BUDINČIO GLOBOTOJO PATIRIAMI IŠŠŪKIAI UŽTIKRINANT LAIKINAI PRIŽIŪRIMO VAIKO TEISES

Abstract

The family is considered the best environment for a child to grow and develop, so parents have the primary right to raise and educate their children and the duty to ensure safe and favorable conditions for the child’s development. Parental authority is not absolute, and in cases where parents are unable to ensure the rights of the child or are acting against the child’s interests, state institutions have the right to intervene in the family and, where justified, to remove the child from the family. The family environment is essential for the child’s comprehensive development, therefore the state gives priority to the guardianship (care) of the child in the family environment. One form of temporary child guardianship (care) is care in a Foster Care Center, where the child is placed in the family of a professionally trained guardian on duty.
The Institute of Temporary Guardianship (care) for Children is an important part of the child protection system, providing short-term care for children while assistance is provided to parents to help them resolve the problems that prevented them from ensuring safe and appropriate conditions for the child’s development and to enable the child to return to the family. The guardian on duty who provide temporary care for children have a difficult task – at any time of the day or night, they must take in a stranger, a child who has had a traumatic experience, and ensure an environment that meets their needs and interests. It is important to analyze how temporary child guardianship (care) is implemented and what is needed to improve the temporary guardianship (care) for children system, of which guardian on duty are an important part. The idea behind the study is based on the desire to find out what challenges guardian on duty face in ensuring principles of the rights of children as set out in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The aim of this article is to reveal the challenges faced by guardian on duty in implementing children’s rights when caring for children who have lost parental care. In order to achieve the set goal, a qualitative research type was chosen, using a semi-structured interview data collection method. Eight guardians on duty with at least two years of experience in caring for children in temporary care and who have cared for at least two children participated in the study. Qualitative content analysis was used for data analysis, applying theoretical coding and constructing categories and subcategories. The study was conducted in accordance with the basic principles of research ethics.
The study revealed that the area that causes the most anxiety and challenges for guardian on duty is ensuring the child’s health care due to insufficient information about the child’s health condition, which poses a risk to the child’s health or even life. The lack of information exposes the guardian’s on duty family members and other children in their care to the risk of infection. It was found that guardian on duty also lack information about the child’s situation, their past, and decisions related to the child’s guardianship (care). This information is necessary in order to establish a relationship with the child, understand their behavior, respond to their emotions, help them overcome difficulties, help them adapt more quickly to their new environment, ensure their emotional security, and prepare them for changes such as returning to their family or being adopted, etc. 
The specific needs of children make it difficult to create conditions conducive to their development. The study revealed the complexity of the work of a guardian on duty, which is determined not only by obstacles to obtaining information about the child, but also by other challenges related to the child’s situation, experiences, and traumatic events, such as the complexity of identifying the child’s needs, the specificity of the child’s needs, and the unpredictability of the child’s behavior. Another problem that has come to light is the prolonged or even excessive duration of temporary guardianship (care), as well as the continuity of adoption procedures for abandoned newborns. For a child to grow and develop, not only are appropriate conditions that meet their needs necessary, but also stability. Temporary guardianship (care) of a child is a means and an opportunity for parents to resolve emerging problems with the help of child protection authorities, but its duration must be decided in the best interests of the child and must not exceed the duration specified by law. The principle of the best interests of the child should also apply in cases where the child is abandoned after birth. Only children who are at least three months old may be adopted. The three-month period is intended to allow parents to change their decision and take back their child. However, the fact that the parents have abandoned the child is a serious signal to the child protection system to take immediate action to ensure the best interests of the child and to initiate adoption procedures so that, if the parents do not change their minds, the child will be adopted after three months. 
In order to achieve the goal of temporary guardianship (care) – to return the child to the family so that the child does not lose contact with relatives – children are given the opportunity to communicate with their parents, but both the child and the guardian on duty are faced with the negative influence of the parents on the children and the parents’ inadequate response to the care of the child. Children express their unwillingness to communicate with their parents, which makes it difficult to organize meetings with parents and raises difficulties in returning the child to the family. Communication between the guardian on duty and the child is one way to determine the child’s needs, but not all children are willing to open up due to fear or lack of ability. One of the biggest challenges for foster parents when caring for a child is the unpredictability of their behavior, which arises from the child’s traumatic experiences and causes harm to themselves and those around them. Duty guardians face difficulties in protecting children from discrimination experienced in educational institutions due to the negative attitudes of teachers towards foster children and their peers. It has become apparent that members of society also speak unfavorably about foster children.

Keywords: temporary child guardianship (care), children’s rights, child’s interests, guard
ian on duty.