Sosyal Risk Altındaki Çocuklar İçin Sosyal Hizmetler: 2000 Sonrasına İlişkin Bir Değerlendirme

Abstract

This study aims to emphasize the importance of preventive and protective social services for children facing risks. Children and youth centers, community centers and family counseling centers, which play a very important role in carrying out preventive and protective social services, were run by the Ministry of Family and Social Policies (previously the Social Services and Child Protection Agency) between 2000 and 2010. These services were provided through intermittent projects, and there was a failure to establish stability and continuity in their operation. In addition to infrastructural problems faced by the organizations (the number and physical conditions of the buildings, the number and qualifications of the personnel), failure to establish a functioning system of monitoring and assessment hampered children-oriented social works. These organizations, which were considered to have failed to provide a sufficient level of preventive and protective services, were closed down after 2010, and replaced by organizations called Social Services Centers, which aimed to carry out the functions of now defunct organizations under the same roof, in a more comprehensive manner. However, the problems mentioned continued to exist after this transformation.

This study aims to provide an assessment of child protection system in Turkey, with a particular focus on the post-2000 experience. In this context, a basic premise is that solving the infrastructural problems of the organizations involved is a prerequisite for providing effective children-oriented services. A systematic and critical process of monitoring and assessment should be established to identify problems. Another important point is that social services should be seen as public services the state is under an obligation to provide, not as short-term projects. Therefore, this paper argues that a critical analysis of past experiences would play an important role in improving the system, and the project-oriented approach should be abandoned.