Social Ministry wants more effective system of child protection

The Ministry of Social Affairs will propose changes to the law and the system of child protection, following a highly publicized case of child abuse in which a mother who abused her own child was allowed to adopt a child who had virtually no identity. Although it later emerged that the judge had been duped by a sect and had given a new identity to a thirty two year old woman, the ministry is said to be shocked by the fact that a proper investigation was not undertaken to determine who the alleged child was and where she'd come from. The ministry also criticized the fact that social workers do not monitor families who have adopted a child. Social workers are no longer under central control, so the Social Affairs Ministry cannot order them to investigate suspected abuse cases. Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek recently proposed the creation of a new National Office for Employment and Social Care to co-ordinate the system of child protection.