Circumstances under which a child may be taken away from the family

What are the grounds for taking a child away from the family?

Having received a notification on a possible violation of a child’s rights, the Territorial Child Rights Protection Division of the Service starts to analyse it as soon as possible and assesses the child’s situation. Having assessed the child’s situation and having determined real danger to the child’s physical and (or) psychological safety, life or health, or the danger that may have a significant detrimental effect on the child’s health, a decision is made to establish the need for the protection of the child. Having established the need for the protection of the child, the child may be taken away from their parents, guardians (carers), if: 
•    it is impossible to guarantee a safe environment during the temporary care of a child, and the real danger to the child’s physical or psychological safety remains, which may have a significant detrimental effect on the child’s health or life; 
•    during the temporary care of the child, the child’s parents or other legal representatives do not put any effort, do not change their behaviour and the family continues to pose real danger to the child’s physical or psychological safety, which may have a significant detrimental effect on the child’s health or life.

How is the child’s situation assessed? 

During the investigation of the notification on a possible violation of a child’s rights, the defenders of the child rights visit the child’s place of residence, meet the child and the child’s legal representatives. If the child is able to express their opinion, the child is questioned. 

During the assessment of the child’s situation, the information submitted by the child, their family members, other people and specialists (e.g., teachers, social workers, representative of law enforcement) on possible violations of the child’s rights is assessed. 

During the assessment of the child’s individual situation, the defenders of the child’ rights take various risk factors into consideration. They may be related with the following:
* the child’s functioning (e.g., the child expresses their intention to be taken away, the child is ill and is not being treated); 
* the child’s legal representatives (e.g., they are under the influence of psychoactive substances, they threaten to beat the child, they defend the person, who possibly used violence against the child); 
* parenting skills and communication with the child (e.g., the parents ignore the child, isolate the child from  social environment). 
* The social environment (e.g. the premises, where the child resides, do not meet the basic hygiene standards). 

The decision to take the child away from their legal representatives is taken with regard to the circumstances as a whole, their justifications and the child’s best interests. 

Can the child be taken away, if they simply cry or shout loudly?

Crying or shouting without additional circumstances is not an unambiguous fact of the violation of a child’s rights. 

Having received a notification on the violation of a child’s rights, the defenders of child rights assess the circumstances as a whole. The child is taken from their legal representatives only after having determined real danger to the child’s physical and (or) psychological safety, life or health, or the danger that may have a detrimental effect on the child’s health. 

If it is found that the reason for the child’s crying or loud shouting is the danger to their health, safety or life, in this case, the child might be taken away from their legal representatives. 

Can a child be taken away, if they return home from school on their own?

The Law on the Fundamentals of Protection of the Rights of the Child stipulate that the child’s parents or other legal representatives must take care that the child, who is younger than 6 years old would not be left without the care of people, who are 14 years old or older, without an objective reason. 

In order to decide, if the child may go to school on their own, return from school and be home alone, it is necessary to assess the child’s psychological readiness to be without the care of an adult, as well as their skills. With regard to the circumstances, such as the security in the place, where the child goes home alone, the intensity of traffic, the child’s disability, special needs, etc., the child may need the assistance of older people, even if they are 7 years old or older. 

The Civil Code stipulates that the parents have the right and obligation to educate their children and are responsible for their education and development, and must take care of their children’s health, their spiritual and moral education. Therefore, the parents are responsible for the meeting of the child’s needs and the guarantee of their safety. They should be the ones to assess, if the child is able or unable to come from school alone. 

The child is taken from their legal representatives due to the circumstances taken into account as a whole. If after the assessment of the child’s situation in the family, no violations of the child’s rights are found, the investigation of the notification is complete. 

But the fact that the signs of violence are invisible does not mean that there are no violations of the child’s rights and there is no danger to the child’s health, safety or life. 

Psychological violence, sexual abuse and negligence may not leave any marks on the body, therefore the circumstances are assessed as a whole. 

During the investigation of a received notification, the defenders of child rights perform the actions provided in the legal acts (i.e., communicate with the child, their legal representatives, assess the information of other institutions, such as schools, law enforcement institutions, etc., the child’s place of residence and the child’s social environment) and the information established during the assessment on the possible violations of the child’s rights and the lack of guarantee of the child’s best interests. 

How many people participate in the decision making on the removal of the child? What helps to ensure that the decision making is not personal? 

Usually, the assessment of the child’s situation is performed by two defenders of child rights. 
Having established the need for the protection of the child and the necessity to take the child away from their parents or guardians, a petition shall be submitted to the court concerning the issue of permission to take the child away from their legal representatives. 

Having assessed the submitted facts, the court shall issue the permission or shall refuse to issue it. The parents or the guardians, who disagree with the court order concerning the issue of permission to take the child away from the family, may appeal it under the procedure provided by laws. 

If the court refuses to issue the permission to take the child from their parents or guardians, the child shall be returned to their representatives. 

Is it taken into account that the child is more traumatised by being taken away than by experiencing minor violence?

The inherent and the almost the most important right of each child is to be raised in a family, which creates the best conditions for the comprehensive development of the child. However, sometimes various reasons result in the fact that some families fail to property ensure their children’s lawful interests. 

The child is taken from their legal representatives as a final resort in order to protect the child’s best interests, only after exhausting all possibilities used to help the family and if the social work does not provide positive results or the parents, guardians refuse to accept the necessary assistance. 

Inappropriate behaviour with a child, use of violence against them are not compatible with the child’s best interests and actions must be taken in order to prevent them. Taking of the child from the family helps to protect the child from repeated violence and other negative consequences. 

Meanwhile, allowing the child to stay in unsafe environment, where they experience psychological, physical, sexual violence, neglect may cause significant long-term damage and result in physical, as well as psychological wounds. 

What happens after the child is taken away? 

Firstly, having guaranteed the child’s security, a petition is submitted to the court concerning the issue of permission to take the child away from their legal representatives.

Having determined the need for the child’s protection, the mobile team is initiated and the case manager is appointed. 

Mobile team: a group of specialists of the Territorial Child Rights Protection Division of the Service, which provides intensive care to the family and (or) the child for 30 calendar days. It consists of a social worker, psychologist and specialist working with people, who have dependencies or manifest their symptoms. The mobile team performs intensive work with the family and (or) the child at their place of residence or at another place, provides intensive complex, individual or group, consultation or other assistance, performs the assessment of the family’s and (or) the child’s crisis and the need for the intensive assistance by the MT, the assessments of change in the behaviour of the family members, communicates with the case manager and prepares recommendations for the case manager concerning the organization of further work with the family and (or) the child. 

The case manager coordinates the provision of complex assistance to the family. They collect all information necessary for the process of case management concerning the child, the family and other people important to the child from various institutions (e.g., education establishment, law enforcement, etc.), perform the assessment of the needs for the assistance in the family, with regard to the conclusions and recommendations submitted by the mobile team, create a plan of assistance for the family, coordinate its implementation, implement the supervision of the family, organize the meetings for the analysis of the case. 

In this stage, the cooperation of the family / parents with the specialists coordinating and providing the assistance is particularly important. The provision and the efficiency of assistance depends on the willingness of the child’s legal representatives to take it and from their cooperation with specialists that intend to provide the assistance. If there is information that violence was possibly perpetrated against a child, the information is transferred to the police, which initiates the preliminary investigation. If the preliminary investigation concerning possible violence against the child is initiated, it is performed by the officers of the preliminary investigation. The preliminary investigation is organized and lead by the Prosecutor. 

During the preliminary investigation concerning the possible violence against a child all important facts are investigated, suspects and witnesses are interviewed, if possible, the child is interviewed as well, and procedural preliminary investigation actions are performed. Only then, it is assessed whether there are grounds for the submission of a petition to the court concerning the application of criminal liability against the child’s parents or one of them. 

What happens to the child after they are taken away? When can they be returned to their parents? 

Having determined the need for the protection of the child and the necessity to take the child away from their parents or guardians, no later than within 3 business days a petition is submitted to the court concerning the issue of permission to take the child away from their legal representatives. 

Having taken the child away from their parents or guardians, they are temporarily placed with their family members or with people, with whom they have an emotional connection, or with the family that takes care of the child’s brother and (or) sister, or at a care centre, at a family or other child care institution. 

Having determined the temporary care (guardianship) of a child, the child shall be returned to their parents or one of the parents with regard to the decisions taken during the meeting of the case management. 

During the meeting of the case management, the review of the assistance plan is performed, during which the participating specialists evaluate the efficiency of the implementation of the assistance plan and the possibilities of the family to independently guarantee the implementation of the child’s rights and lawful and the best interests of the child. 

If the child’s parents have changed their inappropriate behaviour with the child and the real danger to their safety, health and life disappears and the social risk factors no longer exist, the Territorial Child Rights Protection Division of the Service, together will all specialists taking part in the process of case management shall make the decision to return the child to their parents.

If the child’s parents begin to change their behaviour and start taking care of their child’s safety, education, care, however, certain risk factors and (or) the need for assistance remain in the family, the Territorial Child Rights Protection Division of the Service together with all specialists taking part in the process of case management shall make the decision to return the child to their parents, and the case manager organizes the correction of the plan of assistance and ensures the provision of complex services to the family. 

Can parents see their child during the investigation? Under what circumstances? Is the child’s wish to be (or not to be) with their parents taken into account during the investigation? 

When the temporary care is established for the child and the parents are provided with the assistance, the parents are provided with the possibility to communicate with their children in all cases, unless there is information that the communication with the parents may have a detrimental effect to the child. 

Dates may be organized everyday, however, each case is individual, therefore specific circumstances shall be taken into consideration. The duration of the date is not limited in terms of time. In a case of preliminary investigation concerning possible violence perpetrated against a child, the defenders of child rights also consider if there is any information on supervision measures applied to the parents (the only parent) or one of the parents of the child, e.g., obligation to live separately from the child, who is the victim and (or) to stay away from the child, who is the victim. 

The defenders of child rights follow the principles of hearing of the child’s opinion and the priority of the child’s best interests, as well as other principles. It means that the child, who is able to express their opinion, will be heard on all matters in relation with them, and the child’s opinion, having assessed their age and maturity, will be taken into consideration, if it does not contradict the best interests of the child. 

What is considered as violence perpetrated against a child? 

According to the Law on Fundamentals of Protection of the Rights of the Child, violence perpetrated against a child may be physical, psychological, sexual or neglect. 

Physical violence:  intentional physical action or actions committed against a child, as well as a physical punishment, which cause the child’s death, disturb their health or normal development and cause pain or danger to the child’s life, health or normal development, or degrades the child’s dignity. 

Psychological violence: intentional systemic violation of the child’s right to their identity, humiliation, bullying, threatening of a child, interference with the activity required for the child’s normal development, encouragement of anti-social behaviour or other behaviour of non-physical contact (actions or omissions), which caused the child’s death, disturbed their health or normal development and caused pain or danger to the child’s life, health or normal development, or the child’s dignity was degraded. Proper and justified evaluation of knowledge and abilities of the child and other actions intended for the evaluation of the child’s normal development shall not be considered as psychological violence. 

Sexual violence: intentional criminal offences as defined in the Criminal Code of the Republic of Lithuania committed against a child, as well as profiting from the child’s prostitution, child’s involvement in prostitution, demonstration of pornography to a child, forcing the child to perform prostitution, etc. 

Neglect: constant inability to meet or neglectful meeting of physical, emotional and social needs of the child by the child’s parents or other legal representatives or a person responsible for the child’s care, which caused the child’s death, disturbed their health or normal development and caused pain or danger to the child’s life, health or normal development. Due to objective reasons, poverty is not considered as neglect. 

If no signs of physical violence are discovered, under what other circumstances the child may not be returned to their parents? 

Each situation is individual, therefore the Service is unable to provide a single answer. 

When the matter of returning of the child is solved, it is assessed whether the circumstances have disappeared that used to pose danger to the child’s safety, health or life, whether the child’s parents or guardians show the motivation to change the situation, accept the proposed assistance, cooperate with the Service, the case manager or other specialists that intend to provide the necessary assistance. 

Who makes the final decision concerning the child? When must it be taken? 

Having determined the need for the protection of the child and the necessity to take the child away from their legal representatives, the Territorial Child Rights Protection Division submits a petition to the court concerning the issue of permission to take the child away from their legal representatives. If the court issues the permission, the Territorial Child Rights Protection Division of the Service submits the Director of the municipality administration with the order to establish the temporary care of a child. 

If the court does not issue the permission to take the child away from their legal representatives, the child is immediately returned to the parents or their only parent. When the child is taken away from their legal representatives and their temporary care is established, further improvement of their parents, their effort to change their behaviour, to accept the assistance, the disappearance of the danger factors to the child in the family are assessed in regular meetings of the case management. 

In each meeting of the case management, the plan of assistance is reviewed, where participating specialists assess the efficiency of the implementation of the plan of assistance and the possibilities of the family to independently guarantee the implementation of the child’s rights and lawful interests. 

The temporary care (guardianship) may not last longer than 12 months. Therefore, if during a meeting of case management it is established that the plan of assistance is ineffective, the parents of the child are not trying and do not change their behaviour, avoid their responsibilities to educate their child, abuse their parental authority or do not take care of the child, the Territorial Child Rights Protection Division of the Service makes the decision to submit a petition to the court concerning temporary or indefinite limitation of parental authority of the parents or the only parent, the determination of the child’s permanent care (guardianship) and the awarding of maintenance to the child. 

The child’s temporary care (guardianship) continues to apply until the court makes the final ruling on temporary or indefinite limitation of parental authority, the separation of the children from their parents, the determination of constant care (guardianship) for a child and the awarding of the maintenance to the child, etc. 

What are the differences between the removal of a child from an unsafe environment and the removal of the child from their legal representatives? 

The necessity to temporarily guarantee safe environment for the child does not mean that the child is taken away from their parents of legal representatives. A child temporarily placed in a safe environment without determining any danger to them, shall be returned to their parents or other legal representatives. Only in cases when there is real danger to the child’s safety, health and (or) life, the need for the protection of the child is determined and it is impossible to guarantee an environment safe for the child, when the temporary care is established and the real danger to the child’s physical or psychological safety remains, which may have a significant detrimental effect on the child’s health or their life, or if during the temporary care of the child the child’s parents or other legal representatives do not put any effort, do not change their behaviour, and the family continues to pose real threat to the child’s physical or psychological safety, which may have a detrimental effect to the child’s health or life, the child shall be taken away from their parents or other legal representatives. 

Removal of the child from unsafe environment

Temporary guarantee of environment safe for the child: temporary placement of the child in a safe environment due to real and direct danger to the child’s physical and (or) psychological safety, health or life during the investigation of a notification on a possible violation of a child’s rights. 

In more than 50 % of cases, the children are placed with their close relatives or with people, with whom they have a close emotional connection (e.g., godparents, friends of the family). 

A child may be temporarily placed in a safe environment, however, it does not mean that the child was taken away from their legal representatives. 

The child may be temporarily placed in a safe environment in the following cases: 
•    during the assessment of the child’s situation, there is real danger to the child’s physical or psychological safety, health or life, or there is danger that may result in detrimental effect; 
•    the child is left alone or left in the care of people, who are unable to take proper care of them and thus pose real danger to the child’s psychological or physical safety, health or life; 
•    the child’s legal representatives or the only parent or their other legal representatives are under the influence of alcohol and (or) narcotic, psychotropic or other mind-altering substances and are unable to take proper care of the child, therefore there is real danger to their physical or psychological safety, health or life, and there is danger, which may have a detrimental effect on the child’s health; 
•    the whereabouts of the child’s legal representatives are unknown, they are missing or wanted (until the court declares their whereabouts unknown or declare them dead); 
•    the child’s legal representatives are unable to temporarily care for their child due to the illness, incarceration, serving of sentence by both representatives or one of them, or due to other important reasons. 

Taking of the child away from their legal representatives

Taking of a child from their legal representatives is the measure of the Service used after determining real danger to the child’s physical and (or) psychological safety, life or health, or the danger, which may have a significant detrimental effect on the child’s health, having determined the need for the protection of the child, and under at least one of the following conditions: it is impossible to guarantee an environment safe for the child when the temporary care is established and the real danger to the child’s physical or psychological safety remains, which may have a significant detrimental effect on the child’s health or their life, or if during the temporary care of the child the child’s parents or other legal representatives do not put any effort, do not change their behaviour, and the family continues to pose real threat to the child’s physical or psychological safety, which may have a detrimental effect to the child’s health or life.

Real danger to the child’s physical and (or) psychological safety, life or health, or the danger that may result in significant detrimental effect to the child’s health is determined having assessed the social environment risk factors and the factors related with the child’s parents or other legal representatives and their relationship with the child, and having established that they pose real danger to the child’s safety, health and (or) life, or having determined that the child’s parents or other legal representatives do not take any actions in order to guarantee the child’s safety and thus create the possibility for real danger to the child’s health or life, or the danger that may result in detrimental effect to the child’s health.

Having determined real danger, the Territorial Child Rights Protection Division of the Service shall take the actions stipulated in the laws:
•    ensure temporary placement of the child;
•    initiate the process of case management and submit the application for the creation of mobile team; 
•    no later than within three business days, submit a petition to the court concerning the issue of permission to take the child away from their legal representatives.

If the court issues the permission to take the child away from their legal representatives, within three business days from the day of issue of the permission, defenders of child rights submit the Director of the municipality administration with the order to establish the temporary care (guardianship) of a child and to appoint a specific temporary carer (guardian).