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An individual support plan is created with family input identifying key child-oriented requirements, but
also targeting the needs of the entire family at the same time. Multiple tools can be used to define fam-
ily needs, but experience shows that a good individual plan must be written in the family’s ‘language’,
using their own words and indicating their needs in very concrete and specific ways.
THE PROBLEM:
Scarce availability of Early
Childhood Intervention centres
Families whose child is born with a disability or
shows development delays need immediate support.
According to national statistics, families without
support are at high risk of divorce or of their children
being placed in a “children’s home” (previous known
as an “orphanage”). In 2015 there were 4,350 children
placed in this child social-legal protection system. Of
these, 1,500 were placed with foster families, while
2,850 were distributed among 85 institutions. Most
of these children have special needs (for example,
children with challenging behaviour), are disabled, or
are Roma children.
Another problem is the division of responsibilities for
services for families with disabled children among
three ministries – Social, Health Care, and Education.
Further, the financing of the ECI centres is uncertain
because there is no direct access to public financial
resources. Integration and inclusion of disabled chil-
dren into pre-school and school facilities are still rare,
and a dual system persists at all levels of education.
Finally, there is a lack of support services for families
and for rehabilitation opportunities for children in the
public health care system.
THE DEVELOPED SOLUTION:
Children are educated in their
natural environment
SOCIA has been inspired by a model in the neighbour-
ing Czech Republic, where a system of early childhood
intervention centres was started 25 years ago and
where today there are now 47 specialized centres.
The goal of the SOCIA initiative is develop a functioning
network of ECI centres that will serve as a pilot model,
which would then lead to comprehensive, transdiscipli-
nary services for families with children with disabilities
throughout Slovakia, funded and run by SOCIA.
A network of trained transdisciplinary staff addresses
all the various needs of families and children based on
the following principles:
• An individual family service plan is the key instru-
ment for providing services.
• Partnerships among the various professionals are
essential.
• All staff are trained in a person-centred planning
approach
• In-home services are preferred, with most services
being delivered in the child’s natural surroundings.
• The centre acts as the primary resource for fami-
lies, and plays an important role in the networking
of additional services
ABOUT SLOVAKIA:
Slow improvements for people
with disabilities
• Slovakia is a parliamentary democratic re-
public with a multiparty system. The Slovak
Head of State is the President, elected by
direct popular vote for a five-year term. The
executive power lies with the Prime Minis-
ter, who is usually the leader of the winning
party, but he/she needs to form a majority
coalition in the Parliament. The President
appoints the Prime Minister.
• Before the global financial crisis of 2007–
2008, Slovakia was the fastest growing
economy in the European Union. Slovakia
had a per person gross national income of
$25,845 according to the United Nations
Human Development Index, ranking 35th
worldwide. Concerning the status of per-
sons with disabilities in relation to eco-
nomic activity, in 2012-2014, the majority
of them have still remained economically
inactive (contrary to the total population).
On the other hand, there have been several
positive developments in employment of
this target group: their employment rate is
slowly increasing (currently being at about
31%); and so is the number of employers
preferring employment rather than other
quota options - by 10%.
• Slovakia has approximately 5.4 million in-
habitants and 300,000 children under the
age of five.