News

6 November 2025

“In the coming years it is the duty of the Government to prevent that children end up in residential care.” This was the message of Ombudsman Velislava Delcheva to the national conference “From Today to Tomorrow: Opportunities and Vision for Change and Reform in Residential Care”. The event was organized by UNICEF-Bulgaria and the International Social Service-Bulgaria to mark the 15^th anniversary of the adoption of the National Strategy “Vision for the Deinstitutionalization of Child Care in the Republic of Bulgaria”. Partners in the initiative were the Veliko Turnovo Municipality, the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy, the State Agency for Child Protection, the Social Assistance Agency and the Agency for the Quality of Social Services.

Velislava Delcheva recalled that residential care has been operating in Bulgaria since 2009 when 137 specialized institutions were functioning where over 7,500 children were raised. She emphasized that in 2010 the cabinet approved the first large-scale national strategy for deinstitutionalization and three years later 24 institutions for children with mental and physical disabilities were closed down. In her understanding, active work should be done in the coming years so that children do not end up in residential care.

“I think now is the time to make a good assessment of what we have achieved and to consider the next steps from now onwards. As Ombudsman, I will hold three things important: we must have an analysis of the mistakes and of the positive aspects of this reform; we must give special attention to the coordination, communication and interaction of all institutions that were involved in this process; and last but not least, I want that we mention the experts who contributed to the deinstitutionalization and to whom we owe tremendous gratitude,” the Ombudsman said further.

Some of the recommendations that Velislava Delcheva made at the conference were: the adoption of a broader concept of the wellbeing of all children so as to ensure their rights; investment in both human and financial resource, including the provision of additional services – especially to support parents.

“We must do whatever is possible when there is a child at risk, a family at risk that cannot cope with the circumstances, and concentrate all our efforts to support such a family so that the child is not taken away from home because children feel best in their family,” the Ombudsman concluded.

The forum was opened by the Mayor of Veliko Turnovo Daniel Panov who said that it is most important to give recognition to the people who do their best to make the children feel the care, love and support so that they can cope with difficulties in life and become part of the society.

The conference brought together over 200 social experts from all Bulgaria who, within two days, must make an objective assessment of the reform, discuss the challenges and achievements and outline the vision for the future of social services for children in Bulgaria.

Later, Ombudsman Velislava Delcheva was informed by Mayor Daniel Panov about the measures taken to protect citizens from air pollution following whistle blows against the manufacturer Kronospan and the expansion of the poultry farm in the town of Debelets. These were filed in the Ombudsman’s away complaints office that was organized on 3 October 2025.