LabMin Turcan: There is 50 million euros under PNRR for social infrastructure for vulnerable children

Romania's National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) includes 50 million euros for social infrastructure for children from vulnerable backgrounds, said on Monday Minister of Labour and Social Protection Raluca Turcan at a news conference to release a national child support programme amidst the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic called "Caring for children."

"The third component [of policies for vulnerable children] is obviously funding, and again, for the first time, under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan we have the social infrastructure component for children, because many children from disadvantaged areas find support in school, in community life, to escape their vulnerable backgrounds. And so, the construction of such day centres and day services where children receive support throughout the day is a great help. And there is in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan 50 million euros for the social infrastructure for the children in a state of vulnerability," said Turcan.

She added that social workers in Romania do not have the necessary training, agerpres reports.

"The second essential component is who we do social assistance with, and we find and we have seen that unfortunately social assistance in Romania is done with people who do not have the necessary training. They do not have it because they are either not attracted to the special faculties or they can't find a job, or they are overworked. Of all the social workers in Romania, only 80% have higher education attainment and only 30% of them have social working experience and education," said Turcan.

According to her, children from vulnerable families have been most affected during the pandemic.

"The pandemic has certainly affected us all, but children were probably the most affected during the pandemic. (...) This is a programme specially designed for children affected by the pandemic. During the pandemic there were various types of damage; if we have to do an x-ray, the most affected are certainly those from vulnerable families. Also affected are those with parents who have gone abroad to work, there are children who for various reasons do not have the necessary support from their families," said Turcan.