes to the child for the first month. And then we often do not even know what is happening with the kids. And the guardianship has to make serious decisions about withdrawal already at the stage when something directly threatens the life and health of the child. Reinsurance is needed so that later, in the event of a tragedy, those responsible are not accused of negligence.
At the same time, according to Karpovich, the mechanism necessary for debugging the system has already been formed. These are the ombudsmen for the protection of the rights of the child.
- It is at this institute that it is necessary to organize a service for accompanying children in families, - the specialist explains. - Health authorities can inform if the child does not appear in the clinic for several months. Kindergarten - if the parents have not decided on the form of preschool education. Housing management organization - if a tragedy occurs in the family, resulting in millions of dollars in debt. And all this data must go to the authorized person. If we want to identify early problems, interaction and accumulation of information is necessary. Then the guardianship will be able to connect only in situations when it is really needed.
BTW
The temporary working group of the Federation Council to prepare proposals for improving the Family Code of the Russian Federation was formed in 2016 for three years. The issue of extending the established time frame is now being negotiated. The deadlines for submitting a package of new bills for consideration will become known by the end of March.
