Minutes of the meeting of the Federal Council in Budapest on 24-25 April 2002

Present
Adela Hadžiomervic - South East Europe
Agnes Szekely - Hungary
Andrew Hosie - Scotland
Anton Tobé - The Netherlands
Böjte Gaha - Rumania
Christine Karner - Austria
Dashenka Tashkova - Bulgaria
David Lane - England and Wales
Edit Lehóczky - Hungary
Euridike Orrgoványi - Hungary
Emilia Chervinskaia - Russia
Famke Schiff - The Netherlands
François Richard Joubert - France
Gerd Schemenau - Germany
Helga Stefanov - Austria
Ildikó Mihály - Hungary
Jean-Pierre Trinquier - France
Judit Cseres - Hungary
Julia Blumenfeld - Hungary
Martti Kemppainen - Finland
Miloš Vipició - South East Europe
Nicole Janze - Germany
Ole Rasmüssen - Denmark
Onno van Praag - The Netherlands
Robert Soisson - Luxembourg
Roland Stübi - Switzerland
Sena Druzic - South East Europe
Simona Elena Farcas - Romania
Søren Hegstrup - Denmark
Theo Binnendijk - The Netherlands
Vania Bozilovs - Bulgaria
Vidia Negrea - Hungary
Wim Kok - The Netherlands
Wolfgang Trede - Germany
Rolf Widmer - Switzerland

1. Welcome to all members
Theo Binnendijk welcomed all members and Andrew Hosie and Emilia Chervinskaia in particular.

In memoriam to Mr. Louis François
Richard Joubert spoke a few words to commemorate Mr. Louis François. Mr. François was President of ANCE France from 1950-1978 and President of FICE from 1970-1976. He died on 13 January 2002 at the age of 98 years.

The President mentioned the reason for holding the meeting in Budapest. Because of the political situation FICE had to decide for the second time not to go to Israel. Theo Binnendijk had sent a letter to Israel to say sorry for the situation. Theo Binnendijk thanked the Hungarian colleagues who had made this FC-meeting possible.

2. Announcements and papers received
- Archives: The secretariat had been in touch with Gianlucca Barbanotti and asked him to send to archives from Florence to Amsterdam.
- A future for Europe - a future for girls:
This paper was the result of a conference about the social exclusion affecting girls and young women in Europe. A group of experts from England, Italy, Russia, Spain, Turkey, and Germany had compiled information about the life and problem situations of girls and young women, the different political and social systems. It also discussed joint strategies against the phenomenon of exclusion. Attention was drawn to 'female slavery'. The overall context of the forum showed that the sexual and economic exploitation of women was nothing but the most extreme expression of the widespread continuing structural deprivation of women and girls, which becomes manifest in a lack of educational and vocational opportunities, violence against girls and women and culturally determined role-stereotypes, which drastically restrict female development and life-opportunities. To counteract this development a European perspective, political measures geared to gender equality and concrete support were needed.

The findings had been drawn together in a resolution which had been accepted by the IgFH. FICE International decided to adopt the resolution. To take this resolution seriously FICE needed to implement the ideas and to submit the paper to UNESCO and European Union.

3. Minutes
- FC in Bucharest 10-11 October 2001
Compliments were given for the minutes.
Comments:
- page 3, Relation between FICE Europe and FICE International:
For the last three years FICE Europe had obtained money from the European Union. Every year it got €5.000.
The statement 'FICE Europe was a sleeping beauty' was not meant to apply to the work (projects, conferences) FICE Europe had been undertaking, but to the role it had in finding money.
- Page 5, National Conference: South East Europe:
Sfr. 60.000-70.000 were the costs for the whole event.
- Page 6, Round table idea in memory of Meir Gottesman:
A volume of articles was being published by Emmanuel Grupper and Jim Anglin.
Because of the political situation in Israel the round table idea would be actioned at a later date.

- Task Force in Paris 15 February 2002
Comments:
Page 4, text under diagram :
To ensure co-operation between FICE Europe and FICE International the President of FICE Europe would participate in the Executive Committee.
- Page 5, Financial situation:
- The sentence 'FICE Holland paid Dfl.10,000 for the support of the Secretariat' was not correct; FICE Holland had offered a quarantee if needed.
- The statement 'FICE Holland paid SFr. 1,000 to support Hungary for their contribution' was not correct; Hungary paid the contribution itself.

- CE in Paris 16 February 2002
- Page 3, Proposal for a new Russian member:
For "Martti Comppanien" read "Martti Kemppainen"

4. Strategy Paper
The Task Force was set up to consider the future role of FICE, its programme of activities and changes needed in its structure to implement the proposed strategy. The strategy paper was the result of the discussions about these items.

For more than a year FICE International had had no effective Secretary General and the new Director of Pestalozzi was unable to take the role of Secretary General. For the support of FICE Pestalozzi had offered SFr.10,000 a year for 2002 and 2003.

FICE had not succeeded in finding a Secretary General throughout the previous year. During that period the Secretariat was provided by Famke Schiff. FICE was still searching for someone in FICE to fulfil the function of Secretary General. It was suggested that advertisements should be placed in youthcare magazines and that use should be made of the website.

The basis of the Executive Committee was considered to be too small and it was recommended that to make it more effective it should be expanded to involve the Vice Presidents, though this would involve higher travel costs.

In the Task Force there had been discussion about the relationship between FICE Europe and FICE International, and about the need for cooperation between the two. It was proposed that for the exchange of information between FICE Europe and FICE International the President of FICE Europe would participate in the Executive Committee of FICE International. Robert Soisson did not agree to do this as VICE President Europe in FICE International. Theo Binnendijk's opinion was that it was confusing to have two Presidents in the CE. It was finally agreed that the President of FICE Europe would be a member of the CE.

FICE members were happy with the proposal to start more projects and to involve more people in the activities. If FICE were more involved and successful in managing the projects by support it would bring in more money. It was anticipated that the additional income would also pay for the extra costs of Vice Presidents' involvement. To run projects in a proper way it was necessary to be clear what the project was about and who was responsible for it. Project managers would have to maintain contact with the Vice President :Projects, who would have a co-ordinatory function.

Another suggestion for saving money was to reduce the amount of meetings; some projects could be run virtually by web. However, the proposal to hold only one FC meeting a year had not been accepted at the meeting held in Trogen.

Daniel Vidaud had said willing to take responsibility for FICE International; FICE was glad to accept the offer.

5. Projects
Educateurs sans frontières - Jean Pierre Trinquier (project manager)
Jean Pierre Trinquier had received a lot of information about programmes like Educateurs sans Frontières run by other organisations. Because of the problems in ANCE France, he had had no time to sort this information out yet.

It was noted that FESET was a European organisation concerned with training in the social pedagogic field and it organised a conference every year. This organisation might be able to contribute to the project.

FICE was convinced that it was a realistic project and that there would be a need for this work. It needed to continue the project where it had stopped, and FICE therefore needed to recruit a person to set up a new training programme.

Action: Jean Pierre Trinquier and Robert Soisson will keep in touch to discuss the development of the project to date.

PEP - Wolfgang Trede (project manager)
During the last year there had been two PEP exchanges for German persons: one to Finland and one to London, with thanks to Kathleen Lane for the last-named exchange. Although the experiences had been good the level of operation had been low and it had been difficult to get requests for exchanges. A reason could have been that some people needed to be paid.
Articles about the PEP would be placed in the Web Magazine.

There was a request from FICE Europe to work together in arranging the exchange of students. [For more information see the Web of FICE Europe.]

Action: The PEP-coordinators will meet each other in Berlin to discuss the situation of the PEP.

Peace Camp - Rolf Widmer (project manager)
The project had been an idea of FICE Switzerland set up in Balaton 2000. The idea was that children and experts should meet in one place to work together across borders. The project had been worked out by Rolf Widmer and Roland Stübi. None of the activities would have been possible without their support. Also FICE Netherlands had supported the project since Maastricht 2000. All contributors were thanked.

In 2001:
- elections of the Board: Bosnia Herzegovina 2 persons, Serbia 2 persons, Montenegro 2 persons;
- main activities: expert meetings, working with children.
The Peace Camp in Balaton 2000 had been the first time after the war that people had come together. Children 11-18 years had been able to overcome the limitations of their national boundaries, helped by adults. Many friendships had been formed, and for this reason it was felt that it would be better to speak of a 'Friendship Camp' for 2001. There had been 35 participants from different institutions, and the most important activity had been to create a network between institutions. Another goal of the project had been to create bilateral contacts between facilities in FICE countries and countries of South East Europe. A report of the Camp had been prepared.

There was a strong wish to continue these camps in the future. Colleagues in South East Europe felt that collaboration and the overcoming of borders was very important. For Switzerland participants the financing of these meetings presented difficulties. Although 35% of the costs were financed by Swiss foundations and attempts had been made to get money from the EU, more than Sfr.20,000 was still required.

Richard Joubert mentioned the competition UNESCO organises every two years to promote tolerance. He proposed that the camps should be entered for an award.

Baltic - Martti Kemppainen (project manager)
To keep in touch with the countries belonging to the Baltic was Martti Kemppainen's current activity as Vice President. The Swiss government had offered support to these countries.
Many children were living in institutions.
Action: At the next FC meeting Rolf Widmer will inform FICE about the situation.

Overview of situation concerning childcare/rights in Northern Africa - ANCE France (project management)
The aim of the project was to start platform for FICE in Africa. ANCE France already had long-standing contacts in Senegal and Algeria and would offer support in getting new French-speaking platforms.

Action: Daniel Vidau will be asked if he sees a role for this for ANCE France.

Exchange programmes for young people
Exchange programmes for young people were seen as being very important. No action was identified to take forward.

Childrens 's rights in institutions - Robert Soisson (project manager)
The aim was to create a model for the training of educators, to use in schools. A number of countries were involved in this subject matter: there had been a convention on the rights of children in Luxembourg, Andrew Hosie reported that Scotland had a training programme, and in Hungary a conference on children rights which was accessible to children was being organised four times a year.

Action: Robert Soisson will report about the project in Berlin.

Northern America / Australia - Carol Kelly (project manager)

Action: Theo Binnendijk will contact her about project management.

Experts in the extrafamilial care and education of children - Rolf Widmer (project manager)
This project had its origin in Educateurs sans Frontières. Its aim was to support people in situations of crisis by providing expert advice concerning services which children might require. If FICE were to draw up a register of experts from among its membership, this could be made available to international relief agencies needing to recruit advisers.

Action : Rolf Widmer will run the project together with AntonTobé, Gerd Schemenau and Robert Soisson.

Collect on policies of childcare - David Lane (project manager)
The aim was to collect policies from FICE members to see what could be adopted by FICE International.

Action: David Lane will send an e-mail to ask for policies. Nicole Janze will support David.

New projects: Information about what FICE does
Information flyers about the goals of FICE, about the kind of organisation it is and its programmes were needed for a range of different situation.

Action: Theo and Famke will contact David.

Collect successful projects
The aim was to collect successful working projects in order to make a book about a model for organising projects.

Action: Every country was asked to send some information of successful working projects to Bulgaria.

Ethical code
There was an urgent need for ethical code and standards.

Action: David Lane and Martti Kemppainen will talk together about this project.

European competences in social work
The aim was to work on Leonardo da Vinci projects to engage in the further training of social workers in Europe .Members of FICE should be more involved in discussing topics such as:
- exclusion of girls and young women
- training and research
- refugee and immigrant children
- corporal punishment
- secure accommodation
- day services for children and young people

6. Job descriptions
The members agreed the job descriptions. The description 'Administrator or Head of Secretariat' was withdrawn as it related to earlier discussions.
Thanks were given to Kathleen and David Lane for the work they had done in this subject matter.

7. Finances
- Financial report 2001: the final result was a surplus.
- The Treasurer gave a commentary on the year 2001. The results were not as positive as it looked, because some costs for 2001 (e.g. costs for the web site) were paid in the first quarter of 2002.
The Treasurer was still awaiting the contribution for 2001 from some members.
Although there was a surplus the financial situation of FICE International was not strong.
- Budget 2003: it was decided not to raise the contribution for 2002. Pestalozzi offered Sfr.10,000 a year for 2002 and 2003. An increase of CE members would entail additional travel costs.
- Budget 2004: the income was based on the contributions of the membership; in 2004 there would no longer be any income from Pestalozzi.

8. Report of President
- AIEJI: Theo Binnendijk had met Arlin Ness, President of AIEJI, during a meeting of the Board of AIEJI in Paris in April. They had spoken about the kind of organisations AIEJI and FICE were; the problems of both organisations were similar. The best way to co-operate was through joint projects. It had been agreed that FICE and AIEJI should keep in contact.
- IFCO: Theo had met the President of IFCO, Anja van Hout. The organisation dealt with the same problems as FICE. It was working on a master-plan about the running of its bureau. IFCO organised an international conference every year. After the meeting in Budapest both Presidents would have another meeting in order to work in cooperation on a project about residential and foster care.
- ENSCW: Theo had had contact with Ton Waarts about street-children. It was an organisation with a specialised role and there was no scope for collaboration.
- At the beginning of January 2002, Theo Binnendijk had attended a meeting in Moscow organised by the All Russian Fund of Education in Moscow. The contacts had been made through FICE Holland, who supported a project for street children in Moscow. Theo had met Emilia Chervinskaya and Martti Kemppainen during this meeting.

9. Report of Vice Presidents
Martti Kemppainen:
- Martti reported his work in the Tacis project Support to Partnership in Education, Health and Social Assistance, which included work on policy and legislation, institutional organisations, and on the development of partnership models concerning service delivery for children with special needs. Attached to this work the FICE Code of Ethics had been translated into Russian.
- Another project where he had worked was the one in the Republic of Karelia - the Finnish-Karelian collaboration in child welfare (the development of local level child welfare systems).
- Collaboration with Dutch colleagues had been taking place in connection with the work in the first-mentioned project and establishing new contacts for FICE in Russia.
- The IFCO Congress was due to take place in Autumn 2002 in Finland.

David Lane
He had nothing to add to his written report.

10. Report of President FICE Europe
President of FICE Europe was to report during the meeting of FICE Europe.

11. Membership
11.1 Exclusion of membership : Russia: Union of Social Child Care
The Union of Social Child Care was excluded from FICE International membership. FICE had not received a contribution for a long time, nor had it got an answer to letters. In the name of Richard Joubert, Martti had handed a letter over to Union of Social Child Care. The organisation had understood the exclusion in respect of the statutes.

11.2 Candidate member: Scotland : SIRCC : Andrew Hosie
Andrew Hosie of the Scottish Institute for Residential Child Care (SIRCC) expressed his interest in establishing a national section of FICE in Scotland. His organisation was currently a member of FICE UK, but due to the recent political developments in Scotland (establishing a Scottish Parliament in 1999), he felt the time had come to follow this trend.

The SIRCC had been established for 2 years in order to provide qualifying education, training and consultancy for workers and managers in residential child care. It was a partnership organisation; it had an Associate scheme and Affiliate scheme. The SIRCC was well linked with local authorities, voluntary and private residential child care providers and other child care institutions such as fostering networks. It also had established good working relationships with European countries and it wanted to continue network development. It had a practice development forum involving residential child care staff, external managers and trainers.

In the autumn of 2001 David Lane had spoken extensively with Andrew Hosie and he saw no objections to starting up FICE Scotland. Scottish childcare law had always been different from English law, so it was in this respect a separate country. Following the establishment of the Scottish Parliament responsibility for service delivery also now lay with Scotland. There was one consideration to take into account: if FICE Scotland were to be established, the title of FICE UK would need to be reconsidered.

The Federal Council decided to accept Scotland as Associate member for 2 years.

Candidate member: Russia : Association of Experts on the Problems of Children - Emilia Chervinskaya
- The All Russian Fund of Education had been founded in 1991 and had its own nation-wide structures. It had founded and supported educational institutions and had been involved in numerous charity programmes. The intentions of the meeting in Moscow in January 2002 had been to discuss the formation of a new organisation, a knowledge centre on childcare, and to establish co-operation with international organisations like FICE. This new organisation "Association of Experts on the Problems of Children" had been founded in March this year. Beside the All Russian Fund of Education, other organisations would participate in this new organisation such as an organisation of directors and workers in children's homes. It was an open, organisation with a broad working field, and it had a wide network and democratic structure.

Emilia Chernisvskaya had spoken with Martti Kemppainen in Moscow to get further information about FICE and to discuss what place the organisation could have in FICE. Martti felt that this new organisation would be a good candidate for FICE membership.

A Dutch private institution had supported a shelter in Russia providing training and practical advice in ways to help street-children. Wim Kok had been involved by this project. Other shelters had been asked if they were able to give the same training, but money had been the problem. To develop more opportunities to support shelters, a bigger, non governmental organisation had been started. The Dutch organisation that took the initiative had not been involved enough in child care. FICE Holland had decided to support the new organisation "Association of Experts on the Problems of Children" financially and had helped it with its business plan and care programme.

Dutch organisations and local authorities had contacts with areas in Russia; they came in contact with each other by activities. The Association of Experts on the Problems of Children was asked to support the building up of childcare institutions in other areas of Russia.

The Federal Council accepted the membership of the Association of Experts on the Problems of Children. It would be an associate member for 2 years.

Emilia Chernisvskaya thanked FICE Holland, especially Wim Kok, and Theo, and Martti for their support.

11.3 FICE International membership
The paper was designed to consider the situation in countries where full membership had not been agreed and to create opportunities to get new countries involved. Although the proposal and recommendations were accepted by the Federal Council, there was discussion about the naming of individual or organisational associate members. The present statutes already indicated this kind of members as correspondent member. By the use of this name the statutes would not have to be changed.

11.4 Proposal concerning 'associations of state' as members
Roland Stübi made a proposal for the changes of the statutes in reference to the South East European countries. The statutes would have to be changed in the General Assembly. Robert Soisson mentioned the specific situation of the South East European countries. He suggested that changes should only be made to the statues if the situation in these countries offered problems.

12. Web site FICE International
David Lane had developed a framework for the website. The keywords would be translated in the three FICE languages.

Actions: Suggestions for more suitable translations will be sent to David.

There was discussion about the need for a confidential section. Such section might be needed for (draft) papers for the FC, for personal contact information, for working groups to share ideas before general publication, or for information protected by law which cannot be made circulated widely. It was agreed that to begin with, it would not be necessary to start a closed area. If it were needed in the future it would always be possible to open it.

Actions: Electronic documents open to publication will be sent to David Lane.

Pictures of children of children taken without their agreement or that of their parents will not be used on the website.

13. Meetings
- CF, General Assembly and Congress in Berlin 17-20 September 2002
The programme of the Congress was distributed. Members who were not in Budapest would receive a letter with the programme. The organisers hope for 800 participants. There was good co-operation with the Humboldt University, which was offering good accommodation. Speakers of 31 countries had been invited.

Elections:
- President: Theo Binnendijk was willing to be a candidate for the next two years.
- Treasurer: For Richard Joubert the time had come to stop; for many years he had done an excellent job. Rolf Widmer had been proposed as his successor.
- General Secretary: No candidate had been nominated at the moment.

16 September 2003: CE
17 September 2003 9.00 -10.30 a.m. FICE Europe, 11.00 - 13.00 a.m. General Assembly

- Because of the political situation in Israel the members of FICE were of the opinion that it was not advisable to go to Israel for the next FC. Theo offered to explain this decision to Emmanuel Grupper. Next meetings FC:
- CF April 2003 - Moscow
- CF October 2003 - Denmark
Thanks were given to FICE Denmark and Russia for their willingness to organise the next FCs.

14. FICE Congresses
- 2004: Scotland / Glasgow: The Congress will be organised by the Scottish Institute of Residential Child Care (host organisation), Caring for Children, National Children's Bureau and Children in Wales. The proposal was approved.
- 2006: South East Europe
- 2008: Finland

15. Reports UNESCO, European Council, ECOSOC
- UNESCO
Richard Joubert informed members about the working group 'Extreme Poverty', which collected reports about people who lived in extreme poverty all over the world. In particular women were disadvantaged.

Besides this he mentioned that FICE had restored its relationship with UNESCO and that it had been elected to the Council of NGOs.

- Council of Europe
Richard Joubert had represented FICE on two working groups:
1. Education and culture
2. European Social card
Since Budapest he had participated in two conferences:
- The steering of Europe
- Solidarity in civil society: what kind of Europe do we want? The conference was organised with NGOs and members of Parliaments.

- ECOSOC
There was no report of ECOSOC. FICE was out of touch and would try to make contact again. ECOSOC would be on the agenda for the next FC.

16. Other business and closure
- 13-15 March 2003: 3rd 'Drug' Conference. Information about the conference would be sent to all members by Famke Schiff.

- The institution Kantonale BEObachtungsstation was celebrating its 50th anniversary and organising an expert meeting on assessment in the second half of 2002. The language of the conference would be German.

- David Lane and Martti Kemppainen offered to commence a piece of work on codes of ethics for individuals, agencies and employers.
Action : David and Martti will do preliminary work before the meeting in Berlin. If people have standards, send copies to David or Martti.

- In 2003 there will be organised a small conference about 'secure accommodation' in Luxembourg or Scotland.