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Ombudsman´s interview

 Maria Kaisa Aula´s interwiev in January 2009

 

Listening to children is the top priority

The basic duty of the Ombudsman for Children - to promote the implementation of children's rights in Finland - has remained the same since the post was created, in autumn 2005. The means and points of emphasis involved have however become more specific.
"At the outset we put an emphasis more on promoting children being heard and their participation. I think that in the future too this will be the issue of this office, one which other quarters working on child welfare do not raise as strongly," says the Ombudsman for Children, Maria Kaisa Aula.
Children's experiences and opinions are revealed in surveys and reports involving children and youth, but also in the contacts with the office by members of the public concerning new issues.
"The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child gives criteria via which children's quality of life is examined," Aula stresses.

Strategic emphasis

In Finland, the work of the Ombudsman for Children is based on influencing opinion, public debate and force of argument. In some countries ombudsmen also take positions on individual children's and family's problems, as is done by the Parliamentary Ombudsman in Finland.
"If we want to achieve long term influential changes in the way decision-makers in the state administration and at municipal level take account of children's rights, we have to access the structures," Aula observes.
According to law, the work of the Ombudsman for Children focuses on influencing processes and not individual cases. Maria Kaisa Aula has purposely chosen to influence matters on a strategic level, though from a child's perspective and change and concrete results take a long time this way.

"The Ombudsman for Children does not have the means to directly rectify individual problems in child welfare, custody disputes of school bullying. An effort is made instead to influence these matters by legislation and new policy lines. We try to get decision-makers in parliament and in the ministries to deal with those problem areas about which we receive messages and children's views," Aula explains.
The Ombudsman's office is in other respects awake and does not merely deal with its own matters of importance. To strengthen the impact of the work the Ombudsman for Children seeks to adjust her current statements to what is happening in the area of decision-making.

Child rights on others' agendas

As the first to hold the position of Ombudsman for Children Maria Kaisa Aula described the starting up of the office as rewarding and creative but also demanding. It was only last year that the office attained its full staff of five, as originally planned. "We are the smallest such office in Europe, and the expectations remain enormous in relation to our resources. We have to prioritise many things, though saying no feels unpleasant," says Aula.
The Ombudsman for Children is an independent post, whose office operates without guidance from parliament or from the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, which it is part of administratively. The post nevertheless networks closely with many other bodies.
"As a small office we can achieve more by networking. The main goal is to influence matters through networks and to get children's rights included in the action programmes and on the agendas of other actors."

Bringing children's expertise to the service system

The Ombudsman for Children's lobbying work is being directed increasingly at municipalities. Municipalities are given information on children's rights and publications of the Ombudsman for Children that convey the views of children and young people.
"At present we are getting for the Child, Youth and Family Policy Programme joint training for municipal decision makers the stimulating participation of children and youth for developing structures and the working culture," says Aula.
She is convinced that decision-makers will do a better job by genuinely taking children's perspectives into account, but points out that there is nevertheless much basic work still to be done for children's participation.
"The participation of children is for many people working in municipalities still something new and strange, but during training courses it is rewarding to notice the realization of how much children's knowledge can be used in decision making."

Crucial messages directly from the public

Though, as with other Nordic countries, Finland is in the forefront of children's rights and welfare, there is still much room for improvement in municipal services from the viewpoint of children.
Each year, the office of the Ombudsman for Children receives hundreds of contacts, particularly from worried parents and grandparents, but also from children and youth themselves.
"It is important that we receive these contacts. They keep our feet on the ground and influence the emphases of our work. The aim is certainly to develop better state administrative and municipal services."
The messages received by the office often tell about the sectoral nature of the administration and that child welfare is not seen as a single entity.
"I think it is important to develop new ways or arranging services both at national and municipal level, so that the borders of the administrative sector can be overridden and that the starting point is the good of the family and children," says Maria Kaisa Aula.

Need for new kinds of services

There is also a need in Finland to develop a counselling service in connection with the state provincial administration, which could better respond to people's specific questions on children's rights, for instance in child welfare, school matters and custody disputes.
"In school matters particularly it is hard to indicate clear services that pupils or parents can contact when there are problems. In schools there are not the sort of social welfare and patient representatives to which clients are entitled to turn.
"The state provincial administration could play a role to mediate and find solutions to differences of views on school matters, such as to do with bullying or matters concerning school transport," Aula explains.
She believes that there is a need in Finland for parents to have easier means to give feedback both to the authorities and the media concerning media material that is unsuitable for children, so that people know better whom to contact. The Ombudsman for Children's office receives an abundance of contacts on these questions. The duties of the Consumer Agency and the Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority as media and advertising watchdogs are rarely readily accessible.

Sustained work yields results

Though lobbying national level decision makers takes up much of the time of the Ombudsman, Maria Kaisa Aula's initiatives have already had an effect in getting children's rights taken into account. A case in point which Aula mentions concerns raising the issue of the harm done to children by parent's alcohol use.
"As a result, for instance, a working group of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health has defined policy on access to treatment by expectant mothers using substances, so that the health of newborn children is not endangered."
The Ombudsman for Children has also promoted the collection of information on violence against children.
"Last year the first study of child victims was made that drew on questions put to children themselves. The sample comprised over 13,000 children.
"We have informed decision-makers about children's views concerning the things that affect wellbeing at school. For instance, the importance of having functioning playgrounds is now better understood. The right of children to take part in day-to-day school decision-making is also included in a new proposal on quality criteria for primary school teaching."

Concept of child policy strengthened

The Ombudsman for Children has acted as a catalyst in getting children's rights recognised and has brought different actors around the same table to create a common information strategy for the 20th anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Due to the Child, Youth and Family Policy Programme, children's participation has been taken seriously as a theme within government.
"Child policy as a concept has become stronger. Of course there was a youth and family policy before, but now there is also a child policy. This has made children more conspicuous in the language of government, but for them to be visible in daily mnicipal services will take much time and demand hard work," says Aula.
The challenge is to get the assessment of the child impact of decisions put into practice both in municipal and national decision-making. Child welfare must also be monitored according to regulation, and information on this needs to be collected for decision-makers.

Energy from children's ideas

For Maria Kaisa Aula the most rewarding aspects of the work of the Ombudsman for Children are the meetings with children. She is glad to be an advisor to the Children's Parliament.
"Children's perspectives and ideas bring energy and faith to this job. Children really know how to put forward their views when they are given the opportunity," she observes.
"The reports on the welfare and rights of Sámi and Roma children have also contributed much. From the children's answers it has been possible to get specific points of emphasis for the work."