Child Poverty in Slovakia
Impact of the COVID-19
crisis
Government support
The government’s support to
families and children during the
crisis was inadequate.
The Slovak government did not
address the needs of families and
children adequately during the
pandemic. In particular, no special
allowance to support families
in vulnerable situations was
introduced. The Ministry of Labour,
Social Affairs and Family extended
the provision of parental allowance
to parents who lost their entitlement
to it in March 2020 and did not have
a job to return to, and had no other
income. It was paid until the end of
the emergency in April 2020.1
An amendment to the Act on Social
Insurance, which regulates, inter alia,
the conditions for entitlement to
nursing care during child sickness
in connection with the spread of
coronavirus was adopted in March
2020. It secured a nursing care
allowance previously provided
during child-sickness for children
0-18 years2 during the lockdown.
Negative developments
• In many cases children in
segregated villages did not attend
any kind of education from March
to June 2020.
Good practice
• New and effective ways of working
(webinars, online meetings…)
• Big wave of solidarity among
people.
• New fundraising tools emerged
including new ways of
crowdfunding.
• New partnerships that led to new
initiatives were established.
Key challenges experienced by
families and children
• Insecurity about the future and not
knowing how long the situation
was going to last. Uncertainty of
the re-unification of families whose
members/parents stayed locked
in different countries.
• Attempts to harmonise homeoffice and home schooling. Lack
of computers and personnel
capacities.
• Not being able to generate
sufficient income for the families.
Key challenges for civil society
organisations
• To continue implementation of
the project activities e.g. based
on cooperation with schools or by
organising conferences.
• Insecurity for the future, inability
to plan anything: need for
organisations to re-structure their
activities and their approach and
working methods.
3 Národná rámcová stratégia podpory sociálneho začlenenia a boja proti chudobe
4 Pozičný dokument Participácia detí a mladých ľudí na Slovensku
5 Návrh stratégie podpory arozvoja participácie detí a mladých ľudí vSlovenskej republike
• Major impact on cash flow due to
interruption of services. Income
has scaled down since donors
were facing similar financial
difficulties. The donors were
generous with prolonging the
projects’ duration and submitting
the final reports.
Policies for Investing in Children
National strategy to
tackle child poverty
The national strategy to tackle
poverty and social exclusion3 was
adopted in 2015 and updated in
2017. Coalition of Children Slovakia
(CCS) considers that it fails to
address the needs of the poorest
families and children in segregated
areas. Another weak point is that
there is no action plan to implement
the planned measures.
CCS has observed a tendency by the
Slovak government to regress in the
implementation of policies for the
benefit of children. A good example
is the Ombudsperson for Children,
which is a missed opportunity and a
waste of funding. Slovakia has had a
new government since March 2020
that includes the parties promoting
“traditional family values” (with a
conservative catholic background).
Children’s rights are overlooked and
the reproductive rights of woman
are now under pressure, due to the
new conservative leadership of
the Ministry of Social Affairs, and
Ministry of Health Care. Their actions
(a new law is in parliament) consist
of appointing conservative heads of
ministerial departments in charge of
these policies, introducing measures
that will restrict the access of
women to abortion and reorienting
grant schemes for pro-life and family
policies designated originally for
gender balance. New measures are
also expected in children’s rights
issues.
The involvement of the EU in
promoting children’s rights was
adequate:
The Coalition for Children Slovakia
suggests not providing funds to the
areas which were not able to use the
allocated funds and evaluating the
impact of supported projects. The
rule of law and human rights should
be the guiding principles in all calls.
Children’s right to
participate
The main challenge is not
understanding the meaning of
participation and absence of an
official leader or a supervisor for
ensuring child participation. A child
is understood as a passive recipient
instead of an active co-creator that
should be involved in all decisionmaking processes that affect
them. A member of the CCS, the
Open Society Foundation Slovakia,
published a position paper mapping
the situation on child participation
in Slovakia4. They also published
a National Strategy for support
of the participation of children
and young people in Slovakia.5
Recommendations focus on two
main areas - school and municipality
environments:
in school environment:
• Incorporate the child participation
into the education & training of
future teaching and professional
staff
• Elaborate the programme
of teacher’s professional
development that will include the
issue of participation of children
and young people
146 | 2020 Eurochild Report on the European Semester
• Develop the methodology for
ensuring school participation
in the municipality:
• Introduce the participation of
children and young people in
municipality
5 A City in Central Slovakia.
• Appoint the coordinator for the
participation of children and young
people at local-government level
• Develop the methodology to
ensure the participation of
children and young people
Efforts of the government to
ensure child participation:
For progress to be made, a new
ombudsperson for children should
be appointed, with a mandate to
protect and ensure the enforcement
of children’s rights. The functioning
of the Committee for Children and
Young People should be made more
efficient and transparent, following
the suspension of all activities after
the previous coordinator left.
Children in Alternative Care (CIAC)
Impact of the COVID-19
crisis
During lockdown all residential
facilities canceled visits. Contact
between a child and their biological
family was ensured via social media
and phone. Adoption processes
were also stopped.
• NGOs have been trying to monitor
children and families in vulnerable
situations with the assistance of
some municipalities, and some
such as the Banská Bystrica5
municipality were very helpful.
Given the absence of ambulant
or community services, it is
estimated that the number of
children entering child protection
will raise by 30% approximately.
Families at risk were hit hard by
the crisis with no or very limited
support including the absence
of support provided via family
centres. Even in situations where
a woman with children needed to
leave their home it was difficult
to find a place since all help and
crisis centres were closed.
• There were no special measures
during the crisis to address the
needs of young people ageing
out of care. They could stay
in residential care during the
pandemic. Mental health problems
and depression from uncertainty
increased among young people,
and yet no adequate support was
provided.
Child protection
The Slovak Republic introduced
new types of services for families
in vulnerable situations by creating
the Centre for Children and Family
in 2019 which the CCS sees as a
positive change in child protection.
This centre provides new community
services from experts such as
psychologists and social workers.
The centres were created in existing
facilites. The quality of the services
provided may vary but in general it is
a step forward.
There is also a new Concept
ensuring the implementation
of measures in social
protection facilities and social
guardianship for the years 2019
– 2023. The Transformation and
Deinstitutionalisation Plan aims
at continuing the process of
deinstitutionalisation of replacement
care, in order to reduce the number
of children placed in alternative care.
The Coalition for Children of Slovakia
believes the deinstitutionalisation
of children in alternative care has
brought several positive changes
to the care system. However, it is
still work in progress and there are
several gaps. Remaining challenges
are the further transformation
of residential facilities, the
development of family-based
foster care and the adoption of
Country profiles - Slovakia | 147
clear standards for all providers of
alternative care for children. Family
support via various programmes
as well as counselling centres
needs to be further developed and
deployed across the country. Several
separations of children from their
families could have been prevented
if there had been adequate financial
and non-financial assistance, given
the findings of the Ministry of Labour
that one of the main reasons why
children enter the child protection
system is their poor socio-economic
situation6.
Children in migration
In Slovakia there were 85
unaccompanied migrant children
in 2019 who were placed in
a specialised children’s home
in Medzilaborce7. Out of 69
unaccompanied minors who entered
Slovakia in 2019, 38 were provided
accommodation and support in the
same home.
crisis
Government support
The government’s support to
families and children during the
crisis was inadequate.
The Slovak government did not
address the needs of families and
children adequately during the
pandemic. In particular, no special
allowance to support families
in vulnerable situations was
introduced. The Ministry of Labour,
Social Affairs and Family extended
the provision of parental allowance
to parents who lost their entitlement
to it in March 2020 and did not have
a job to return to, and had no other
income. It was paid until the end of
the emergency in April 2020.1
An amendment to the Act on Social
Insurance, which regulates, inter alia,
the conditions for entitlement to
nursing care during child sickness
in connection with the spread of
coronavirus was adopted in March
2020. It secured a nursing care
allowance previously provided
during child-sickness for children
0-18 years2 during the lockdown.
Negative developments
• In many cases children in
segregated villages did not attend
any kind of education from March
to June 2020.
Good practice
• New and effective ways of working
(webinars, online meetings…)
• Big wave of solidarity among
people.
• New fundraising tools emerged
including new ways of
crowdfunding.
• New partnerships that led to new
initiatives were established.
Key challenges experienced by
families and children
• Insecurity about the future and not
knowing how long the situation
was going to last. Uncertainty of
the re-unification of families whose
members/parents stayed locked
in different countries.
• Attempts to harmonise homeoffice and home schooling. Lack
of computers and personnel
capacities.
• Not being able to generate
sufficient income for the families.
Key challenges for civil society
organisations
• To continue implementation of
the project activities e.g. based
on cooperation with schools or by
organising conferences.
• Insecurity for the future, inability
to plan anything: need for
organisations to re-structure their
activities and their approach and
working methods.
3 Národná rámcová stratégia podpory sociálneho začlenenia a boja proti chudobe
4 Pozičný dokument Participácia detí a mladých ľudí na Slovensku
5 Návrh stratégie podpory arozvoja participácie detí a mladých ľudí vSlovenskej republike
• Major impact on cash flow due to
interruption of services. Income
has scaled down since donors
were facing similar financial
difficulties. The donors were
generous with prolonging the
projects’ duration and submitting
the final reports.
Policies for Investing in Children
National strategy to
tackle child poverty
The national strategy to tackle
poverty and social exclusion3 was
adopted in 2015 and updated in
2017. Coalition of Children Slovakia
(CCS) considers that it fails to
address the needs of the poorest
families and children in segregated
areas. Another weak point is that
there is no action plan to implement
the planned measures.
CCS has observed a tendency by the
Slovak government to regress in the
implementation of policies for the
benefit of children. A good example
is the Ombudsperson for Children,
which is a missed opportunity and a
waste of funding. Slovakia has had a
new government since March 2020
that includes the parties promoting
“traditional family values” (with a
conservative catholic background).
Children’s rights are overlooked and
the reproductive rights of woman
are now under pressure, due to the
new conservative leadership of
the Ministry of Social Affairs, and
Ministry of Health Care. Their actions
(a new law is in parliament) consist
of appointing conservative heads of
ministerial departments in charge of
these policies, introducing measures
that will restrict the access of
women to abortion and reorienting
grant schemes for pro-life and family
policies designated originally for
gender balance. New measures are
also expected in children’s rights
issues.
The involvement of the EU in
promoting children’s rights was
adequate:
The Coalition for Children Slovakia
suggests not providing funds to the
areas which were not able to use the
allocated funds and evaluating the
impact of supported projects. The
rule of law and human rights should
be the guiding principles in all calls.
Children’s right to
participate
The main challenge is not
understanding the meaning of
participation and absence of an
official leader or a supervisor for
ensuring child participation. A child
is understood as a passive recipient
instead of an active co-creator that
should be involved in all decisionmaking processes that affect
them. A member of the CCS, the
Open Society Foundation Slovakia,
published a position paper mapping
the situation on child participation
in Slovakia4. They also published
a National Strategy for support
of the participation of children
and young people in Slovakia.5
Recommendations focus on two
main areas - school and municipality
environments:
in school environment:
• Incorporate the child participation
into the education & training of
future teaching and professional
staff
• Elaborate the programme
of teacher’s professional
development that will include the
issue of participation of children
and young people
146 | 2020 Eurochild Report on the European Semester
• Develop the methodology for
ensuring school participation
in the municipality:
• Introduce the participation of
children and young people in
municipality
5 A City in Central Slovakia.
• Appoint the coordinator for the
participation of children and young
people at local-government level
• Develop the methodology to
ensure the participation of
children and young people
Efforts of the government to
ensure child participation:
For progress to be made, a new
ombudsperson for children should
be appointed, with a mandate to
protect and ensure the enforcement
of children’s rights. The functioning
of the Committee for Children and
Young People should be made more
efficient and transparent, following
the suspension of all activities after
the previous coordinator left.
Children in Alternative Care (CIAC)
Impact of the COVID-19
crisis
During lockdown all residential
facilities canceled visits. Contact
between a child and their biological
family was ensured via social media
and phone. Adoption processes
were also stopped.
• NGOs have been trying to monitor
children and families in vulnerable
situations with the assistance of
some municipalities, and some
such as the Banská Bystrica5
municipality were very helpful.
Given the absence of ambulant
or community services, it is
estimated that the number of
children entering child protection
will raise by 30% approximately.
Families at risk were hit hard by
the crisis with no or very limited
support including the absence
of support provided via family
centres. Even in situations where
a woman with children needed to
leave their home it was difficult
to find a place since all help and
crisis centres were closed.
• There were no special measures
during the crisis to address the
needs of young people ageing
out of care. They could stay
in residential care during the
pandemic. Mental health problems
and depression from uncertainty
increased among young people,
and yet no adequate support was
provided.
Child protection
The Slovak Republic introduced
new types of services for families
in vulnerable situations by creating
the Centre for Children and Family
in 2019 which the CCS sees as a
positive change in child protection.
This centre provides new community
services from experts such as
psychologists and social workers.
The centres were created in existing
facilites. The quality of the services
provided may vary but in general it is
a step forward.
There is also a new Concept
ensuring the implementation
of measures in social
protection facilities and social
guardianship for the years 2019
– 2023. The Transformation and
Deinstitutionalisation Plan aims
at continuing the process of
deinstitutionalisation of replacement
care, in order to reduce the number
of children placed in alternative care.
The Coalition for Children of Slovakia
believes the deinstitutionalisation
of children in alternative care has
brought several positive changes
to the care system. However, it is
still work in progress and there are
several gaps. Remaining challenges
are the further transformation
of residential facilities, the
development of family-based
foster care and the adoption of
Country profiles - Slovakia | 147
clear standards for all providers of
alternative care for children. Family
support via various programmes
as well as counselling centres
needs to be further developed and
deployed across the country. Several
separations of children from their
families could have been prevented
if there had been adequate financial
and non-financial assistance, given
the findings of the Ministry of Labour
that one of the main reasons why
children enter the child protection
system is their poor socio-economic
situation6.
Children in migration
In Slovakia there were 85
unaccompanied migrant children
in 2019 who were placed in
a specialised children’s home
in Medzilaborce7. Out of 69
unaccompanied minors who entered
Slovakia in 2019, 38 were provided
accommodation and support in the
same home.
