What is the Bulgarian Government Score for Childcare?
Eurochild member National Network for Children (NNC) releases its monitoring Report Card 2023
The annual report evaluates the progress of state care institutions in eight areas – Child participation, Child Welfare, Family Environment and Alternative care, Protection from all forms of Violence, Child Justice, Early Childhood Development, Child Health, Education, Sport, Culture and Leisure.
The 12th edition of the Report Card receives its highest rating so far: 3.33 out of 6.
The report notes the greatest progress in the care for early childhood development, but highlights a decline in the area of child healthcare. Despite being slightly higher than previous years, the state’s success has not significantly improved for the 12th consecutive time.
The expert study is based on information provided by over 25 national and local institutions, including ministries. The independent monitoring includes the analysis and assessments of 30 authors and 7 external evaluators – experts from international and national institutions and organizations. The report gives special emphasis to the opinions of children and young people, as well as those who have a role in supporting them – parents, teachers, health and social workers, and others.
“Ironically, the instability in the state has forced the government and institutions to address truly important issues for society. Thus, policies for Bulgarian children, which for years were mainly the effort of the civil sector, have finally been noticed.” commented Plamena Nikolova, NNC one of the authors of the report.
According to George Bogdanov, NNC Executive Director: "Despite the plethora of crises, the changed situation in the world and in Bulgaria showed unequivocally that if there is political will, children‘s topics can become a priority on the agenda, even in an unstable political environment. Evidence of this is the successful movement and voting on behalf of the 47th and 48th National Assembly, within a time window of just a few months, of a number of bills and regulatory changes affecting positively children and families, which had been neglected for years by previous authorities."
The grading scale for the topics covered in the report is from 2 to 6:
| SUBJECT AREAS | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 |
| Child participation | 3.11 | 3.08 | 3.06 | 3.00 |
| Child welfare | 3.57 | 3.04 | 3.19 | 2.50 |
| Family Environment and Alternative Care | 3.13 | 3.09 | 3.12 | 3.00 |
| Protection of children from all forms of violence | 3.33 | 3.07 | 2.50 | 3.00 |
| Justice for children | 3.52 | 3.28 | 3.10 | 3.00 |
| Early childhood development | 3.48 | 3.32 | 3.22 | 3.00 |
| Child health | 2.98 | 3.17 | 3.09 | 3.00 |
| Education | 3.40 | 3.65 | 3.71 | 4.00 |
| Sports, recreation and leisure | 3.42 | 2.98 | 2.75 | - |
| TOTAL AVERAGE | 3.33 | 3.18 | 3.09 | 3.00 |
Read more: Fighting Child Poverty in Bulgaria: joint initiatives
