Charitable Support Work Romanian Orphanages)
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The Minister for Europe (Mr David Lidington)
I thank the hon. Member for Dumfries and Galloway (Mr Brown) for raising the important issue of conditions in Romanian orphanages. You will know, Mr Speaker, that the promotion and protection of human rights are at the heart of UK Government foreign policy objectives. All hon. Members would agree that orphaned children have a right to be cared for appropriately and with compassion, and that we in government should do what we can to support work to that end. I am grateful for what the hon. Gentleman has said about the efforts made by the British embassy and the team under Ambassador Martin Harris. I will ensure that the hon. Gentleman’s comments are relayed to the team.
The hon. Gentleman remarked on the fact that we first became aware of the unspeakable conditions that prevailed in Romanian orphanages in 1989, when the regime of President Ceausescu was overthrown. Thousands of children lived in appalling conditions in state institutions. It is good to be able to say that, since that time, a large number of substandard institutions have been closed, and that many of the remaining institutions have improved both their services and their standards. As the hon. Gentleman has said, there is work to be done, but we should acknowledge the progress that has been made and the part played in that by British charities, which have actively worked towards such improvements in Romania ever since the revolution.
Charities from this country have provided support and facilities to Romanian orphanages, and have helped to raise awareness, both nationally and internationally, of the poor conditions still encountered there. I shall refer to the list of such charities. The Hope and Homes charity for children has its largest programme in Romania, and has worked with national and local authorities there to improve services in certain orphanages, and to close substandard ones where appropriate. It has worked with the Romanian Government and its partners, Absolute Return for Kids. Hope and Homes has pledged to end institutionalised care for children in Romania by 2020.
Other British charities operating in the field include SOS Children’s Villages, the Foundation for the Relief of Disabled Orphans—FRODO—Children in Distress and Muzika. FARA has worked in Romania since 1991. I was delighted to see that FARA’s chairwoman, Jane Nicholson, was awarded an MBE earlier this year for her work in Romania.
Other charities operate to help not only orphaned children but children more widely within Romania. Those charities include The Little People, which helps children with cancer; Hospices with Hope, which has been building palliative care facilities; Light into Europe, which works with the blind; and Nightingale’s, which works with orphaned children and young adults who have HIV. That is just a snapshot; it is not an exhaustive list of what the British charity sector does in Romania. Like the hon. Gentleman, I pay tribute to Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne for her energy and dedication in championing at the highest level the fight to improve conditions for children in Romania.
The UK Government, too, are active. We have supported and worked with the Government of Romania to improve conditions in their state-run facilities for both vulnerable children and adults. To give a few examples, our embassy in Bucharest, with Romania’s National Authority for the Protection of Children’s Rights, has facilitated workshops for 90 practitioners from all over Romania on handling disabled children in their care. We have also helped to foster links between Romanian and British non-governmental organisations through a networking event held at the Romanian Prime Minister’s office. The fact that the Prime Minister of Romania was willing to host such an event indicates that the Romanian Government, at the highest levels, recognise that there have been and continue to be problems with the conditions for children in at least some Romanian orphanages, and that the Romanians are determined to continue to drive through further improvements.
Earlier this summer, the Romanian Ministry of Labour, through its national agency for social inspection, carried out an inspection of 51 neuropsychiatric recovery and rehabilitation centres throughout Romania. As part of that exercise, it visited the two facilities with which the RAP Foundation has had such difficulties, including the Gheorghe Serban centre. Gheorghe Serban received 19 specific recommendations for improvement from the Romanian inspectorate, including the need to provide more space for patients and more nutritious food. The inspector’s report says that the centre is currently undergoing maintenance to improve living conditions. I understand, too, that the state secretary from the Romanian Ministry of Labour visited the centre in June this year and was made fully aware of the situation.
Let me turn to the work of the RAP Foundation and start by paying tribute to the dedication and leadership that Linda Barr has shown over so many years. If the hon. Gentleman would like to bring a delegation from the RAP Foundation to see me, he would be welcome to do so. RAP works to reduce social exclusion, to support higher standards of care and to increase the skills and opportunities for disadvantaged children and young adults in Romania, particularly in the capital city, Bucharest. The Government appreciate enormously the RAP Foundation’s work in two care facilities in Bucharest sector 2.
For many years, the RAP Foundation, together with its Romanian partner, the Romanian Angels Association, has been taking disadvantaged children and young adults on much needed and very well received summer breaks to the Romanian Black sea coast. I was concerned when I heard earlier this year of the possibility that the local authorities might refuse permission for this year’s holiday to take place. I subsequently instructed the British ambassador to meet the local mayor as a matter of urgency. That meeting took place on 24 July, and on the following day the mayor granted permission for the holiday to go ahead. I was very pleased to hear that Linda Barr wrote to the British Embassy on 26 August to say that their party was at the Black sea enjoying the holiday, and was in high spirits.
I know too, as the hon. Gentleman has told the House, that the RAP Foundation has had difficulties with Social Services—the DGASPC—in Bucharest sector 2, in gaining access to two facilities, especially the Gheorghe Serban centre. Under Romanian law, services within state institutions can be provided only by a registered provider of social care. That means that RAP has no legal right to insist on access to these institutions. As the hon. Gentleman said, it has traditionally worked through its Romanian partner, the Romanian Angels Association. It is also the case that while the central Government in Romania have responsibility for overall policy regarding state institutions, including orphanages, individual institutions fall under the responsibility of local government within Romania. For that reason our judgment is that difficulties are usually best tackled, at least in the first instance, by direct contact between our embassy team in Bucharest and the local mayor and others at local authority level, because they are the people who have direct responsibility for the surveillance and management of those Romanian state institutions.
I have asked the British Embassy to continue to support the work of RAP and to try to mediate dialogue between the foundation and the social services in Bucharest Sector 2. I very much hope that, following the successful holiday this year, the relationship will be put back on the right footing and developed further in an effective manner, and above all in a way that provides the greatest possible opportunities to the children, whose interests should lie at the heart of all our considerations.
In conclusion, I am aware that the scale and complexity of the problem of Romanian orphanages have been reduced significantly since the 1989 revolution, but there is still cause for concern about the standards of care in some Romanian facilities and a lot still to be done. The efforts of the Romanian Government—combined with the contribution and support of British and international charities, and with the encouragement of the international community to improve the situation—remain necessary to ensure that the work to drive up standards continues.
I would like once again to thank the hon. Member for Dumfries and Galloway for raising this important issue and to reassure him plainly not only that we will continue to monitor the situation closely, but that we stand ready to take action where it is needed, at whatever level in Romania is most appropriate.
Question put and agreed to.