Family and juvenile judges will investigate how they have acted in custodial placements of children and in other “vulnerable” cases. The professional group wants to find out, among other things, whether they suffer from “blind spots”, says juvenile judge Ellen van Kalveen, chair of the national expert group on juvenile judges in the Netherlands. de Volkskrant.
The judges are conducting the investigation, among other things, in response to the appeal by the Parliamentary Interrogation Committee on Childcare Allowance to the judiciary to to look in the mirror.
administrative judges
At the beginning of this month, the administrative judges already tough about their own actions in the allowance affair. The consultative body of administrative judges concluded that most judges blindly followed the approach of the Tax Authorities, even though they did not feel comfortable with it.
The family and juvenile judges now also want to find out whether they have paid too little attention to the interests of citizens who have come to stand “opposite the system”, says Van Kalveen in the newspaper. “We are therefore now making an inventory nationally which type of cases are vulnerable and which risks could play a role in this.”
The judges want to speak to experts and independent outsiders for the investigation.
Out-of-home placements
Last week, the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) reported that between 2015 and 2020 1115 children of victims of the childcare allowance scandal have been removed from home. The report did not say whether the custodial placements are the result of the allowance affair or whether there are other causes.
According to the family and juvenile judges, it had already been decided before the publication of the CBS figures to start the investigation. Van Kalveen also emphasizes that judges always look thoroughly at out-of-home placements. “We are not a stamping machine.”
The chairman of the national expert group of juvenile judges already sees major bottlenecks in the field, such as a shortage of juvenile judges and cases that are becoming increasingly complex. “The general feeling among the judges involved is that a lack of time and money can jeopardize proper legal protection for the child and the parents.”
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