Leiden University writes advisory report on legislative bill to improve legal protection in youth protection
Advisory report
Leiden University has written an advisory report at the request of the Ministry of Justice and Security on a legislative bill to improve legal protection in youth protection. The report acknowledges the improvements that the proposed legislation would bring, but also provides criticism.
In December 2024, the Ministry of Justice and Security submitted draft legislation aimed at improving legal protection in youth protection for consultation. In this process, a draft bill is presented to various stakeholders with the aim of gathering feedback and suggestions before the bill is finalised. The ministry requested advice from Leiden University’s Department of Child Law and Health Law on a number of essential points in the proposed legislation. The Institute of Education and Child Studies also contributed to the advisory report which was drawn up under the guidance of Professor Mariëlle Bruning.
The researchers conclude in the advisory report that the proposed legislation would indeed lead to many significant improvements in the legal protection of parents and children who are subject to a child protection order. For example, the draft proposal ensures that a visitation plan is established for each out-of-home placement, that the juvenile court will take decisions on the future perspective of each child placed in care, that the age limit for hearing children will be lowered, and also that a dispute settlement procedure for guardianship will be introduced.
However, the researchers are also critical of certain parts of the proposed legislation. For example, the way in which the supervision of the guardianship order is set up and the lack of a statutory regulation for legal support of children placed in care during proceedings. The report is also critical of the lack of an explicit positioning of ‘gezinshuizen’, more family-like alternatives to institutional care.
Read the full advisory report here (in Dutch).
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Wet versterking rechtsbescherming in de jeugdbescherming
The aim of the bill to improve legal protection in youth protection is to prevent parents and children who are confronted with child protection orders (e.g. out-of-home placements) from being treated unlawfully. Various studies in recent years have shown that the legal protection of these parents and children is currently inadequate. This conclusion was also drawn in the evaluatie van de Wet herziening kinderbeschermingsmaatregelen (evaluation of the Child Protection Act 2015), that was also written by the Department of Child Law and Health Law in collaboration with the Institute of Education and Child Studies. In 2022, the Minister for Legal Protection (then Franc Weerwind) said that the ministry would work on improvements to the legal protection of parents and children. These efforts led to the legislative bill to improve legal protection in youth protection.