Child Protection Measures as a Legal Instrument for Child Protection at Tirana Municipality

For Albanian institutions and society, application of the protection measures comes not only as an innovation in the field of child rights and protection but especially as a legal instrument that for the first time attains to put the highest interest of the child and to guarantee his/her protection in time and according to the simplified legal procedure. This paper presents types of protection measures, child characteristics for which these measures have been in place, analysis of the process starting with the identification and evaluation of the risk till in confirming of the protection measure from the Court as well as all the progress of implementation of the Individual Protection Plan. The paper offers an analysis of the demographic and analytic factors on the motives and cases where protection measures are applied. 74 measures analyzed are 74 children's’ life's where the protection system has intervened to stave off from the risk and offer the services in a safe place. In 36 of them is being realized specialized supervision in family environment where through the Individual Protection Plan, despite family services, specialized support from child protection unit is being more intensive in family. In absence of foster families, the protection measure for child placement in alternative care is applied in residential care institutions or at their relatives. For emergent protection cases, all 23 children are placed in residential care institutions for children; 8 cases taken under immediate protection and other 13 cases taken under protection and placed in alternative care actually are not leaving in street condition but placed in a safe place meanwhile that child protection structure continue with empowering plans for families aiming at returning of child close to biological families.