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Mariëlle Bruning on waiting lists in Dutch youth care

How many children are waiting for help from youth services in the Netherlands at any given time? And exactly how long do they have to wait?

Mariëlle Bruning

These are seemingly simple questions. Yet a national overview of supply and demand in youth care is currently lacking. As a result, there is no overall picture of waiting lists at the dozens of care providers in the country.

'It is undoubtedly a very complex operation,' Mariëlle Bruning, Professor of Children and the Law, told Dutch newspaper Trouw. 'Still, to me it is unthinkable that we still don't have a proper overview as of early 2023, though the legislation already dates from 2015. Good data is the first step in gaining an insight into the state of children's rights. Actually, without that data, we have no idea how big the crisis really is. Sometimes I get the feeling that the [Dutch] government is fine with that. It would only make the shortcomings more visible.'

Find out more?

Read the full article (in Dutch) in Trouw.

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