An information system has been created as a single source of information on foster families, specialized foster families and children in foster care. This will enable a faster placement of children with families, because, thus far, there hasn’t been a single information system for the said objective that would meet the requirements of the Law on State Information Systems. The current practice envisaged a circulation of information between the family courts and the State Inspectorate for Protection of Children’s Rights (SIPCR) in order to find a suitable foster family for a child in foster care.
A creation of such information system and its principles of operation are stipulated in the Cabinet Regulation “Foster Family Information System Regulation”, adopted on Tuesday 4 September in the government’s sitting.
The new system will enable and provide a possibility for everyone involved to immediately access the necessary information for the performance of the functions, to quickly exchange mutual information, to secure timely, valuable and co-ordinated inter-institutional team action in order to prevent crisis situation and to provide support for the foster families and the child in foster care, as well as to take preventative measures to improve the foster families’ support system and the protection of children’s rights.
The Ministry of Welfare believes that the new system will fundamentally facilitate more operative circulation of information and the co-operation between the institutions involved, which will result in a more successful placement of children with families. Thus, it will decrease the risk of the child in foster care being placed in an institutional care facility.
The SIPCR, the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs, the State Social Insurance Agency, the Social Service Office of a local government, the Police and the Foster Family Care Support Centre will have the right to access and use the information and personal data included in the Foster Family Information System.
Egils Zariņš
Ministry of Welfare
Manager of Public Relations for the Communications Department
64331829, egils.zarins@lm.gov.lv